Cycle Solved!!

[Iamonslaughtt]

Hey guys!
A couple weeks ago I posted on here out of frustration for my new 30 gallon not cycling. Ive had some pretty sudden developments so I thought I would share! About a month after losing all my Tiger Barbs (bad attempt at fish in cycle) I still had a 4.0 ammonia reading in the tank (using fishfood) with no nitrites or nitrates. After a lot of research I concluded something was prohibiting the bacteria from taking hold; so with that in mind I did a 50% water change with a light vacuum and double dosed prime to dechlorinate the water. My main suspect was my water wasn't fully detoxified due to my tap testing high for ammonia (almost max on apI chart!) Sure enough after double dosing the tank for chlorine, two days later I have a huge nitrite spike at almost 5.0! I tested this morning and I even have 5.0 nitrates now! I have none in the source water so this must be proof of the second bacteria establishing! Is it normal to see nitrates so soon after nitrites? I'm not complaining though lol. After all this I'm 95% sure that some chlorine remained in the tank preventing the cycle and more prime fixed it! Has this happened to anyone else? Btw todays test readings are
PH: 8.0
Amm: 2.0-4.0
Trite: 5.0
Trate: 5.0
I'm beyond excited to finally see some movement, hopefully now that nitrates are here I'm almost done! Thanks for reading!

 

[Tesla]

It surely looks like your first part of bacteria is established- I would suggest couple of things that might help speed it up a bit
Keep feeding ammonia (1-2 ppm) every 2-3 days to keep that bacteria alive and do a water change to keep nitrites around 2ppm, too high nitrites can stall the second part of the cycle. You will need patience, the second part of the cycle usually takes longer.

 

[bitseriously]

Just to be clear, you know that chlorine and ammonia are not the same thing, right? The wording you've used above makes it unclear as to whether you're mixing the two up. When your test kit gives you a high ammonia reading, that's not telling you anything about chlorine.
If your tap water has chloramine (also not the same as chlorine), it can break down into chlorine and ammonia. I'm not sure how that would affect your ammonia test, but I do know that prime neutralizes/removes chloramine as well as chlorine.
Either way, when you treat with a high rate of prime you're a) neutralizing chlorine/chloramine, and b) converting ammonia into compounds that are not toxic to fish but still work as food for your bb. If someone wants to explain this in more detail, I for one am interested in knowing more about it.
I'm no expert on fishless cycling, but I've read here on FL that very high ammonia levels can stall (aka prevent) cycling from taking place. So I'd guess that between your high ammo in the tap water and adding fish food, it was the high ammo levels that were stalling your cycle, and the water change and extra dose of prime that got you over the hump.

 

[Iamonslaughtt]

Just to be clear, you know that chlorine and ammonia are not the same thing, right? The wording you've used above makes it unclear as to whether you're mixing the two up. When your test kit gives you a high ammonia reading, that's not telling you anything about chlorine.
If your tap water has chloramine (also not the same as chlorine), it can break down into chlorine and ammonia. I'm not sure how that would affect your ammonia test, but I do know that prime neutralizes/removes chloramine as well as chlorine.
Either way, when you treat with a high rate of prime you're a) neutralizing chlorine/chloramine, and b) converting ammonia into compounds that are not toxic to fish but still work as food for your bb. If someone wants to explain this in more detail, I for one am interested in knowing more about it.
I'm no expert on fishless cycling, but I've read here on FL that very high ammonia levels can stall (aka prevent) cycling from taking place. So I'd guess that between your high ammo in the tap water and adding fish food, it was the high ammo levels that were stalling your cycle, and the water change and extra dose of prime that got you over the hump.

Just to be clear, you know that chlorine and ammonia are not the same thing, right? The wording you've used above makes it unclear as to whether you're mixing the two up. When your test kit gives you a high ammonia reading, that's not telling you anything about chlorine.
If your tap water has chloramine (also not the same as chlorine), it can break down into chlorine and ammonia. I'm not sure how that would affect your ammonia test, but I do know that prime neutralizes/removes chloramine as well as chlorine.
Either way, when you treat with a high rate of prime you're a) neutralizing chlorine/chloramine, and b) converting ammonia into compounds that are not toxic to fish but still work as food for your bb. If someone wants to explain this in more detail, I for one am interested in knowing more about it.
I'm no expert on fishless cycling, but I've read here on FL that very high ammonia levels can stall (aka prevent) cycling from taking place. So I'd guess that between your high ammo in the tap water and adding fish food, it was the high ammo levels that were stalling your cycle, and the water change and extra dose of prime that got you over the hump.

Thanks for the reply! I am aware of the difference (I think) and my reasoning was in my understanding, ammonia is a byproduct of chlorine/chloramine that is used to treat city water systems. Since my tap consistently reads about 4.0 ammonia, I assumed there was definetely chlorine/chloramine in the water. On the other hand, ive read that chloramine can act as a mild bleach solution which is very harmful to bacteria. I could be 100% wrong, but a lightbulb went off in my head the other day that said hey, maybe we didnt treat the initial water good enough, and there's still some baddies in there hurting my good guys! After double treating the water and changing it and seeing the cycle take off, it only made sense to me lol. Then again I'm pretty much a complete noob at this and just wanted to share my experience. Please do correct any of my misinformation! This hobby is fascinating to me and I want to be the best I can be at it.