Fishless cycle - have I crashed it

[Nakkri]

I am 4 weeks into a fishless cycle and I just feel like it's very slow and I've done something wrong ... Last week my nitrates were higher but ammonia and nitrite were also high so I left it a couple more days and the nitrates practically vanished.... Have I killed the cycle?

Today (week 4)
Ammonia - 0.2
Nitrite - 0.25
Nitrate - 10

Any tips or things I should be doing?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Are you redosing ammonia?

 

[Nakkri]

Are you redosing ammonia?

I have dosed more after I noticed the nitrates were going down a few days ago. How do I find the balance between having enough ammonia for the nitrites/nitrates and the ammonia level not getting too high.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Test daily. If ammonia drops below 1ppm redose back to 2ppm. When you can add 2ppm ammonia and see zero ammonia and nitrite 24 hours later you are cycled.

 

[Nakkri]

It never dropped below 0.2ppm which is what I thought was weird... I test daily with a liquid master kit

 

[Aiken Drum]

Dose it back to 2ppm. Zero ammonia sometimes reads as low level. Your ammonia is probably at zero.

 

[Nakkri]

I feel like an idiot.... I've been dosing to 0.2ppm not 2pm.... Just dosed to 2ppm. I have nitrates and nitrites so hoping won't be starting at square one..... Probably going to be a few more weeks

 

[Aiken Drum]

Typically a fishless cycle takes 2 months.

 

[Colin_T]

If you are concerned about the cycle stalling, do a 90-100% water change using dechlorinated water and add some ammonia. See what happens. Sometimes the beneficial filter bacteria use up all the carbonate hardness (KH) in the water and that will stall or slow the process. Doing a complete water change will replenish the KH and the bacteria usually get working again.

The fact you have nitrite means the first part of the cycling process is doing something. It will probably be finished in 2-4 weeks.