Fishless cycle problems. Advice welcome.

[irishspy]

Well, I think we're making progress. After last night's report, I added enough ammonia to bring the reading up to between 2-4. Here's the results taken 24 hours later:

03/05/2016
Ammonia 0, maybe a little higher
Nitrite .25
Nitrate 10-20

Tonight I'll be topping off the ammonia, again. I want to see NH3 and Nitrite at clear, unambiguous zeroes 24 hours after a top-off.

BTW, I do wish they made aquarium test kits like I remember PH test kits for swimming pools: liquid samples encased in acrylic, against which you compare your water sample. I think it would be a lot simpler to take a reading, since the colors on the card can be so close to each other.

 

[Belltrain]

10-20 nitrates is a good sign that things are moving along. Which they are . Your getting close to zeroing out and once you do your golden.

 

[tanker]

Looks like things are coming along just fine. I would not both with assuring for Nitrates yet. Nitrites in the water skew the Nitrate readings.

When Ammonia and Nitrite are both zero, do large WC, add ammonia again, and 24hrs later==if ammonia and Nitrite both still zero==add fish.!!

 

[irishspy]

Just to update the the fishless cycle for "JJ&J's Seafood Buffet," there's improvement, but I can't declare victory yet. Here are the results from the four nights prior to tonight. For the first three nights, the night before I added enough Ammonium Chloride to bring the NH3 reading to 2. I then tested 24 hours later and recorded the results.

03/05/2016
Ammonia: 0-0.25
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 10-20

03/06/2016
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Not measured

03/07/2016
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

03/08/2016
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20-40

Having gotten Ammonia/Nitrite at 0/0 for three nights, last night (the 8th) I added enough AC to bring the read to 4 as a test. If it could clear the ammonia and nitrite in 24 hours, the cycle was done. The results...

03/09/2016
Ammonia: 2

So, a little disappointing, but still progress. Ammonia was cut by half. (I didn't bother to measure nitrite and nitrate.) I'm going to test each night until ammonia reaches zero.

Question: when it does, how much AC should I add? Enough to read 4, to keep feeding the cycle until it clears all the ammonia in 24 hours?

Thanks again for all the help!