Ammonia, nitrites and nitrate reading on day 1 of cycle?

[Sooze]

Update water tests
Ammonia down to 2.0 mg, nitrites still around 5 mg but looks slightly higher than yesterday, nitrates have shot right up to 100? Is this right? Is my tank cycling correctly?

 

[Sk3lly]

Yea i apologise how i word things. I can be blunt lol. I do try to help though. Those nitrates seem high but if its fishless then let it go. Wait until you get 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. Then give it a final dose of ammonia. Retest the next day. If your tank shows no ammonia or nitrite again then your tank is capable of converting ammonia to nitrate within 24hours and is therefore cycled. Then do a massive water change like 90% or so to rid those nitrates. Treat water with a dechlorinator before it enters the tank and your good to go

 

[Sooze]

Should I add more ammonia or wait? And if the answer is wait, when do I add?

 

[Sk3lly]

Wait for now. I was told the ammonia converting bacteria can go months without food and not die. I wouldnt wait that long though lol. Just dose back up to around 2ppm everytime it hits 0. I dont think you need to dose high as its a small tank

 

[Sooze]

Thanks sk3lly, should I be adding any ammonia in the meantime to keep the bacteria fed?

 

[Sooze]

Sk3lly we posted those at the same time so you answered my question as I was asking lol. thanks for you help.

 

[Sk3lly]

Remember by dosing ammonia all your doing is mimicking the bioload created by fish. Your basically giving the bacteria a food source. The more ammonia you dose the larger and stronger your bacteria colony will become. This can be built up at a later date. The reason you are told to add fish spread apart from each other and not all at once is to allow time for the bacteria colony to grow and be able to cope with the added bioload