Help with fishless cycle (nitrates, no nitrites)

I'm so confused and hope you guys can help. We upgraded our 5g to a 10g tank and are doing a fishless cycle before adding a new beta. I'm so confused though about whether i need to start over or just wait longer. The PH is 7.4 and the temp is 79-80. I used filter media from our old tank and also used Tetra Safe Start Plus. I also got Dr. Tim's ammonia and have been using that. The problem is that I just don't understand where we are in the cycle if anywhere. We got nitrates right away. Those have stayed about 20 ppm. Nitrites are at zero and have stayed there. Ammonia has ranged between 1-2 ppm depending on the day. The highest I have recorded it is 4 ppm. I have dosed it to 4 ppm and it might go down to 2 or so but it has never gone down to zero. The past three days, the testing has been the same, with 0 nitrites, 20 ppm nitrates, 2 ammonia, and ph 7.4. Do I need to start over? Keep waiting? Add some other beneficial bacteria? Keep dosing ammonia? (I have not changed the water, though I've had to add some water to keep it at a good level for the filter. I dechlorinated the water before use).

Thanks in advance. I did search the forums but couldn't find my exact problem.

Brenda

 

How long has the tank been going?

 

i started it up around May 20.

 

When you say you upgraded, did you bring over the biomedia and stuff?

Either way despite the more common chart you may see where nitrite has to appear during a cycle, in reality this is not the case. Absolutely you can have a cycle without nitrite appearing.

 

I did bring over the little bag of ceramic rings that was in the previous tank, hoping it would help kick start the cycle.

I had read that you don't always have nitrites, but my ammonia isn't going down, and I wondered if I had messed it up somehow. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now. Should I be adding more ammonia even when it is already at 2 or 4? Or changing the water? Or just be patient and wait and do nothing but test?

 

You may be adding too much ammonia. The bioload in your 5gal tank probably wasn't that high, and when you dosed to 4ppm of ammonia, you just didn't have enough ammonia converting bacteria to handle all that ammonia. I think that high of an ammonia level probably killed off some (if not all) of your TSS+ bacteria.

If it were me, I would just let the tank sit until the ammonia drop to 0ppm, then maybe add enough ammonia to bring the ammonia level to 1ppm and see how long it takes to process the 1ppm of ammonia.

 

I did bring over the little bag of ceramic rings that was in the previous tank, hoping it would help kick start the cycle.

I had read that you don't always have nitrites, but my ammonia isn't going down, and I wondered if I had messed it up somehow. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now. Should I be adding more ammonia even when it is already at 2 or 4? Or changing the water? Or just be patient and wait and do nothing but test?

How long does ammonia take to go from 4 to 2? That may explain whether or not the ammonia being ‘stuck’ at 2ppm is reasonable.

Are you just using dechlorinated tap water or something like RO water?

 

I'm using dechlorinated tap water. I believe it took about two days for it to change from 4 to 2.