adding ammonia for fishless question

[jiffy]

So, I have been running a fishless cycle for 10 days now and havent seen any nitrites or a drop in ammonia. What I was doing was adding ammonia as needed (which has been much) to keep my ammonia around 5.0 ppm I have not been adding every day because there was always high levels of ammonia present.

Do you agree that as long as my ammonia is kept around 5.0 ppm, that bacteria will have ammonia to feed off or, or should I add every day, even though doing that will push my ammonia levels off the chart?

 

[maestro]

is the water heated, because is the temp is very low the bacteria wont multiply as fast

 

[LoveMyOscar]

...

 

[jiffy]

Maestro - yes my water is heated, I have it turned to 83F for now, but I will lower it once I am ready for fish.

LoveMyOscar - I added 1 tsp on day 1 and day 2 and only added 1/4 teaspoon since then. The reason I was not adding every day was becasue I didnt want to add to much ammonia. Adding the ammount for 5.0ppm per day would be roughly 10.0 ppm on day 2 15.0 ppm on day 3 and so on until the bacteria began to consume the ammonia, then it would fall.

I am keeping it at 5.0ppm because this way, there is always ammonia in the tank, but not to much. I started out with about 7 ppm in the tank and once it fell to 4.0 I added some more to get it back higher. Once the bacteria consums it and it hits 0 ppm when I check it, then I will add a full dose for the rest of the cycle to keep it at 5.0

I think that cutting it in half isnt a good idea because you are then reducing the ammount of ammonia for the bacteria (same idea as if you dont add a full load of fish right away) and thus when you add fish the bacteria will only be use to handling 2.5 ppm of ammonia as opposed to continuing full doses for the duration adn being able to support 5.0 ppm worth of ammonia.

 

[jiffy]

Just a little update. 13 days and still no nitrites. Infact, my ammonia has barely dropped still and has yet to hit 0.