Ammonia too low now?

Hi

I've been fishless cycling for almost 3 weeks now and haven't had much movement in terms of ammonia. I think I added too much to start so today I did a 25% water change and the ammonia is now around 1-1.5ppm. Does this need to be raised or not? I'm cautious of adding in case I go too far again.

I do have nitrites present but these have been there for about a week and a half. See test results of current levels as these tests are a nightmare to read.

I think you're around Day 13+ on this guide:

Since you have nitrites, I would not add more ammonia yet. Has the nitrite level gone above 2 ppm yet?

Thanks lads erm I would say nitrites are around 3ppm yes they have been for a while. I checked this morning and I would say the ammonia has dropped to 0.75 so I added 20 drops of Dr Tims...recommended was 35 but I dont want to do too much again. P.s I wasn't ignoring you I just read the post now after adding haha.

Since your nitrite was over 2 ppm, adding more ammonia was the right thing to do

Just an update guys, got a reading of 0ppm Ammonia and 8+ppm of Nitrite this morning so looks like the maintenance feed in 2 days

My nitrite and nitrate are through the roof..dark reds. Should I skip the maintenance feed?

Just how high is the nitrite level? I presume your tester measures up to 8 ppm? If you mix some tap water with tank water, half and half, then test that for nitrite then double the figure it should give you a rough idea of how high nitrite really is. If the tank nitrite is higher than 15 to 16 ppm, that is past stall point in which case I'd do a water change big enough to get the reading somewhere on the scale. If it's only just over 8 ppm, then you don't need a water change, just add the maintenance dose when it's due.


Nitrate testers convert nitrate into nitrite then measure nitrite. If there is a lot of nitrite already in the water it will make the nitrate reading higher than it really is.

Hi mate hadn't thought of that. Just done it and I would say it was around 4ppm maybe a bit over so that makes it roughly 10-12ppm. So not as bad as I thought? What about the maintenance feed as thats meant to be today but I'm assuming its not required if nitrite is that high?

You could maybe wait a couple more days, but not too long as you do need to feed the ammonia eaters every now and then.