Nitrite bounced back up while cycling

[Eveningbird]

Just got my first tank and am cycling it, it’s a 20 gal planted freshwater tank and the cycling was going as expected until recently, a few days ago the nitrites finally got to 0 after spiking for a few days and I added a bit more ammonia (is been consistently 0 every day) planning to add the fish if everything was well tomorrow but then the nitrite had spiked again and it has stayed that way for the past few day, I’m not sure what to do so if just kept going the same of adding ammonia every day waiting for it to drop again, is this normal? Or is it something I should worry about?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Yes its normal. Your nitrite cycled out, you added more ammonia, which turned to nitrite, and now that needs to cycle out.

You are cycled when you can dose 2ppm of ammonia, and 24 hours later all the ammonia and nitrite has cycled out to zero. It typically takes 6 to 8 weeks.

How long have you been going? How much ammonia have you been dosing?

 

[Eveningbird]

I’d say around 4 weeks with 2ppm of ammonia

 

[Aiken Drum]

Test daily. Every time ammonia drops below 1ppm, redose it back to 2ppm. When you can dose 2ppm ammonia and 24 hours later see zero ammonia and zero nitrite you are cycled. You probably have another 2 to 4 weeks to go.