Restarting Tank

Patience is not my strong point, and tank cycling is the thing that that frustrates me the most.

I think it is the lack of progress sometimes. The ammonia bacteria seem to be working and so are some nitrites but they don't seem to be multiplying, seems the same results over the last 6 days.

Try giving them a stern talking to, that might help. 

Have you added any more ammonia in the last couple of days?

Ah, you did add ammonia. That explains the increase in nitrite.

You added 3 ppm ammonia , added to the 0.08 which was already there, and you have 0.43 ppm left after 24 hours. That is, 2.65 ppm ammonia have been converted into nitrite, and that amount of ammonia makes 7.1 ppm nitrite. You have enough nitrite eaters to drop the nitrite level from 7.21 (the amount made plus what was already there) to 1.77 in 24 hours.

You just need to grow a few more.

The trouble is that our test kits are not totally accurate. It is very difficult to get the volume of test water exactly the same every time, and drop sizes can also vary. And the dose of ammonia could also be slightly different every time.
If you were just using the colour charts by eye, the zero colour would be a definite blue, but any amount of nitrite up to 0.25 would just look pale purple. If you were just measuring nitrite by eye, all these readings would look the same. It's only because you are using a colorimeter that you can see such tiny differences. It is quite likely that the rest of us have the same thing happen, it's just that we can't tell with a test kit read by eye.

I would just wait a bit longer. On average it takes at least twice as long to grow enough nitrite eaters as it does ammonia eaters. You may have had some ammonia eaters survive since the tank last had water, but not as many nitrite eaters survive.

Test every day until the day ammonia is below 0.25 and nitrite is below 1.0. Then add another 3 ppm ammonia and continue testing every day. Continue like this till they are both zero 24 hours after adding ammonia.

So Nitrite is 0.93ppm today. But ammonia is showing 0.37ppm. Should I add ammonia or wait till it drops below 0.25. Visually I would say ammonia looks like 0.25ppm if that helps.

Being slightly impatient I tested again now, Nitrite down to 0.33ppm and ammonia 0.37ppm. Would you still wait or would you top ammonia back to 3ppm?

With those readings, add it now 

Ok, topped back to 3ppm and will test this time tomorrow.

Did you repeat the test? All sorts of things can give false readings - miscounting drops, tube not as clean as it should be etc.
I wouldn't have thought leaving the top of a bottle for such a short time (I assume it was 24 hours?) shouldn't do too much harm.

If 2 gave the same result, I don't think a third is necessary. Even if it was different, you would still have 2 out of 3 the same.

I would wait till tomorrow, see what the results are then and if ammonia has dropped, add another 3 ppm. But this time, test the tank water after half an hour to see if the reading is 3 ppm. If it's higher, that will show something wrong with the tester.