cant keep ammonia levels up

[JOMA]

bet you were shocked when you saw that title^, werent you? haha

but seriously, i will add about 3cc's of ammonia (which i thought was a lot) and five minutes later i will only test about .5-1ppm ammonia. my nitrites are staying a steady 1ppm and my nitrates are really high, close to 80 (im cycling fishless so dont freak out)

do i have to keep the ammonia up in order for the nitrite bacteria to grow?

thanks,
joma
(ps i started my cycle about 5 days ago)
(pss i have a 2 gallon hexagon with an aquateach100gph , 3-3.5lbs of live rock and about 4 pounds of fossilized coral.)

 

[Purevil21]

Couldn't tell you about using pure ammonia, I would just toss a raw shrimp in there and be done with it. lol When the levels come back safe your cycled.

 

[Gti_Leo]

isn't your cycle usually done once you start to see nitrates?

 

[Purevil21]

I never saw nitrates in my tank until I added fish. Even now they are somewhere between 0-5ppm. I saw Ammonia peak at about 3ppm then Nitrite that got up to about 1.5ppm then all clear. I cycled with a ton of cured liverock though, maybe other methods yield different results.

 

[jenatron]

Gti_Leo, it's not that simple. The goal is for the bacteria to be able to process and certain amount (usually like 4 ppm) of ammonia, into nitrite then nitrates within 24 hours. If you're still seeing high levels of nitrite within 24 hours then it's not ready.

 

[JOMA]

so once i see no ammonia and nitrite after 24 hours i can add fish?

 

[JOMA]

should i wait until the nitrites to go down before i add more ammonia? or should i keep adding ammonia until the nitrites go down?

 

[Gti_Leo]

ammonia gets turned into nitrite then into nitrate, i think your only supposed to add it once a day. i've never heard of the cycling method your using, only the raw shrimp one

 

[JOMA]

ammonia gets turned into nitrite then into nitrate, i think your only supposed to add it once a day. i've never heard of the cycling method your using, only the raw shrimp one

im just using pure ammonia, its what i had so its what i use

 

[jenatron]

Yep, I think you're safe if the ammonia and nitrItes are both processed within 24 hours.
Your second question I'm not exactly sure. I think weeks 3-6 in http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/fishless-cycling-for-dummies-103339.html should answer your question.

 

[JOMA]

should i add more ammonia or wait until the nitrite goes to 0?