problem? or am I just impatient?

[Sticks]

Hey there, Been lurking this forum a little as I intend to keep weather loaches (and a couple guppies) as soon as this tank is ready to go. I've got a tiny bit of experience with fishkeeping in the past, but only really when I was a child and had my parents do most of the work

anyways, I recently got gifted a tank from a friend who could no longer keep it up. it had no fish, though it had some plants. it had been kept going just enough to keep the plants living for the most part. I've been working on fixing the cycle since 8/17. on the 22nd I tried out some API quickstart, and it's been eating up ammonia really well. here are the levels as I measured today:

PH- 7.4
KH- ~100ppm
GH- ~150ppm
Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitrites- 2.0ppm
Nitrates- ~3ppm

I'm a bit worried about the nitrite levels, and I'm unsure if I need to do something/add something, or if I just need to keep on waiting. I'm also looking into lowering the GH? I can copy down some of the previous test results if it's helpful

I appreciate any help, this seems to be a wonderful forum

[Bas Pels]

Assuming the tank is freshly decorated, yesterday or the day before, there is nothing to be afraid of, you just need to wait 2 or 3 weeks before entering fishes.

I suggest measuring iagain in a fortnight

[Sticks]

thank you for your reply, the tank has been set up/decorated for about 2 weeks by now. the ammonia drops readily and I've been dosing it about every other day

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Another thing that can help is to get a good amount of media from an established tank (from another friend who keeps fish, local aquarium club, pet store, etc) and add it to the tank's filter. A good amount is needed because with that much (ie: enough beneficial bacteria), all the NO2 will be turned to NO3 and it will be safe to add fish.

Just be aware that if this route is taken, you will either have to get some fish as soon as the NO2 tests 0, or if you cannot get them straight away, to keep 'feeding' the bacteria with NH3 (not so much that you still have NH3/NO2) until you can.
Both so the bacteria does not starve and crash the cycle.

Good luck and we'd love to see pictures of your new setup!

[Sticks]

I was looking around for someone to get some media from... don't really have anyone convenient unfortunately. And I've been regularly feeding it ammonia, yesterday I did a waterchange, today the levels read pretty well! PH, GH, and KH were the same. ammonia was at 0, I fed it. Nitrites were also at zero, though for some reason the nitrates read at TEN ppm. I don't understand how, as I changed the water just last night I tested my tap water for nitrates, it's at 0ppm. I waited a few hours and decided to test again in case I did something wrong, but the nitrates were even higher, around 80ppm. this is my first time cycling a tank so I'm not sure if this is something strange, or a part of the process.

and on the brighter side, here's some pics of my tank:

the big base of the driftwood is somewhat hollow, and has quite a few hiding places. still might add a couple of tunnels for them


decided to tighten up some of the holes in the top, just in case

[Bas Pels]

When you add ammonia, you expect NH3 -> NO2 -> NO3

That is, every molecule of ammonia is turned into nitrate, and this will be removed by water changes. And you know the last step is the slow one

So, the appearence of NO3 would imply the bacteria for the second step have, finally, reached sufficient levels. Please do remember, these double every 8 hours if there is sufficient NO2, and that would make their level 8 times higher in 24 hours.

So yes, a measurement of nitrate in the water of 0, 0, 0, 1, 9, 80 is quite possible - if one would do a measurement every day on the same time

I would think of feeding less ammonia for a day of two. I think you might be feeding a bit too much

[Sticks]

that makes sense, thank you. a friend of mine also suggested that I cool down on the ammonia for a bit

[Sticks]

just an update: I changed the water again last night (probably like 90% or so) to get rid of the nitrates, and today ammonia and nitrites were 0, and nitrates were a bit below 5ppm, but above 0