tank not cycling?

[Iliveinazoo]

Cycling a tank just requires an ammonia source which means that you could just throw a prawn in and wait for it to begin to decay because ammonia is released when the prawn decays?
I have a tank cycling at the moment - I have used the water and media from an existing tank and i've thrown in a frozen food cube for good measure. It's been cycling for 2 weeks and the ammonia has fallen to about 0.3 and the nitrite is between 2 and 4, I haven't checked the nitrate yet because I don't see the point in checking until the nitrite begins to reduce.
The trick is to monitor the ammonia level once it has begun to fall and keep it at about 0.1 (by adding additional sources) until the nitrite reduces, then do a large water change, check your parameters and depending on the results add fish - it worked for my last tank!
It sounds like your bacteria is producing nitrates and is therefore on the way to cycling, i would suggest that if there isn't any animal life in your tank at the moment then you should try adding more ammonia (in a larger dose) which will therefore feed the ammonia consuming bacteria which will produce more food for the nitrite consuming bacteria which will produce nitrate.

Just keep in mind that ammonia and nitrite are food for bacteria and they are not bad things until the animal life is added. If one of the food sources is reduced to zero then the bacteria will starve and die.

[edmlfc1]

It took my nitrites about 2-3 weeks before it went to 0. You just have to have patience.

[Pufferpunk]

Write back when you get a better test kit.

[side19]

ok yeah i figured i'd just have to wait. and i'm getting a new test kit on friday (payday). hopefully the tank will be cycled then. thanks.

[Pufferpunk]

Just keep doing what you're doing until then.

[side19]

sorry i ahevn't been on a while. work as been crazy and having two jobs that both don't give you set hours is very hard to work around. anyway i thought i woudl let you know i ahd the store test my water with liquid test kits and ammonia and nitrites are both 0 and nitrat4es are <20ppm. the bad news is the store dones't haev any F8s left anymore (a power outage cuased a mass die out of the tank they were in, there's almost nothign in it now) and i don't know when they'll be g etting more. i'll just keep adding small amounts of ammonia to keep the tank ticking over untill they get some new F8s. thansk for the help everyone.

[Pandora]

Aww that is rotten luck can they order them in for you?

[side19]

yeah they can. they said they'd order at least one for me becuase they see me come in very day to look at the little guys and see how they're doing. they said they didn't know how long it would be until they got then though becuase each week the catalogue they get changes and might not have them in it until the following week. i just hope its soon.