Very Clumsy Tank Cycling - Not Sure What Point I'm At Or What To Do Next?

I'm sorry if I'm being dim but i'm still really confused by the fishless cycling technique So yesterday I did a 60% water change and got everything down to

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 1ppm
Nitrate = 20ppm (tap water levels)

Then I added some ammonia to get it back up to 3-4ppm.

Today the values are right back to being crazy again:

Ammonia = 0ppm
Nitrite = 5ppm+
Nitrate = 80ppm+

I am not sure what to do next r.e. the cycling methodology. So yesterday I assumed I was at step 6

6. Follow this routine of testing for both ammonia and nitrite every third day until you reach a day where the ammonia reading is less than 0.75 ppm and the nitrite reading is over 2.0ppm. Add the amount of ammonia you used on the first day to get 3ppm.

So thats what I did. And now the next step is:

7. Now start testing every 2 days.

8. When you have two consecutive tests where ammonia is zero (that is, zero at one test and zero again two days later) add one third of the ammonia that you added originally. Yes, you add less ammonia than you did on the first day as this will stop the nitrite level getting too high.

But i'm so confused...why would ammonia NOT be at 0 both times if you aren't adding ammonia to the water? Does this just mean wait for 4 days and don't put any ammonia in and then add 1/3 of the amount? This is what I meant by needing special help because I'd done this tank cycle so haphazardly! Clearly my ammonia eaters are now at full capacity as they're devouring 4ppm overnight, so am I just waiting for the nitrite spike to go down and meanwhile feeding the ammonia eaters a little bit every few days to make sure that they don't starve?

Again i'm sorry i'm so dumb!

There is also the fact that you don't want to add too much ammonia or nitrite will go above the critical 15 ppm. Once the tester reaches the maximum level it still shows that colour no matter how high it really is.

From stage 6 to 10, you are growing the nitrite eaters. At this stage you have enough, or almost enough, ammonia eaters and you need to feed them every few days to stop them going dormant from lack of food. But you also want to keep the ammonia additions to a minimum or nitrite will get so high it stalls the cycle.

The problem is that every 1ppm ammonia that goes into the tank makes 2.6 ppm nitrite. Every tiny bit of ammonia gets turn into quite a lot of nitrite.
And 1 ppm ammonia eventually ends up as 3.6 ppm nitrate which is why that goes up so quickly once the nitrite eaters start growing.


Since you had already started the cycle and Littlefish says you had some mature media, you already have some nitrite eaters, you just need more of them. You just added 3 ppm ammonia, maybe a tad more. That 3 ppm will turn into about 8 ppm nitrite, and adding the 1 ppm left after the water change gives you 9. This will show as 5 on the tester as that's as high it can read. Because you do have some nitrite eaters, they've turned some of that nitrite into nitrate which is why the nitrate reading has gone up.
Nitrate testers are not terribly accurate. It is difficult to make an accurate one that can be used in the home. The best use of nitrate during cycling is to see if it is going up or staying the same; we can't go by the actual number.
So your test results show:
You have enough ammonia eaters already, you just need to feed them the one third dose every 4th day.
You have some nitrite eaters shown by the increase in nitrate
You need to grow more nitrite eaters, enough to drop nitrite to zero.

Keep testing every 2nd day till you've had 2 zero ammonias, which should be on day 4 after adding the last ammonia going by your previous results, add 1ppm ammonia and test every 2 days again adding more ammonia every 4th day. Keep on doing this until you test and find nitrite is under 1ppm. That is stage #10 and you'll be almost there.