Help Fishless Cycle

I have a 10 gallon doing a fishless cycle I started with feeding it fish food once the ammonia reaches 4ppm I stopped feeding it everyday with fish food nitrites showed up on apI test about 3 weeks in to 1ppm and nitrates to 20ppm ammonia didnt drop still 4ppm I left it alone completely at this point stop feeding it all together nitrites still were high and so was nitrates ammonia same... today I fo the apI test on the tank still not feeding anymore ammonia source in a week or so to my fishless tank nitrites dropped to 0.25 ammonia 4ppm still around ppm and nitrates between 10 and 20ppm. Why are my nitrites dropping but ammonia staying at 4ppm after 5 weeks even with the rise is nitrites and nitrates should I do a vac gravel to maybe remove food will that help or will that kill off my nitrates and nitrites n ruin my cycle process whys the ammonia staying at 4ppm through out the cycle I test basically every day with liquid apI test my nitrates have spiked and lowered and my nitrates have became readable is this normal

 

Ok. So you should definitely do a water change, and maybe switch to a fish cycle instead of a fishless cycle which isn't really recommended. I think that you shouldn't overdo with the tests, and that you should do about a 50% water change and gravel vac.
From what it seems you're too worried about ammonia and nitrate and nitrite levels even though you have no fish, which means it shouldn't be a worry at all. Cycling like this is not recommended, and you are definitely overdoing the tests and getting overwhelmed. You should get some fish, reset the tank and do a fish cycle.
If you don't want to accept my advice, I suggest you do a water change.

 

I think if I were you, I would continue the fishless cycle. I would vacuum all the fish food from the substrate and instead of using fish food, use Dr. Tim’s ammonium chloride. I’m currently cycling a 20 gallon tank the fishless way with that along with Dr. Tim’s One and Only and it working perfectly. I think your ammonia should start dropping to 0 slowly if you that. If that doesn’t work, I gusss you would have to reset the tank all over again. But if you do, it’s gonna be worth it.

 

that's the problem with using food, it continues to break down and release more ammonia. and you can't control how much it releases.

 

I think if I were you, I would continue the fishless cycle. I would vacuum all the fish food from the substrate and instead of using fish food, use Dr. Tim’s ammonium chloride. I’m currently cycling a 20 gallon tank the fishless way with that along with Dr. Tim’s One and Only and it working perfectly. I think your ammonia should start dropping to 0 slowly if you that. If that doesn’t work, I gusss you would have to reset the tank all over again. But if you do, it’s gonna be worth it.

So if I restart the fish cycle can I just use the cavity gravel n remove all food till ammonia drops down n the order so dr Tim's does amazon ship it

 

I have a 10 gallon doing a fishless cycle I started with feeding it fish food once the ammonia reaches 4ppm I stopped feeding it everyday with fish food nitrites showed up on apI test about 3 weeks in to 1ppm and nitrates to 20ppm ammonia didnt drop still 4ppm I left it alone completely at this point stop feeding it all together nitrites still were high and so was nitrates ammonia same... today I fo the apI test on the tank still not feeding anymore ammonia source in a week or so to my fishless tank nitrites dropped to 0.25 ammonia 4ppm still around ppm and nitrates between 10 and 20ppm. Why are my nitrites dropping but ammonia staying at 4ppm after 5 weeks even with the rise is nitrites and nitrates should I do a vac gravel to maybe remove food will that help or will that kill off my nitrates and nitrites n ruin my cycle process whys the ammonia staying at 4ppm through out the cycle I test basically every day with liquid apI test my nitrates have spiked and lowered and my nitrates have became readable is this normal

I've done a fish cycle n killed all fish wen ammonia rises I use danios to cycle and got 2 wen they turned pale n died gasping for air at the top I decided to never do a fish cycle I am not tripping about ammonia or nitrites in fact in tripping with ammonia won't drop or spike so I'm thinking it's so high its killing off nitrite and nitrates

 

Gravel vac all of the fish food out of there. Get a bottle of ammonia and use it instead of fish food. You want your nitrites to rise and then go back to zero. Once that happens you should never see nitrites again. Once the tank completes its cycle the only thing you will see is nitrates as they are the final product of the cycling process.

The reason your ammonia is staying close to the same is because you don't have enough bacteria in there yet to take care of all the ammonia the fish food is constantly putting in there.

I feel sure the reason your original fish died was because you weren't doing water changes often enough. When doing a fish in cycle 'specially in a tank this small water changes have to be done almost every day to protect the fish.

 

Yes Amazon ships the Dr Tims ammonium chloride. I wouldn't necessarily start the cycle over, I'd just do a good gravel vac to get rid of as much of the fish food as possible, then maybe a 50% water change. Order the Dr. Tims & keep checking water, if nitrates are high do another water change & when ammona starts to go back down then start dosing the Dr. Tims to your desired level.

I think your problem is (as the above poster pointed out) that you still have fish food putting of ammonia as fast as your bacteria can process it. Clean out the fish food & start using the more controllable pure ammonia & I think things will normalize.

 

Yeah the fish foods probably just still breaking down. Sounds like you have the tank partially cycled the bacteria is just multiplying right now. If you gravel vacuumed I bet the ammonia would go away. I tend to be a lazy low tech fish keeper and I would personally just let it keep doing it's thing then gravel vacuum well before adding fish but like others said it's much easier to see how the cycles progressing with bottled ammonia do what you feel is best for you. Just be sure to gravel vac well before any fish are added.

 

Yeah the fish foods probably just still breaking down. Sounds like you have the tank partially cycled the bacteria is just multiplying right now. If you gravel vacuumed I bet the ammonia would go away. I tend to be a lazy low tech fish keeper and I would personally just let it keep doing it's thing then gravel vacuum well before adding fish but like others said it's much easier to see how the cycles progressing with bottled ammonia do what you feel is best for you. Just be sure to gravel vac well before any fish are added.

Lol yes someone told me at petsmart to use fishfood as a cheap ammonia source n eventually itll stop releasing ammonia

Yes Amazon ships the Dr Tims ammonium chloride. I wouldn't necessarily start the cycle over, I'd just do a good gravel vac to get rid of as much of the fish food as possible, then maybe a 50% water change. Order the Dr. Tims & keep checking water, if nitrates are high do another water change & when ammona starts to go back down then start dosing the Dr. Tims to your desired level.

I think your problem is (as the above poster pointed out) that you still have fish food putting of ammonia as fast as your bacteria can process it. Clean out the fish food & start using the more controllable pure ammonia & I think things will normalize.

So how much water change should I perform I have prime conditioner and tetra start I use prime for my tank with fish in it and in my tank doing the fishless cycle I use tetra bc I don't want to detox the ammonia and nitrites if there isn't a reason to what do u think I should use prime on the fishless cycling tank also could it help it cycle plus I ordered some ammonia from amazon prime the dr Tim's what mml do u think I can measure out for the 10 gal itll be here Tomorrow or Wednesday should I do a 20% water change Tomorrow add in some fresh water with conditioner and then use like 1mml of ammonia

 

I would do a 50% water change, then I would run all your water tests again, if your nitrites &/or nitrates are high or ph is low I would do another 50% water change. I would just keep an eye on ammonia for a couple days until it starts to come down. Once it drops down below .5 ppm then I would add the Dr. Tims back up to about 2 ppm. Once you can dose to 2ppm & have no ammonia or nitrites 24 hrs later you are cycled & can start to slowly add fish.

I don't think the prime is necessary for a fishless cycle, don't get me wrong you need some type of water conditioner & if you have prime that will work great. However the big advantage to prime over other water conditioners is detoxifying ammonia so it doesn't hurt your fish. Doing a fishless cycle this isn't a concern as there aren't any fish to be hurt. By the time your tank is cycled it should be able to process the ammonia & therefore there is no ammonia for prime to detoxify. However a lot of people like to use it as a safety net, in case something does go wrong & an ammonia spike happens the prime will keep your fish safe.

If you got the Dr. Tims it has pretty easy dosing instructions on the bottle. Basically tells you to add so many drops per gallon of tank water to dose to 2 ppm. (or it converts to ml too if that's easier for you to measure) I found it easier to use an eye dropper & just count drops, especially on a smaller tank. But even having to add something like 60-120 drops into a 45 gallon I found that way much easier to get an accurate dosing.

 

I happened to look up the tetra water conditioner earlier today and it removed both chlorine and cloramine so it's totally safe for a fish less cycle even if your city happens to use cloramine.