Fishless cycling- high nitrites and nitrates?

[gialdino171]

Ok, so I started the fishless cycle on Jan. 5th, and have been adding a teaspoon of fish food once every week. I've been testing the water periodically, with only small changes in ammonia (from 0 to 0.25 to .50 ppm). Today, the water read 0.25 ammonia, 2-5.0 nitrite (not sure exactly because the color was a sort of medium violet, but didn't really fit either color scheme), and 5.0 nitrate. Just wondering what I should do next, whether that be a water change (not sure how much exactly) or adding more food. Thanks. By the way, I use the API Freshwater Master Kit.

 

[BHead707]

you will want to continue adding the food as you have been, your cycle is potentially done when your get 0ppm amm, 0ppm nitrite, 0< ppm nitrates..

you could do a pwc if you would like but its not necessary, if i where you whenever you have 0ppm ammonia but still some nitrites add more food so the BB can have a food source

 

[librarygirl]

Have you tested PH? Keep an eye on it just to make sure it doesn't drop significantly.

Keep the ammonia level up; you want ammonia to go to 0 and nitrites to drop to 0 on their own. Dosing with fish food is tricky though; there's no clear way to dose it and it takes a lot of food to get ammonia up to a good level plus it's very messy. If you can get some pure ammonia it'll be cleaner and a lot more accurate. The nitrites are a good sign though!