Fishless Cycle Help

[Pstant]

I have a 10 gallon tank that I am doing a fishless cycle on. I added pure ammonia on November 24th. I have consistently been testing and making sure the ammonia is between 3-5 ppm. However, I have not seen a decrease in ammonia and rise in nitrite yet. Is that ok for where I am right now or do you think I may be doing something wrong? I did not have any seed so I only added ammonia and I crushed up an extremely small amount of fish food.

 

[shellieca]

The fish food is not necessary since you are using ammonia. So if I understand correctly you have not added anymore ammonia nor have you done any water changes since Nov. 24? Have you checked your Ph & are you using the liquid test kit? Your situation is not uncommon but I would check the Ph to make sure it hasn't crashed stalling your cycle.

 

[librarygirl]

What test kit are you using? STrips aren't accurate. If you overdosed ammonia that could be stalling things.

What's the PH?

What's the temperature of the tank? Do you have surface agitation from the filter water falling into the tank or an air stone? This promotes oxygen exchange which is good for the bacteria.

Are you using tap water? If not what water are you using? Did you dechlorinate it prior to putting it into the tank? What did you use?

 

[Pstant]

Tank is about 85 degrees, yes surface agitation with air stone and filter, PH is 8, and I used tap water but conditioned it with Aqueon. And I'm using the API test kit, not strips. I went away for a few days and before I left the Ammonia was around 4ppm and no it's around 2 ppm but no Nitrite. Also, the water level was really down and there were a lot of bubbles at the surface. So I added a little more water and a tiny but more ammonia to get it back up to the 3-5ppm range that I read was best. Thoughts?