Fishless cycle trouble

[Fishstress]

Hello: I am worried I messed up the fish less cycle.
My ammonia levels dropped really low (below 1) when the nitrites started so I added more. Nitrites spiked but today disappeared to 0, and nitrates are way up to 40, but I still have ammonia at 1-2 ish. Shouldn’t the ammonia be gone? Thanks for any advice.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Weird things appear to happen when you do a fishless cycle.

Test kits arent all that accurate. All sorts of things in the tank might throw off a reading or you might not be totally consistent with your testing. Its hardly laboratory testing standard.

Also, it doesnt take much ammonia to produce higher levels of nitrite and nitrate. So a relatively small drop in ammonia (that is pretty much undetectable to your testing) causes a large rise in nitrite and a larger rise in nitrate. You could look at that and say "why isnt my ammonia going down?". It is, its just that the test isnt accurate enough to pick it up.

If your ammonia drops below 1ppm top it up to 2ppm. You are cycled when 24h after dosing you see 0ppm ammonia and nitrite. You have only been at it a couple of weeks, you could have another 2 months of cycling yet. Too early to start worrying.

Is this the oscar move you mention in your other post? If so, i agree with charlie. The fish would benefit from moving into the larger tank asap, seed your new filter with media from your already set up filter, monitor water parameters with water changes as necessary to keep them at non toxic levels.