Restarting Tank

Adding the ammonia won't do any harm since your nitrite reading is so low. The danger is when nitrite is still building up and more ammonia could push nitrite high enough to stall the cycle. This isn't the case here 

Ok, emergency time. Until yesterday I was putting in 3ppm ammonia and when checking was getting figures between .25 and .50ppm. Yesterday my nitrite was zero but for some reason my ammonia was 1.24ppm. So topped up with ammonia and tested and had 2.91ppm. Tested today and ammonia is 1.58ppm, nitrites nil.
So where have the ammonia eaters gone?

First of all, don't panic. You are dealing with biological entities which never stick to a line on a graph.

I know you want to get fish - we all get very impatient waiting for cycles to finish. The nitrites are zero because for some reason your ammonia eaters are only making a small amount of nitrite and you have enough nitrite eaters to deal with that.

How do you feel about doing a water change? A fairly big water change. Then wait till ammonia is very low, and redose ammonia.




You posted again while I was typing - yes the pH drop could have a lot to do with it. Definitely do a water change as that will get your pH back up.
Remind me, do we know what your KH is? And what does your nitrate read as? If you have low KH and lots of nitrate (which is acidic), that would account for the pH drop. A water change will remove nitrate and replenish KH.

So Nitrate is 82ppm. A little difficult with the KH Test due to the light but could be anywhere between 0 and 3, would guess 2 so is a sizeable drop.

So with those figures I guess a water change is the way to go.

Are you using test strips or a liquid test to measure KH? The reason I'm asking is because I find the test strips inflate KH and GH quite considerably, while liquid tests for KH are much more accurate. If it's a liquid test kit, then a tip I learned from Sue and which works really well, is to put 10ml rather than 5ml of water in the test tube, then count the number of drops and divide by 2 - it's much easier to see in the event of a borderline reading.

Hi I am using a liquid test, API. The light in my room isn't great at night but will test today before water change.

So have done about a 90% water change today and figures are as follows

PH 7.2
KH 3 ( will test tap water as sure it was 5)
Ammonia 0.10ppm
Nitrate 9ppm (Although 12 out of tap)

Will add in 3ppm ammonia and test tomorrow. Should I be worried by the low KH? Any things I need to plan for?

What if I'm not adding live plants. Could I still add fertiliser?
My new tank is 12 days into cycle, would it be beneficial to put bicarb of soda in that one? And if so, how much?

So tested today after my ph drop. Ammonia was 0ppm and nitrites were 0.80ppm which seems to show things havent been hurt by the drop. And nitrites seem to be heading in right direction. Will add 3ppm ammonia and test again tomorrow.

You only need to have both zero 24 hours after adding 3 ppm ammonia once. So if you add 3 ppm today and they are both zero tomorrow, you are cycled.

Did you add any bicarb?

You give your tank nitrate at 30 - what is your tap water nitrate? If it is lower, you will need to do a water change as nitrates are best kept below 20 ppm, tap water level permitting. (By that I mean that the lowest a water change can get it is the level of nitrate in your tap water)