Sometimes when I do an ammonia test it's reading 0, even though I just dosed it to 3 ppm 8 hours earlier. Do I only need to add ammonia once every 24 hours, or everytime it reads 0?
How long have you been cycling the tank?
What are your nitrite and nitrate readings?
This will help to give us an idea about how far into your tank's cycle you're at. Usually ammonia disappears quickly after dosing when the cycle is nearing completion, but it's hard to judge without the nitrite/nitrate numbers...