Cycling

[Squirrelbuddies]

Hello - I am in the midst of a fishless cycling of a 55 gallon tank. Today is the 7th day and nitrite is still at zero. Ammonia is between 2.0-4.0ppm. Is it typical for the nitrite to still be at zero after a week?

I also have a 20 gallon which was cycled with fish (which i won't do again) and that one took 6 weeks to get a nitrite reading. However, the ammonia never went over 0.50ppm so it makes sense it took the nitrite that long.

The 55 gallon has live plants from the lfs and I added a plastic plant from the 20 gallon....Also, the temperature is at 80F. Based on other posts, it seems the nitrite appears (for most) after the third day or so...

 

[StarOrbs]

I started getting nitrite on the 8th day of fishless cycling. Then it started increasing until today when it seems to have maxed out.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Excellent! Maybe something will start happening tomorrow!

Also, regarding the Emperor 400 -- should I be using the 2 extra media containers during cycling? Currently, I only have the two filter cartridges in there.