Seeking Advice on Tank Cycling

[colinmc32]

Hello, I am in the process of cycling a new tank for the past week and a half now. I have another tank that I tried to use the sponge filter on the new tank to help speed up the cycle. I dosed with Dr Tims ammonium chloride solution (5 drops each time for my 5 gal), but thats it. My readings are currently: 25-.5 ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nitrite, 5-10 ppm Nitrate. Ammonia readings have been fairly consisten over the last few days, which leads me to believe i am not yet cycled. I am confused as to why there are no nitrites appearing on any of my readings over the last week. I tested my tap water to confirm there are no Nitrates present (came up 0 ppm). Is it possible that the tank is “mostly” cycled? Ive read on other posts here that the nitrite -> nitrate bacteria can take longer to establish than the Ammonia->nitrite. But again that confuses me because I am seeing Nitrates already. Thanks for the help!

 

[Heron]

Sounds like the bacteria that convert nitrite to nitrate have multiplied as quickly as the ammonia eating ones so the nitrites are being converted to nitrates as soon as they are produced. I have cycled a lot of tanks and this often happens especially when you use media from cycled tanks. This is a good thing. Keep an eye on the ammonia, when this drops to 0 your pretty much cycled

 

[mattgirl]

It isn't at all unusual to not see nitrites when using seeded media from your previously cycled tank. You have moved both ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria to this tank. Had you gone ahead and added fish you probably never would have gotten an ammonia reading either.

By adding all that ammonia all at the same time the ammonia eating bacteria is having to work overtime to clear it out. Had you added a fish it would have been adding just a tiny bit of ammonia at a time and the bacteria would have been able to clean it up as it was being produced.