Fishless Cycle Ammonia Question

[softmushroom]

Just a quick question,
I'm entering my first month of fishless cycle. My ammonia started at around ~4ppm, and now has finally dropped to about ~.50ppm. I tested everyday and no NitrItes at all, but I did just test for NitrAtes and the color is like gold? It's not really at 0 or 5ppm, but maybe around 3ppm or 4ppm?

So do I just keep adding more ammonia and get it back to 4ppm and see what happens? Or do I just let it sit there for a little more?

 

[apr28]

Bump the ammonia back up or you'll starve your bacteria

 

[tnfinfan]

It's possible the bit of nitrate in your test is what occurs naturally in your tap water. Add more ammonia to keep feeding the bacteria that eat ammonia while you wait.. You should get a spike of nitrites soon and it will show on the test.

 

[Delapool]

Have you done a ph test?

 

[Hobgob]

Water change? If you ph gets to low you stall your cycle! Then pump it up to 4ppm and test in 24hpurs. Also make sure your using pure ammonia. And nitrates could just be from your tap added by your municipality

 

[softmushroom]

Have you done a ph test?

Yes, my pH is about ~7.6.

I also forgot to mention that I seeded my filter with a used filter pad from my cousin's filter.

 

[librarygirl]

Hi and welcome! Drop in ammonia is good. I'd go ahead and dose it back up; when it falls below 1 you can redose. It's possible you might skip the nitrite phase if you're using seeded media, but it's a bit too early to say. Just keep dosing and testing. Here's the guide if you haven't seen it: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html

 

[tnfinfan]

Excellent! The seeding material likely won't be populated with enough bacteria to avoid a nitrite spike altogether. It does typically take a few days for nitrites to show up after the ammonia starts dropping. But, your time to wait will be a whole lot shorter than if you were waiting on airborne bacteria to colonize. When the cycle is done, you'll see NO ammonia the day after adding it and NO nitrites. That's when you're done and can change water to get the nitrates where they belong. If you seed heavily enough, you can insta-cycle but I wouldn't expect it from just a dirty filter pad.