Cycle question

Hiya, havent been on for a while but have been cracking on with the cycle as mentioned earlier. I've got some prawns and fish food decaying in a pair of tights in the tank, and slowly the ammonia has built up in level. Now I need a bit of help.

The build up of ammonia has happened slowly, I guess because the stuff has been rotting. it has slowly gone up from 0 and is now 2, but I also have a hint of Nitrite too which is a bit strange. I dont want to add any more food into the tank because it is steadily going up so it must be doing something.

Do you think thats the right thing to do. Also, does it make any difference to the cycle if you build the ammonia up slowly rather than loading it up to 5 right from scratch?

Thanks

Well done hillsbent on sticking with this - I changed over to ammonia after a while.

I think I would add a bit more food to the tank and get the level up a bit, to keep the process going.

The fact that you are building the ammonia up slowly doesnt matter. The bacteria will still be growing, although only enough to cope with whatever level your ammonia gets to -ie if it stays at 2, then when you add a load of fish you mayy get a hike in the ammonia level in your tank - does that make sense? :lol:

That's why I would add a bit more food and get the ammonia level up nearer to 5

I think even with using prawns you are best to get the level as near as possible to 5 as you can.

Out of curiosity, does the rotting stuff really make things stinky?? i would hate to have all that rotting in my living room