Reddit mentions of Seachem MultiTest Ammonia Test Kit

Your ammonia levels will never fall to zero since you have now put a fish in an uncycled tank. You need to forget about all the conflicting information you have read and just focus on one thing since you are doing a fish-in cycle: Keeping the water as clean as possible for your fish.

The entire reason a fishless cycle is preferred is because you don't have the well-being of a living being to be concerned about and can make adjustments to help feed your beneficialy bacteria

1. Start performing partial water changes IMMEDIATELY. 2ppm ammonia is absolutely toxic to your fish. Dose Prime at up to a 5x dose safely. You can get a free ammonia vs total ammonia kit if you want to see how much harmful ammonia is in the tank vs. the total ammonia that is being neutralized by prime. This Kit
   
   
2. Read this article, follow his guide and don't worry about anything else you have read. It has worked for me multiple times. http://www.kevinbush.com/cycling/the-fish-in-cycle/
   
   
3. Excel will not effect your cycle one way or the other. It is nothing but a liquid form of carbon.
   
   
4. Safestart is trash. Don't rely on it and don't expect it to do anything. If you want to help stabilize your beneficial bacteria use Seachem Stability. Dr. Tims beneficial bacteria is known to work well. That being said, I never rely on quick-starters. I do add stability to new tanks though.
   
   
5. Like I said, with a fish-in cycle you have one goal and one focus. Keep the water as safe as you possibly can for your fish and forget about your cycle developing. It will eventually develop on its own. None of the products you have mentioned using will impede its ability to form. Keep the water pristine and warm.
   
   
6. Another option, if you want to get that cycle going fast, is to get a temporary holding tank for your betta (one that is still heated), turn the heat in your main tank up to 82°F and add pure ammonia. I have cycled tanks in as little as 2 weeks combining pure ammonia and stability. To give you an idea of how long a fish-in cycle is supposed to take, the safe level of ammonia for your fish (MAXIMUM) is .25ppm. During a fishless cycle you keep the ammonia concentration at 2ppm-4ppm (8-16 times the ammount!) and it still takes about 2 weeks (if you are lucky) to stabilize. If you want to perform a fishless cycle read kevin bush's other article: http://www.kevinbush.com/cycling/the-fishless-cycle/. I use this ammonia from Ace Hardware. The #1 thing you need to be sure of when purchasing pure ammonia is that it contains no surfactants (soaps). The easiest way to tell is to vigorously shake the bottle. Bubbles will form but should dissipate immediately. If they do not, then there is surfactants present. Here is an ammonia calculator if you choose to go this route: https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/AmmoniaCycling.php
   
   
   Good luck, ask more questions if you need to.

Meh, the test is accurate; it just can't distinguish between free and bound ammonia.

Seachem's Multitest Ammonia Kit uses a gas exchange sensor system which is not affected by Prime or other water conditioners. Might be a good option.

Just be patient bud. It took mine almost a month to complete. It can take longer. Make sure you add Seachem prime to bind the ammonia so that it doesn't hurt your fish.

Do yourself a favor too, get this test kit. It tells you what type of ammonia you have. Ammonia is very harmful to the fish (that's why you use prime), ammonium is not. This test distinguishes between the 2.

I had 10 fish in my tank for almost the whole month of cycling (didn't know better, now I do) they never once got stressed or hurt. It's because of the Seachem prime.

I reiterate, most of all, be patient. It will happen.

Also, you may want to consider moving from a Nessler style test like API, and consider Seachem's Ammonia Multitest as it will let you find total ammonia and free ammonia and won't be affected by Prime at all (Prime can sometimes cause Nessler tests to be a bit wonky, but normally it gives a 0.25-0.5ppm false positive, not 4.0). It's a lot more expensive per test kit and is a little more work than the API method, but in an ammonia emergency it will tell you exactly how much dangerous free ammonia you have and how effectively Prime is working to sequester it.

No, he never touched the sponges.

And Seachem makes a free/total ammonia test kit, plus their placards only read free ammonia. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0002A5XFU http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000255R5G are what I'm using to measure free ammonia.

I see no signs of parasites, and no bacterial or fungal symptoms. I've got pima and mela-fix, and can dose the tank, but the gravel and filter housings&intakes just got deep cleaned, and I see nothing that would make me think bacteria, fungus, or parasite. Like I said, every other fish is perfectly fine.

Symptoms seem exactly consistent with nitrate poisoning, maybe this goldie is more sensitive, but for a week now I've been keeping nitrites and nitrates pretty much non-existent, which would, I'd think, lead to the fish getting better if it was nitrate poisoning.

Can fish have strokes?