How high should ammonia spike??

[jds61403]

My 29g tank is cycling and is about two weeks into the process. I'm wondering how high should my ammonia have gotten because I never saw a reading above 1.0 I began cycling with some pre-cured live rock from SWF (20-25 lbs.) and didn't test until about day three (may have been a mistake). For the past week I have gotten very high nitrites and about 20 on the nitrates, ammonia hovering around 0.5 Did I miss the spike? Should I do something to introduce more ammonia??? Thanks for the help!

 

[tim_12]

Depending on what you plan on adding first it could go either way. If its something small you can add something to help the cycle along like "Cycle" (got mine done in a week). Then once your ammonia and nitrite are at 0, do a water change to lower your nitrates and add one fish. If you're adding something a little bigger, toss in a shrimp for a day or two to boost the ammonia. Then you can let your amonia and nitrite drop, do your water change and add your fish.

 

[saltfan]

Originally Posted by jds61403
My 29g tank is cycling and is about two weeks into the process. I'm wondering how high should my ammonia have gotten because I never saw a reading above 1.0 I began cycling with some pre-cured live rock from SWF (20-25 lbs.) and didn't test until about day three (may have been a mistake). For the past week I have gotten very high nitrites and about 20 on the nitrates, ammonia hovering around 0.5 Did I miss the spike? Should I do something to introduce more ammonia??? Thanks for the help!
Don't do anything, your cycle is right in front of you. Tites very high, trates at 20, the bacteria is still growing. Your doing fine.

 

[glowplug]

depending on your test kit, I think you are still in your TRIte spike, that can give a high trate reading when there really isnt any trate, If you are not in a major hurry (haha yeah right) I would at least start ghost feeding- Ive heard you need to keep SOME ammo source in there and it sounded like good logic to me cause when you throw in a fish its going to give off ammo--if you dont have enough good bacteria you could get a mini spike, on the other hand if there has been a constant source of ammo like decaying uneaten food- then when your levels hit zero you will have that much more ammo processing ability -- worked like a charm for me