Fishless Cycle Help

Howdy,

I am in the process of cycling my new 55 gallon aquarium. I’m using pure ammonia, and everything seemed to be going perfectly, but I feel like I’m seeing nitrates waayyy too early.
I dose my aquarium up to about 4-5 ppm of ammonia, and the tank cycles through it within 24 hours. Nitrites are now through the roof, but the strange thing is that it seems like my nitrates are too.
I am only about 10 days into the cycle, and my nitrates are over 100 ppm and my nitrites are still super high, as well. Should I perform a PWC to get nitrates down? Did I do something wrong?

 

I would do at least a 50% water change and let it keep cycling

 

I agree with the water change, sometimes having too high levels of nitrite/nitrate can stall the cycle, my nitrites got too high one time and harmed my ammonia eating bacteria giving me a new ammonia spike.
Best of luck.,

 

I agree with the water change, sometimes having too high levels of nitrite/nitrate can stall the cycle, my nitrites got too high one time and harmed my ammonia eating bacteria giving me a new ammonia spike.
Best of luck.,

After I do the water change, should I add more ammonia? Or should I just wait until tomorrow morning when I usually do my ammonia additions?

 

If you have already dosed ammonia, leave it till tomorrow this means that around 2ppm of ammonia should still remain after a water change. If you haven't, dose 2ppm.
Your ammonia eating bacteria seems matured, it is processing large amounts of ammonia to nitrite.....but your nitrite eating bacteria is still too young to keep up and is becoming overwhelmed, it's definitely doing its job...just slower than your other bacteria.
While you would;d think the nitrite eating bacteria would love such high nitrites, there has been studies showing that really high levels may slow down the reproductive rate of the bacteria. Like too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.
I honestly think the nitrite bacteria will catch up to the larger ammonia colony regardless but if you are worried about the cycle slowing/stalling you could lower the ammonia dose slightly (3ppm) for a few days to allow the nitrite bacteria to catch up to the same level as your ammonia one. You can then slowly increase up to your desired 4/5ppm dose.
All the best.