Help!!i Destroyed My Cycle!

[Hpisavage21]

2 weeks ago I began my cycle (fishless) and a week into it i added a rockfrom a established tank and fed teh bacteria with ammonia. Today I was testing my Nitrites and I followed the instructions like i was supposed to (add water from tank add 5 drops and shake then i was supposed to wait 5 minutes) I waited like 7-8 minutes by mistake and it showed up to be 0 nitrites so I said YAY! no ammonia no nitrites I decided to do a 50% water change, my nitrates are at 10ppm now. Anyway right now I just did another nitrite test and only waited 5 minutes like I was supposed too. I now got a reading of .50ppm of nitrites wat the heck is wrong? Before it was 0 now it was at .5ppm. Now me and my dumb self figured I would add ammonia to bring it up to 3ppm since I was really sure it was done or not. Did i mess up my cycleby doing a water change before the cycle was really complete? Do you think I can add my fish today If i do a water change to bring down the ammonia that I just added?

 

[tenlientl]

The new water you put in the tank contains nitrite.

 

[Hydro]

too. I now got a reading of .50ppm of nitrites wat the heck is wrong? Before it was 0 now it was at .5ppm. Now me and my dumb self figured I would add ammonia to bring it up to 3ppm since I was really sure it was done or not. Did i mess up my cycleby doing a water change before the cycle was really complete? Do you think I can add my fish today If i do a water change to bring down the ammonia that I just added?

Overdeveloping your nitrite test by a 2-3 minutes should not give you a zero reading (actually, it's the opposite; overdeveloping gives a stronger reading). I suspect something amiss with your testing procedure the first time. Just to be sure, you may want to repeat your nitrite test to confirm the reading.

Probably a good idea not to add fish yet until the ammonia and nitrite both show zero. Fishless cycling takes about 6 weeks and adding a rock from an established tank, although may have helped a bit, is unlikely to have reduced the cycling process by much (4 weeks seem a lot). You don't really need a water change during fishless cycling (no fish to worry about), but I don't think you have messed it up either by doing one. The water change would have lowered your ammonia level a bit, that's all. Just add some ammonia to bring it back up to about 5 ppm and keep testing daily (and be patient) until ammonia and nitrite are both zero. Then do a big water change and add fish.

Hope this helps.