Cycle Help

[IlliniMed]

Hello all!

I've always started new tanks with live rock but wanted to try to do one from "almost" nothing to avoid hitchhikers.

I have a 25lagoon w/ 20 pounds of carribsea life rock, carribsea "live" sand, and some turbostart x 2 dose at the start 3.5 weeks ago. I am using Dr. Tim's ammonia

I cant seem to get nitrite to go away completely or when I think its cycled it comes back

My ammonia will dissapear within 24 hours however Nitrites go SKY high (1-2 ) but my Nitrates are HIGH as well so i know the cycle is working (checked today around 80-160). It will take the Nitrite 2-4 days to go away completely so i'll half the ammonia and its the same thing every time.

Am I doing anything wrong? I'm so confused. I did a water change today because the nitrates were so high.

 

[Cell]

Nitrates cannot be accurately measured in the presence of nitrite. Nitrite is not harmful to marine fish. If your ammonia is being processed in 24 hours, you are fine to start stocking slowly.