Originally Posted by CHoffman

Still cycling my 10 gallon..but I'm confused about something. So I'm adding the 3 drops of ammonia a day because I have Nitrite readings now..It says in the instructions for cycling with ammonia that once you have Nitrate reading your tank is ready after a water change..Does that mean I don't have to wait for the nitrites to be 0??..I'm still gettin HIGH reading of ammonia and 1 for Nitrite..Or do I wait for both these to be 0..Or will they ever be 0 since I'm adding ammonia??..Just confused on what to do next. Thanks guys...FYI I did put in established gravel and was getting the nitrite levels on day 1.

Originally Posted by Peterpiper

The method you are using will take some time to complete.
I would stop adding ammonia now and test every 2nd day, once the ammonia falls to 0-0.5 add enough ammonia to bring the reading back to 2ppm. Once the bacteria uses 2ppm of ammonia within a 12hr period then start checking for nitrites ( you still need to bring the ammonia level up to 2ppm each day ).
Once you get a reading of 0 for ammonia and nitrite 12hrs after adding the ammonia, the tank is cycled. do a 100% WC and stock within 48hrs

Originally Posted by steveangela1

Is your other tank cycled? If so you can take some filter media and put it in the filter of the new tank, it will help speed the cycle up bacteria wise.

Originally Posted by CHoffman

Hmmm..So since I've only been adding 3 drops can I bump it back up to the 10 I was using....My ammonia test is showing 8 which is the highest it goes..So not sure how much I have in there right now...So really just need to wait untill everything but nitrates is back to 0

Originally Posted by Peterpiper

If you think your ammonia is off the charts and you want to know what the readings are you can do the following, but you need one of the liquid test kits.
If the test kit says to put 10ml of tank water in the tub, only put 5ml in and top it to the 10ml mark with RO or Distilled water and test as per directions.
Now if the test shows 7ppm, your true reading will be 14ppm.. ie as you tested 50% tank water, the reading will be 50%

Originally Posted by Alessa

What I did at the same exact point of the fishless cycle was to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels down with water changes and add only when they went to 0. If they remain off the charts for too long the cycle might come to a halt and slow things down a lot because bacteria becomes overwhelmed by so much food...

and regarding the other tank... I'd just disconnect the heater and bring the temps down... so hot is bad for the fish and the oxygen in the water becomes depleted.