Am I Doing Something Wrong !

If your ammonia is dropping, it has to be going somewhere.

1. In a plain tank with no plants or any mature media, it has to turn into nitrite.
2. In a tank with plants, the plants could be using it.
3. In a tank with a bit of mature media, there could be enough nitrite eaters to use the nitrite as quickly as it is made.
4. In a tank with plants and a bit of mature media, both 2 and 3 could be happening together.

Which of these scenarios is your tank?

If it is 1, you could try a nitrite dilution test. Without using distilled/RO/DI water and very accurate measuring equipment the results will only be very approximate but will tell you if you are getting a false zero and your nitrite is off the top of the scale. Mix tank and tap water in the ratio 1:4 and test again. If you get a reading somewhere on the scale, you'll know pure tank water is off the top of the scale. If it is still zero, that is a true reading.

If the media was mature, it seems as though you had some bacteria, just not enough for 3ppm's worth of ammonia (assuming that's what you dosed 6 days ago). What I think is happening is that you had some of both bacteria. The ammonia took 6 days to drop as there weren't enough of the ammonia eaters to get rid of all the ammonia straight away. They started by getting rid of a bit, and making a bit of nitrite; then as they multiplied they got rid of more and more, making an increasing amount of nitrite. The nitrite eaters may not have been present in any great numbers at the start but there were enough to cope with the small amount of nitrite made by the ammonia eaters. As the amount of nitrite increased, they too multiplied to keep up with the extra nitrite.

What is your nitrate doing, compared to your tapwater level? I know it's not a very accurate test but if it is going up it means you have nitrite being made and then turned into nitrate.

If your nitrate is going up, I would add another 3ppm dose tomorrow and measure both ammonia and nitrite every day.
If ammonia drops to zero but nitrite shows up, wait a couple of days and add 1ppm's worth ammonia and test again after 2 days. Continue like this until nitrite falls below 1ppm, then add a 3ppm dose and test after 24 hours. If both are then zero, your cycle will have finished.
If both are zero 24 hours after tomorrow's dose, add another 3ppm dose to check they are both zero the next day to confirm the cycle has finished.


Even having a few bacteria in the media can speed up a cycle enormously. It's getting them started that's the slow bit.

confused , my ammonia has been sitting at around 1 ppm since tuesday (dosed up to 3ppm on monday tested to make sure was 3ppm half hour after adding )
have been testing daily and after the ammonia drop on first night it has been constant all week and no sine of nitrites althow i was assuming this was because of same reasons we discussed earlier in this post , i have been monitoring my nitrates all week and they have been riseing today tested they was over 80 ppm and i noticed my ph has was drooping was 6.0  worried that nitrates was getting very high and that the ph was droping so quickly i did a 20 percent water change, (hope this was the right thing to do  )
i have also tested a cup of tap water and a bottle of mineral water and noticed that my ammonia colours must be slightly off on the chart or my eyes are of to the makers of api as both tap water and mineral water looked more .25 ammonia colour to me than 0
now i feel confused and lost 

yes once i had done the water change i remembered reading a post on her mention about low kh being a possible cause for a ph crash so i rushed out to get a kh tester and gh tester came with it , have tested the tap water with it and if i worked it all out right it is 3 degrees so yes please if i could have the dosage rates i would be grateful (if i understand right thow i cant use bicarbonate soda once i have fish what should i use then ) .

thank you sue for the help its really good to have