What Number Should I Keep The Ammonia At?

[serbusfish]

Im currently cycling a 6 gallon tank with a Fluval U1 internal filter. I am using ammonia to cycle, I have put sponges from an established filter into my tank as well as some beneficial bacteria from my local fish store.
 
Now I was originally dosing ammonia to 4mg/l but I found this was too much and ended up stalling the cycle. At the moment it is around 1mg/l with 0.25mg/l nitrite. Should I wait for it to drop to 0.25mg/l and dose back up to 1mg/l? Or does it need topping up a little more now?

 

[attibones]

Your ammonia should be around 3 ppm when you initially dose it. Once it drops to .75, you should start feeding "snacks" for you bacteria.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

What are you nitrites doing? The additions of ammonia are dependent on readings for both ammonia and nitrite and not just ammonia. Have a read here http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first
 
Bear in mind that seeding bacteria accelerates the cycle and should change the test results as well.

 

[serbusfish]

Your ammonia should be around 3 ppm when you initially dose it. Once it drops to .75, you should start feeding "snacks" for you bacteria.

 
Because the tank is so small I have read 1 - 2 is what I need? Also the only thing going into the tank will be a betta and cherry shrimp so the bioload will be small.
 

What are you nitrites doing? The additions of ammonia are dependent on readings for both ammonia and nitrite and not just ammonia. Have a read here http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/421488-cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first
 
Bear in mind that seeding bacteria accelerates the cycle and should change the test results as well.

 
Nitrite at 0.25 on last check 4 hours ago. I had no nitrite 24 hours ago.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

well it looks like your seeding helped. not sure as you did not post full test results for all tests. But if 100% of ammonia is converted to nitrite and 0 of that is removed, 1 ppm of ammonia will create 2.55 ppm of nitrite. This is the most it could be. However, if one has some nitrite converting bacteria present, they will take some or all of the nitrite up and you will not see that potential 2.55 pm. Instead you will get lower numbers.
 
In your case I would suggest you do the following. Wait for both ammonia and nitrite to hit 0. When they do, add ammonia sufficient to be 2 ppm in your amount of water. Then wait 24 hours and test both ammonia and nitrite. If they are both 0, you are cycled and good to go. If they are not, wait until they are and repeat the process.

 

[serbusfish]

well it looks like your seeding helped. not sure as you did not post full test results for all tests. But if 100% of ammonia is converted to nitrite and 0 of that is removed, 1 ppm of ammonia will create 2.55 ppm of nitrite. This is the most it could be. However, if one has some nitrite converting bacteria present, they will take some or all of the nitrite up and you will not see that potential 2.55 pm. Instead you will get lower numbers.
 
In your case I would suggest you do the following. Wait for both ammonia and nitrite to hit 0. When they do, add ammonia sufficient to be 2 ppm in your amount of water. Then wait 24 hours and test both ammonia and nitrite. If they are both 0, you are cycled and good to go. If they are not, wait until they are and repeat the process.

 
Ok thanks a lot for the advice, I checked my readings again and now im getting ammonia 0.50, nitrite 0.25, nitrate 5.
 
So I guess I will check ammonia again in the morning, and if it has dropped top it up to 2mg/l.

 

[serbusfish]

Right, I dossed 2mg/l ammonia, 12 hours later it had dropped to 1mg/l and now nitrite is at 2mg/l. So I have a bit of a way to go yet but at least the ammonia seems to be processing well, just gotta wait for my of the nitrite bacteria to grow.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Yes- bear in mind that the ammonia bacteria grow faster than the nitrite bacs. Do not add another dose of ammonia unless your nitrites have dropped as well. Because you have seeded the tank to jump start it, you can wait for both ammonia and nitrite to hit 0 before you do another 2 ppm addition. If you have 0 ammonia in 24 hours and only a small amount of nitrite, you are very close for sure.
 
Nitrate tests are awful in terms of accuracy. If I ever used them I would be doing so to see if there are some in an unplanted or lightly planted tank being cycled. But I will never trust the absolute number nitrate tests return. At best I would use them as a directional indicator- are they moving up or down.

 

[serbusfish]

OK, im confused though, if ammonia reads 0 surely that means there is no ammonia and the bacteria will starve?
 
At the moment Ammonia is at 0.25 and nitrite is at around 2 - 4 (hard to tell which).

 

[Gruntle]

Your bacteria won't starve. You've got a fair bit of time (IIRC over a week) of no ammonia before the bacteria will start to go dormant (and take a bit of time to "wake up" when you next dose).
 
You seem to be well on the way with your cycle, so it should take well under a week to cycle ammonia and nitrite to 0 and 0. Your bacteria will be fine.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Bacteria will not starve. In fact they can easily live sealed up in a bottle without food or air for 6 months and be ready to work when they get food and other needed things again.
 
That the bacteria will starve and/or die off in days or even weeks is simply not the case. if you keep them at a temp above freezing and below 95F they will be just fine. they can stand higher temps for shorter periods but would not want to get much over about 105F for any amount of time. Much higher and they will die off fast.

 

[serbusfish]

Right ok, I always thought you would start to lose beneficial bacteria after 1 day with no food source, but that's good to know.
 
At the moment ammonia drops from 2mg/l to 0mg/l in 24 hours. But Nitrite is steady at 5mg/l, nitrate is around 10 - 20 mg/l. Should I maybe do a small water change to lower nitrite a little? Im worried it will go too high and stall the cycle like the ammonia did.