New And Not Sure What To Do.

[Chipie]

Hi every one,
I have just bought my very first fish tank and i need a little advice with cycling my 20 gallon tank.

I first stated my tank a week ago using the stuff called Cycle upon the advice of a the pet shop owner where i bought my fish tank. (Had put some Aqua+ in the water before).

I tested my water and my levels of ammonia and nitrite where both at 0. Oh boy.... My tap water 's ph is 7 and it contains nitrates(0.5) already so no wonder that my tank's water has nitrates. So, i was advised to add pure ammonia to my tank to have it at 0.5ppm. so i did.

I still haven't done any water change. My Ph is now at 8.2 I know that ammonia will get that level higher.

But now i'm wondering if i should do a partial water change and put some more ammonia to get it back to 0.5 or ljust eave it has it is ?

Can you advise me on this. I just want to do thing right.

Thanks

 

[Tolak]

If you are cycling without fish there is no reason to do a water change. What you are trying to do is grow nitrifying bacteria that will consume 5 ppm ammonia in 24 hours with no nitrites.

Your ammonia will stay at 5ppm for anywhere from a day to a couple of weeks before yoy see any nitrites. Your ammonia will start to drop after this while the nitrites increase. You want to check ammonia & nitrites daily, and add ammonia if needed to bring it up to 5 ppm. After a while the nitrites will start to drop, when you can add 5 ppm ammonia daily without seeing any ammonia or nitrites 24 hours later your tank is cycled. Here's a little chart that may help;