Hello,
I am doing a fishless cycle for my 20 gal fresh water tank. I used Dr. Tim’s One and Only nitrifying bacteria and his ammonia to start the cycle. I am on day 7 into the cycle and my API freshwater Master test kit reads….. Ammonia
.50ppm, Nitrite 5.0ppm and Nitrate 20ppm. My question is…. do I wait till I get a 0ppm reading of both ammonia and nitrite before adding more ammonia? Or do I add more ammonia when just the ammonia reading is 0ppm. I know that my nitrites are high and I don’t want to make it worse by adding more ammonia to soon. Or does it matter? Also when I add more ammonia do I dose it 20 drops again (1 drop per gallon) like Dr. Tim’s recommends at the beginning of the cycle? That brought it to a 2.0 ppm reading when I started.
My nitrites have been at this 5.0 ppm level for 3 days now but my ammonia has been dropping slowly. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!