Stalled cycle? Or normal?

[x3ro]

I've tested my waters the past few days, and my ammonia and nitrite levels have remained the same..

Ammonia is about 4-5ppm, and nitrites are holding steady at 1ppm...

I haven't had to dose the tank again yet due to dropping ammonia levels.

Is this completely normal and I'm just being impatient or what?

:help:

 

[rich311k]

It can happen. You should start to see movement again soon. How long has it been?

 

[jpappy789]

How much ammonia were you normally dosing?

 

[KarlTh]

How did you seed it with bacteria?

 

[Temeraire]

What is your pH?

 

[x3ro]

It's been about a week since I put the first dose of ammonia in. I put in around 5ppm.

Don't have anything to seed the tank with. Newbie to aquariums.

My pH last I checked was between 7.4 and 7.6

 

[Sploke]

Keep testing and waiting...starting from scratch, it can take up to 4-6 weeks to get fully cycled. If you have a LFS, you can ask for a cup of gravel or filter media from an established filter to speed things up.

 

[KarlTh]

You really need the bacterial source, or it can take months.

 

[rich311k]

Sounds like everything is normal. If your LFS wont give you any media buy a decoration or peice of wood from one of their tanks.

 

[x3ro]

Didn't test yesterday..

Came home tonight to test and ammonia had dropped to around .25ppm.... nitrites were between 1 and 5ppm.... Colors are so close it's hard to tell...
dosed some more ammonia into the tank