Need help with a fishless cycle

[Eric-Texas]

My kids are about to kill me as they are ready for fish but the tank is not ready.

We have a 46 gallon and it has been filled and running for close to 3 weeks. At first I was only using fish food for ammonia, then after no nitrites appeared I went and got pure ammonia from Ace hardware.

I dosed it up to 4-5.0 ppm and left it alone, after 2 weeks I have yet to see nitrites and my ammonia is still present, may have dropped a bit. When I test for nitrAtes it appears a touch orange so I may have some or generated a false positive on the test.

My question is at what point to I just drain the tank and start over? I treated the water initially with water treatment, and have the temperature set at 82.5. I have added Tetra Safe Start Plus and added another bacteria after 2 weeks with no nitrites.

thoughts?

 

[54seaweed]

this should give you all you need
Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

 

[Angellove78]

Just a heads up. Your nitrate reading can come from your tap, test that too so you have no confusion with your cycle.

 

[Coralocean]

Sometimes you will not see NitrItes it can happen so fast. I never saw nitrites during my cycle. I knew it was cycled when the ammonia was 0 for a couple of days and I had nitrAtes. It took a solid month or so to get there.

 

[King Fisher]

Are you using an HOB and airstones?