cycling

[Miriam Badou]

I have a chop2 system with 3 growbeads and a 300 gal. fish tank. I've been cycling for about 3 1/2 weeks. I have includud some media from another system that was fully cycled. My nitrates are at 80 and my nitrites are at zero. My ammonia is staying at .50. I add ammonia every evening to bring it up to 2-4 ppm but it never drops to zero. I have not added any fish because I was told that the ammonia should drop to zero. It has been this way for almost a week. Any suggestions.

[Bart]

What happens if you give it a couple days without adding any ammonia?

 

I'm wondering if the media bed isn't quite big enough for the amout you are adding so might take it a couple days.

I'm no expert, just calling it like I see it

[John Cubit]

It took 30 days for my ammonia to actually hit 0 and stay and another 3 weeks for the Nitrite to Nitrate conversion to start.  Two months to fully cycle to a stable condition.