Fishless cycle, ammonia levels?

[Fishfaced]

Could someone please help with this query?
I'm cycling a tank using fish flakes, 3 weeks in at the moment. My ammonia is at 2.0ppm, nitrite is 0.25ppm and nitrate is around 5ppm. I obviously have decaying food sat on my sand and sponge filter. Should I stop adding food now and wait to see my nitrites rise, or keep adding food?

 

[Colin_T]

Stop adding food and let the nitrite go up and come back down.

Don't bother testing for nitrates until the tank has cycled because nitrate test kits read nitrite as nitrate and give you a false reading.

 

[Fishfaced]

Makes sense. Thank you.

 

[Fishfaced]

Once it's cycled and I come to do a water change is it best to try and get ALL the rotting food out as well?

 

[Essjay]

You need to remove the food before it rots, so remove it now.


One way to use fish food is to put some in a container of water and when there is ammonia in the water add the water to the tank. That way the rotting food doesn't go into the tank.



When using fish food as the source of ammonia you can't know how many bacteria have grown, so the tank must be stocked slowly. Once the cycle has finished, get a few fish and test for ammonia and nitrite every day. If they stay at zero for a week, get the next few fish and test every day. Continue until the tank is fully stocked.
If at any time ammonia and/or nitrite read above zero, do water changes to get them down and don't get more fish until they stay at zero for 7 days.

 

[Fishfaced]

Ok thanks for the advise. I'll get it vacuumed out now.