Fishless Ammonia Cycle-how long did it take your tank to cycle?

Fishjones.. How big is your tank? You said it took 15 drops to get to 5ppm. I'm currently cycling a 100gl and going threw the same problem... Great post and great responses guys. This thread is helping me understand the cycling process...

took me about 6 weeks to get mine cycled

I'm at day 19 but still don't have any ammonia eating bacteria. Of course, I'm cycling with fish food so I needed to wait for ammonia producing bacteria to show up, and I haven't been disappointed in that regard.

What level are you keeping the ammonia at?

Whenever it gets too far past 4.9 I do a water change to get it down. I did a 40-50% water change and I guesstimate (the gaps on the test are kinda large) the ammonia level to already be back to 3.5ish now. I think it was 6 before the change and 3 after.

Give it time. If you can get ahold of some pure ammonia will allow you to get a more precise level initially thus saving the need to change the water when it gets too high...

Yeah, I did look for it though and I didn't see it, though it's very possible I missed it. The bright side though is that I've got the decomposing bacteria present, just unfortunate they don't completely eat through the fish food. Once they get the nutrients they want they abandon it and need fresh food. I know this because my ammonia level stops going up if I don't feed the tank for 24 hours.

I also seem to get a (cloudier) bacterial bloom about 30 minutes after adding food.

I tossed in a capful of ammonia into a 20 gallon tank, turned on the filter and let it run for 3 weeks. I never checked it or touched it during that time. At the end of 3 weeks I needed the tank for an emergency and it was 0 ammonia and 40nitrate. did a 50% WC and used it.