Start up cycling issues

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mschramm10

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jan 22, 2017
Messages
7
Hello!
I seem to have run into a standstill in trying to cycle my 10G SW tank. I started the process around mid November and still haven't got it to cycle out yet. Here's the main issue: pH stays strong at 8.4, ammonia is at 0 and when I bring it up to 2-4ppm it will be back to 0 by the next day. Ok so that part is fine, I'm having an issue getting rid of nitrite. It seems to be locked at 2ppm and hasn't budged in about 3 weeks since it first showed up on the test even after several water changes. Nitrate is on the board so I know it's nitrifying, but strange that it never moves from 2ppm. Knowing that bacteria were present to nitrify ammonia, I didn't add any ammonia for 3 days to see if I could get a drop in nitrite and got absolutely nothing, still at 2ppm. I will add that nitrate level will go up when I add ammonia, and seems to drop by about 20ppm when ammonia goes back to 0. I'm using the standard API master SW test kit. I have, in my past, successfully cycled and ran a 33G and a 55G SW tank and had no issues cycling, any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
I'm using fish less, and since ammonia had first zeroed out I have been adding 2-4ppm ammonia every night to keep that process moving, which is about the past 3 weeks. I did however, last week take a 3 day break from that routine to see if the nitrite would also zero out, but no luck there!
 
So, after dosing ammonia there is a 0 ammonia reading after 24 hours but still nitrite readings? Have you ever had a different color reading from your nitrite kit?
 
No I don't believe I have. When I first started the tank I had the strips while I waited for the master test (I ordered it online) but by the time I got the master kit I had already started dosing ammonia
 
Have two decent sized rocks that will one day be live rocks and black agronite sand about 1.5-2 inches deep. Waiting to add more live rock until it's cycled because we're adding clowns/anemone and will be adding the rocks with the anemone
 
So a start to a weekend project has me a day behind on dosing, but I dosed up to 4ppm ammonia early yesterday afternoon and these were my results from this morning( have to get back to the project, that's the reason I tested a little under 24hrs.)
 
Oh and tested for nitrite directly from my tap water and had a reading of 0. Don't know if this helps at all but thought I would give it a shot! and that nitrate reading fluctuates between 40ppm to the 160ppm seen in this mornings test.
 
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