Ammonia level not changing during cycle

[iguess09]

I am currently on day 27 of my fishless cycle. I started with marco rock and non live sand for a 2 in sand bed. I used Brightwell Start XLM and added ammonia to around 1.2 ppm per the Red Sea test kit. My question is that after 27 days my ammonia level has not changed but my nitrite level has steadily increased. I'm in no hurry to get through the cycle, but i'm confused as to why the ammonia level has not changed if its being converted to nitrite.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Id suggest a different brand of bacteria.

 

[iguess09]

Id suggest a different brand of bacteria.

Any particular brand?

 

[Dan_P]

I am currently on day 27 of my fishless cycle. I started with marco rock and non live sand for a 2 in sand bed. I used Brightwell Start XLM and added ammonia to around 1.2 ppm per the Red Sea test kit. My question is that after 27 days my ammonia level has not changed but my nitrite level has steadily increased. I'm in no hurry to get through the cycle, but i'm confused as to why the ammonia level has not changed if its being converted to nitrite.

Try BioSpira or Fritz Turbo Start. Ammonia should be gone in several days. Nitrite not so quickly.

The slow accumulation of nitrite means there are ammonia oxidizing bacteria, but they don’t seem to be reproducing very quickly. Is the aquarium water being mixed? They might be oxygen starved.

 

[iguess09]

Try BioSpira or Fritz Turbo Start. Ammonia should be gone in several days. Nitrite not so quickly.

The slow accumulation of nitrite means there are ammonia oxidizing bacteria, but they don’t seem to be reproducing very quickly. Is the aquarium water being mixed? They might be oxygen starved.

Ok, I’ll give one of those a shot. I’ve been using the nitrite to see if anything was happening with the cycle since my ammonia wasn’t showing any changes. I’ve been reading about how unreliable the test kits can be for ammonia, but I would have thought that I would have seen some change to its level with the nitrite climbing.

Yes, I have a Vectra S2 running at 70% and 2 Nero 5s with lots of surface agitation.