Fishless cycle

[Bartny]

im currently using pure ammonia and havent seen nitrites rise or amonia fall ph is at 6.4 tap water ph is at 6.6 so really i guess i just have to wait for the best

 

[Sploke]

Just to be clear - if there are no fish in the tank its not necessary to change the water, but its not going to hurt anything if you do. As long as you have readable ammonia levels, it means that there is ammonia in excess of enough bacteria to process it to nitrite and nitrate, which means the bacteria colonies will still be growing in size.

 

[stephenpence]

I which case i imagine the more ammonia you have, the better. think of it as food for the certain type of bacteria you need. the more food you have the more bacteria can grow. it may mean it'll take longer to grow the NUMBER of bacteria you'll need to eat all the food, but by the time it's done you'll have a healthy number of colonies waiting around for more food. what's worrysome is that you have NO nitrification going on. are you using any sort of starter liquid?

 

[Sploke]

The bacteria will only multiply at a given maximum rate, regardless of the excess food source.

 

[Bartny]

I have cycle by hagen nutrafin but havent used it should i used because last time wgen someone told me to overdose i put half the bottle and i had a ph crash