fishless cycling 20g long

[Friendlyfishies]

I know cycles can take nearly a month, but I just dont feel like im making any headway. Im trying to cycle my 20 gallon long, its been running for 2 week with ammonia, filter, heater, gravel and driftwood. I did add some extra ammo carb to the filter cartridge before starting, not sure if this is altering my cycle?
Its a 40 gallon filter.

I dose my ammonia when it get downs to like .5 or 1...I accidently over dosed two days ago to a little more than 2 but it only reads like 2 now...i dont think its ever been 4+ since I started.

My Nitrite and Nitrate isnt moving at all :/

Should I see more changes yet? Am I missing a step? Is there anything I could do to help get it moving?

I dont have any extra established filters so I really have to do this from scratch. Should I get some bottled BB from the petstore and add it?

[Freyja]

You could try some Tetra Safestart or Dr. Tims one and only. The ammocarb probably wasnt the best idea since you want your ammonia present. Mine cycled in like 2 weeks with Stability but I started out with seeded substrate fromy LFS planted show tank. I put some gravel in the filter cartridge and mixed in the rest with my gravel. God luck and hang in there.

[LebronTheBetta]

I'm cycling my 20 gallon long as well. I just started like 3-4 days ago. Haha

Well, at first I put in 3ppm. It went down to 1ppm in like, 2 days. Then I added more ammonia to get it to 4ppm and that was just yesterday. I'm going to test later tonight to see the results. The highest you can go for dosing is 6ppm. 2ppm is pretty small so you should dose a little higher. I think you should take out that ammocarb and let the filter be. Add supplements if you want, good luck.

[shellieca]

Originally Posted by Friendlyfishies

I know cycles can take nearly a month, but I just dont feel like im making any headway. Im trying to cycle my 20 gallon long, its been running for 2 week with ammonia, filter, heater, gravel and driftwood. I did add some extra ammo carb to the filter cartridge before starting, not sure if this is altering my cycle?
Its a 40 gallon filter.

I dose my ammonia when it get downs to like .5 or 1...I accidently over dosed two days ago to a little more than 2 but it only reads like 2 now...i dont think its ever been 4+ since I started.

My Nitrite and Nitrate isnt moving at all :/

Should I see more changes yet? Am I missing a step? Is there anything I could do to help get it moving?

I dont have any extra established filters so I really have to do this from scratch. Should I get some bottled BB from the petstore and add it?

2 weeks really isn't that much time so have patience. Starting from scratch will take longer (no seeded material). I don't think you want ammo carb when cycling but I could be wrong, I've never used it so not real familiar with it.

[Wendyjo]

Take the ammo carb out. You don't want to add anything to the tank that removes the ammonia you're adding.

[Wendyjo]

Also, if you're not adding any seeding material (bacteria) then it will probably take longer than a month. All the "from scratch" cycles I've done have taken 6-8 weeks.