Friends gravel to help start my cycle but he has

[MaddEnemy]

I asked my neighbor for some gravel and he was helpful, he gave me some gravel in a bucket of water.

He has fish in his tank

I tested the water and his Ammonia was around 5
Nitrite around 5 or 6
Nitrate around 8

So it tells me his tank has not cycled.

I am doing a fishless cycle but have no Nitrites, should I still add the gravel to jump start mine?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Adding old water does not help at all. Gravel from a cycled tank would help but I don't know about an uncycled. I doubt it will do anything as your friend obviously doesn't have the bacteria they need to get the correct levels.

 

[yhbae]

He does have nitrates in his tank, so perhaps his filtering capacity is grossly under filtered? If that is the case, I guess his gravel will help.

But you should let your friend know about his water, he's going to kill all the fishes in his tank soon...