Cycling a new tank

So I’m cycling a new tank, I seem to have a lot of Nitrites and Nitrates but no Ammonia. I need to add more Ammonia still to keep it going though right?

Welcome to the forum.
How big is your tank, what kind of filter do you have, any live plants, when did you start the cycling, and when was the last time you added ammonia (and how much) ?

outofwater said:

Welcome to the forum.
How big is your tank, what kind of filter do you have, any live plants, when did you start the cycling, and when was the last time you added ammonia (and how much) ?

Click to expand...

25 litres, a mixture of real and fake, just a normal filter not an air pump one, it was a couple of weeks ago I started it and I added ammonia about a week ago which went up to 3ppm.

Seems to me your cycle is near completion, you just need to keep the ammonia to keep the bacteria alive, 2ppm can work just fine, and wait for the nitrites to go to zero and nitrates to go to 10 or 20 ppm, and you're ready for fish. A large water change right before adding fish to ensure the water is "clean" of ammonia and nitrites should suffice

outofwater said:

Seems to me your cycle is near completion, you just need to keep the ammonia to keep the bacteria alive, 2ppm can work just fine, and wait for the nitrites to go to zero and nitrates to go to 10 or 20 ppm, and you're ready for fish. A large water change right before adding fish to ensure the water is "clean" of ammonia and nitrites should suffice

Click to expand...

Okay thank you. I will top up the ammonia. I plan on putting just a lone Betta fish in there as it’s only a small tank, so hopefully there won’t be too much Ammonia strain!

Don't add too much ammonia or it'll make so much nitrite the cycle will stall. The easiest way to avoid this is to follow the method on here.

With this method ammonia is added only when certain targets have been reached. Your test results look ready for you to add dose #2, another 3 ppm dose of ammonia.


Ignore the nitrate test. It works by converting nitrate into nitrite then testing for that. If there's already nitrite in the water, that's added in and leads to a false nitrate reading.