Quick fishless cycle question???

[Love_MyFish]

Ive been doing a fishless cycle going on two week. I have been un able to find Ammonia, I have beem to Ace, Pleasents, walmart, lowes, ect... Richmond VA doesnt have it so I am using shrimp. I dosed up to 4ppm using 2 medium shrimp it dropped to 1ppm, nitrItes through the roof, and 20 ppm of nitrAtes (seeded tank from my other aquarium). I cant seem to get my ammonia to get up to 4ppm again, Im using 5 medium shrimp and I cant beet the biological filter. when should I see a NA spike and when will the NI drop???

 

[pantherspawn]

As long as your ammonia isn't at zero then you shouldn't worry too much. Higher ammonia levels just allow for quicker full stocking of your tank, but your cycle will continue as long as there is ammonia to feed tux bacteria.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

As long as your ammonia isn't at zero then you shouldn't worry too much. Higher ammonia levels just allow for quicker full stocking of your tank, but your cycle will continue as long as there is ammonia to feed tux bacteria.

+1

The shrimp are generating ammo at a rate the bacteria can/will use it, so IMO your cycle is going really well. When using pure ammo, it's a dump and run and dump again because there's nothing generating it, so you need to spike it to 4ppm to keep the bacteria fed. Unless of course you setup an ammo IV drip, but that's tricky.