Fishless cycling using Dr Tim's One & Only live bacterial product

For the amount of ammonia to use, you should use the actual readings to judge. It is more accurate this way.

Yes, when ammonia is way too high (off the chart), it can be too toxic even for the bacteria feed on them, and it can stall the fishless cycling. But we are talking about at least 7~8ppm or higher. I completed my fishless cycling with 5~6ppm ammonia added daily toward the end without incident. It all depends on how heavy of fish load you plan to have once the cycling is done. I fully stocked my aquarium with 30+ fish in a 40 gallon tank, thus I needed my aquarium to be able to take on heavy bioload.

Your case is different. You only plan to add a single betta fish to a 5 gallon tank, so lower ammonia level should be sufficient, but I still would aim for 2ppm at least. Make sure you use the readings from your actual test result to judge the ammonia concentration instead of the "theoretical" readings on the bottle.

(03-25-2015, 09:21 PM)svbriggs Wrote: but nitrates were around 0.5. I seem to have trouble deciphering the color chart but the sample in the test tube was blue violet which looked closer to 0.5 than 0.25.

Do you mean nitrite?

Nitrite is more toxic than ammonia. Any trace amount is not good for fish.
Nitrate is relatively harmless. Even at 40ppm it will not cause any immediate harm.

Just do daily partial water change of up to 50% with Prime as your water conditioner, or you may do it twice a day. It should keep nitrite level at minimal.

Cut back on feeding will also help. Fish can survive for 2 to 3 weeks without any food at all. You can stop feeding for a day or two, or simply feed every other day from now on. The amount of food you feed during each meal can also be reduced. Less feeding will translate to less waste produced by the fish and thus less ammonia and less nitrite.