125 gallon cycling complete?

[Fishtanker22]

I've been unable to find an answer anywhere and am hoping I can get guidance here.

I'm 24 days into a heavily planted FISHLESS cycle for my 125 gallon. 

I know I'm almost there in terms of cycling. I used Dr. Tim's Ammonia along with Seachem Stability and Easy Green & Iron.

When my tank finally showed 0-0-20, I redosed ammonia to 2ppm. 24 hrs later the ammonia showed 0, but NITRITES showed 0.25. 

From my understanding, a cycled tank would convert that ammonia to nitrates in 24 hrs.

Instead, it seems to take closer to 48 hrs to convert. 

Questions:

1. Does this mean my tank is not yet fully cycled?

2. Should I keep feeding ammonia?

3. Once it's fully cycled, will dosing with Easy Green and Iron be enough to maintain the cycle, or should I keep "ghost feeding" with ammonia?

I'm going to wait a few months for the plants to establish/mature before adding fish, of course.

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/28/2022 at 10:44 AM, Fishtanker22 said:

Questions:

1. Does this mean my tank is not yet fully cycled?

2. Should I keep feeding ammonia?

3. Once it's fully cycled, will dosing with Easy Green and Iron be enough to maintain the cycle, or should I keep "ghost feeding" with ammonia?

I'm going to wait a few months for the plants to establish/mature before adding fish, of course.

Yeah I would keep letting it go a few more weeks before adding fish.  You can add very few fish without issue and that also will help keep the tank going long term without issues or the need to add ammonia.  You can add plants whenever you're ready.  I would drop in some food once every few days (or the ammonia) just to keep things going.  Nice work though, you're doing well.