Fishless Cycle Using Fish Food

[Ryuxen]

Hi,

I am into my 9th day of cycling my 1 feet tank.
Using fish food as my ammonia source (since I cant get Ammonia anywhere), I had the following readings:

2nd day: ammonia 1, nitrite 1, nitrate 0
3rd day: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 2, nitrate 10 (for some reason i am getting nitrate reading so soon I dont know why)
4th day: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 5, nitrate 10
5th day: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 5, nitrate 5 (nitrate down)
6th day: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 5, nitrate 5
7th day: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 5, nitrate 5
8th day: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 5, nitrate 5
9th day: ammonia 0.25, nitrite 5, nitrate 10 (nitrate up again)

PH has maintained at 7.6 since Day 1
Have been using Seachem Stability.
Everything is new in the tank.
I have a number of moss in the tank
Water is distilled water, top up once every 2 days due to evaporation
I have been adding a pinch of fish flake everyday, first 5 days I removed the previous day's food, then next 3 days, I left the previous day's food still in the tank while continue to add the food. The food are all sitting in disposable teabags.

I have a few questions

1. Are my readings abnormal? Considering I am already getting nitrate so soon on my 3rd day
2. Since I am already getting Nitrate, my nitrite should be going down right?
3. Am I doing it right? I read alot about getting the ammonia to 4ppm, maybe I am not getting enough ammonia? But then again I am already having a Nitrate reading, so I should just be adding smaller amount of ammonia while waiting for the Ammonia and Nitrite to go to zero right?

Please advice if any kind soul can and thanks alot

[Mustafa]

looks all normal...just have patience. It can take over 2 weeks depending on the temperature for fishless cycling to complete. Just pay attention to ammonia. Once that goes to zero (and you already have nitrate), you're done.