Is My Cycle Stalled? Ammonia Never Goes Below 1 Ppm

[eaglesaquarium]

I think you are doing just fine Stormer.
 
It looks quite clear that you have 0 nitrites, and the ammonia is clearly still present, and different from the tap.
 
 
You aren't doing anything 'wrong'.  Wait another day or 2, then we can go from there.  TTA's suggestion of a full water change and a 'restart' isn't as bad as it might sound on face value.  You would be resetting the ammonia levels to 0, and the nitrite as well.  BUT, any bacteria that you have colonizing your tank will survive the process quite well and won't be lost at all.  So, you'll lose nothing that you have worked to attain.
 
 
If you do restart, you can merely add 3 ppm ammonia after the water change... and rather than skipping the day of testing, I'd test after 24 hours.  But, other than that the rest of the instructions would be the same.  Don't worry, you are doing quite well, and the tank is making progress... 

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I hope i did not come across harshly, it was not my intent. A large part of the problem with testing is the tests themselves and the difficulty people have deciding on color matches. A more accurate test kit, one which costs a lot more than hobbyists can afford, would use a color wheel and a blank sample using deionized water so you see the color through water. And an even better, one uses a colorimeter which sees the actual wavelength so it determines the color exactly and tells you what the result is.
 
A lot of getting accurate results comes from doing everything 100% correctly and sometimes things for this do not appear in the directions such as taking the water from well below the surface and cleaning test tubes properly before and after testing.
 
[media]https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8RcXLahFxk[/media]
 
However, I come back to the same puzzlement. The presence of ammonia but the absence of nitrite. A cycle should see a tank able to control ammonia long before all the nitrite that amount of ammonia creates can be processed. I would suggest not doing a big water change yet. I would not add anything to the tank and I would test daily. Report the results here. What I want to see ammonia drop and when it does, I want to see nitrite showing.
 
One comment in looking at your 3 pictures, to my eye none of them show the same color. This is due to lighting, positioning and camera angle, not to their actually being different.

 

[Stormer]

OK so tested once again today.   I did see some change but nothing significant in my eyes.
 
Ammonia:  Less than 1 ppm but not .50 ppm (.75 ppm) a nice light green with hints of yellow in it
Nitrite:  0 ppm
Nitrate:  1-5 ppm
PH out of the tap (did not aerate but did let sit for 24 hours) 7.8 ppm
 
I took the water from the middle of the tank as instructed too.  I will post tomorrows result but I doubt it will change, I'm kind of giving up hope.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

OK so tested once again today.   I did see some change but nothing significant in my eyes.
 
Ammonia:  Less than 1 ppm but not .50 ppm (.75 ppm) a nice light green with hints of yellow in it
Nitrite:  0 ppm
Nitrate:  1-5 ppm
PH out of the tap (did not aerate but did let sit for 24 hours) 7.8 ppm
 
I took the water from the middle of the tank as instructed too.  I will post tomorrows result but I doubt it will change, I'm kind of giving up hope.

 
 
NEVER!  
 
As long as you see a change, it means that progress is being made.  No need to give up hope.  The process is going fairly well.  You are only 2 weeks in at this point.  They can last 6 weeks on average.  Some go faster some slower.  We have had some folks with extremely soft water struggle for several months and seemingly get no results... but they ALL cycle in the end.  
 
While you are feeling frustrated, you can rest in the fact that you are NOT endangering any fish, nor are you lugging around gallon after gallon after gallon of fresh water during a fish-in cycle.  This is going well, just not 'according to plan'.  But, let's remember that this is an artificial replication of a natural process, and nature doesn't always follow the exact same pattern.  Every tank is different.  There are general trends, but the number of variables makes each situation unique.  You will get there, and I believe you are far closer than you may feel right now.
 
 
I look forward to your reading tomorrow.  I think it will pleasantly surprise you.

 

[Stormer]

No surprises!   Test results are exactly the same.  I even took it to the LFS and had my water checked again and the results were the same.  The person who waited on me said I should give it more time and that my tank might have been cycling just fine and some of the good stuff died off and that is why I am still seeing ammonia and nothing else.   She didn't give me figures but she did say the water is hard here which I knew because most of the people in the town I live have water softeners, I don't.   
 
Should I do a huge water change and start over?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You could. Remember you wouldn't truly be starting over, just zeroing your ammonia and nitrite and nitrates. The bacteria you have will still be there.

If you do start over, remove all the water you can, and use dechlorinated water, then wait 24 hours before adding a dose of ammonia (at 3ppm).

 

[Stormer]

OK, so I  remove all the water I can tonight and add prime and don't retest until tomorrow?   And if that is correct then tomorrow I dose back to 3 ppm of ammonia (do I test the parameters of the tank before adding ammonia?).   After that where do I pick up on the directions for fishless cycling?   Oh, and can I add in my piece of driftwood or wait until the cycling process is over?   I finally got most of the tannins out of it, I'm sure there will be some still coming out but that might help with my hard water.   Sorry for all the questions.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'd wait on the driftwood, and start at the beginning of the directions, except to say test daily.

And I'd test the tank before adding ammonia, as well.

 

[Stormer]

I thought the more information the better.   Emptied almost 95-97% of the water out of the tank tonight around 5:00 p.m.   Tested the water for ammonia right after I filled the tank and before adding dechlor.   Ammonia was .50 very clear and easy to read.   I then added 1 ml of Prime per their instructions or 20 drops to the water.   I tested 30 minutes later per TTA suggestions and my results were:
 
ammonia:  .50 very easy and clear to read
Nitrite:  0 
Nitrate:  0
PH:  8 
 
Tomorrow I will dose the tank to 3 ppm using the calculator provided on this forum and go from there.   I have the bubbler on and the heater is keeping the tank at a nice 84-85 degrees.  I will test the water once again before I add ammonia tomorrow just to keep a better record.    I will keep you posted on my progress in Round II!  
 
Oh, and thanks for all your help with my tank

 .  I have had tanks before and just plopped the fish in and I hate when they get sick and die so I was really glad to see something where I could cycle my tank and not hurt any fish.  I get pretty attached to them.   I'm not in a hurry to get fish as I haven't quite decided what I want yet.  

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The ammonia is exactly what I was expecting... as you said that the tap water was 0.50 ppm ammonia, so this is exactly what I was expecting you to find.  

 

[TwoTankAmin]

  Because you have .5 ppm in your tap, add only 2.5 ppm which will result in a total of 3 ppm in the tank.

 
The above only applies once here unless you were to do another water change before the next ammonia addition.

 

[Stormer]

Thanks for the clarification on how much ammonia to add.  Tonight I will add .95 ml to the tank, I have a small medical syringe that I will use.   Used the calculator on this site and that is what it said to get the tank to 2.5 ml.    Will test before adding the ammonia and 30 minutes after adding the ammonia.   I am using the Ace Hardware brand janitorial strength ammonia.    

 

[Stormer]

Day 1:
 
Before adding ammonia and 24 hours after I did a 95-97% water change:
 
Ammonia:  .50 ppm
Nitrite:  0 ppm
Nitrate:  0 ppm
PH:  8 ppm
 
Added ammonia and waited 30 minutes and retested
 
Ammonia:  3 ppm (darker than 2 ppm but not as dark as 4 ppm)
Nitrite:  0 ppm
Nitrate:  0 ppm
PH:  8 ppm
 
Will test tomorrow evening around the same time as today.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

 Fingers crossed for you...

 

[Stormer]

Well I started over on my tank as mentioned above and I have been following the cycling instructions to the letter.   Tomorrow is Day 10 and I am testing (stopped testing everyday when I realized nothing was happening so I started  following the instructions completely.   So far nothing has changed.     Test Day 4 and Test Day 7 were exactly as below.   
 
2-3 ppm ammonia  (I say between 2-3 ppm because my card just shows 2 ppm and then 4 ppm.)
0 nitrite
 
I have not checked any other parameters of my water since I know I have hard water.   Do I keep plugging along even though the instructions said to get advice if ammonia has not gone down by the 3rd testing date because I doubt that it suddenly goes down by tomorrow night?    I guess my tank is just one of those tanks that will take forever to cycle.