ammonia levels stuck at 2.0 for 3 days now

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NeverFadeAway86

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Jun 15, 2011
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Columbus, OH
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Brian C
ive had a level of 2.0 ppm of Ammonia for 3 days now, my Nitrite reading has stayed at 0 ppm and the Nitrate was at 5.0 ppm for 2 of the 3 days.

Nitrate is now back down to 0 ppm as well, and the ammonia hasnt changed in 3 days ??

is this normal ? should I change the water ? or what is going on, no fish or plants in tank only substrate Atm

any help would be greatly appreciated
 
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I'm assuming you are doing a fishless cycle with pure ammonia? If so just be patient, the nitrite and such will come eventually, cycling can take anywhere from 1-2 months. Also I've read mostly keeping ammonia levels around 4ppm with fishless cycles. I have never done one myself but if you are using pure ammonia you may want to add a little more.
 
tank has been set up for 2 weeks, no bio load i assume since I have no fish or plants.. I added liquid Ammonia 3 days ago to keep the cycle going..

the tank went up to around 6 ppm of Ammonia at first because i added to much, but I did a few water changes and got it down to 2 ppm and it has stayed there for the last 3 days

the Nitrites have stayed at 0 for awhile now, and the last 2 days NitrAtes were at 5.0 ppm.. but today the NitrAtes have been at 0 ppm, while the Ammonia has stayed unchanged at 2.0 ppm
 
so do you think i should try to get the Ammonia up to 3 or 4 ppm and it would help ?
 
I'm not saying it will help or not, just from what I've read around most things say around 4ppm ammonia for fishless. This isn't necessarily gonna kick start the cycle though. If prior to adding the ammonia there were no fish then your cycle had not yet begun. The bacteria can only begin to build up once there is a food source (ammonia). 3 days isn't very long for a cycle so my advice would just be, have patience. If you can get your hands on some already cycled media, perhaps from your local fish store, and seed the tank, that can help to kickstart the cycle.
 
no ive been putting the ammonia in whenever it gets below 2 ppm, which it had a few times to this point.. now it hasnt dropped below 2 ppm in 3 days, its just taking longer for the Bacteria to go through the ammonia than it has previously
 
i know the tank is cycling simply because there have been nitrAtes for a few days, im not saying its cycled but it has been processing the Ammonia into small amount of NitrIte like .50 ppm at the most and then it got turned into the NitrAte

but its just kinda been stuck at a stand still for 3 days other than the NitrAte going back down to 0 ppm from 5.0 ppm

ive had ammonia in the tank for 2 weeks now

so for the last few days it read as 2.0 ppm of Ammonia, 0 NitrIte and 5.0 NitrAte

today the readings are 2.0 ppm ammonia, O nitrIte and 0 Nitrate
 
bring the ammonia up to 3 to 4 ppm and keep it there. fishless cycling will take time. have patience. keep testing. you'll get there.

as for the nitrate test being 5 and then zero - you have to be very sure you are following the instructions for that test to a T, and looking at the tube against the colour card under the exact same lighting every time. the teensiest lil difference between testing procedure or lighting can mean that difference between 5 and zero.

and this may seem like a silly question, but you do have a filter running on the tank, right?
 
ya i have two 20 gal aqueon quiet power filters running, I've checked the levels under the same light and the same way I have every time, I am very confident that the test results were accurate as I always test twice to make sure.

I know it takes time, im just trying to make sure my cycle isnt stalling out on me thats all
 
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