Cycle help?

[Mama.funk]

Hello. New here and new to fishkeeping. I did lots of research before getting fish, and when I got my neon tetras I had been at 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate. Since adding fish I have been steadily showing .25 ammonia, between 0-.25 nitrite and 20 nitrate (picture attached). We are trying to set up another tank (29 gal) and are using stability, but it doesn't seem to be making any progress (0's across the board after 2+ weeks) and am wondering if my 10 is cycled enough to use some of the filter media to speed it up a bit? Part two of my question is am I seeing the raised ammonia/nitrite levels in my 10g just from the fish? Should I upgrade my filter, or will that cause me to lose all of my good bacteria and have to start over on that one?

Thanks much,
From a confused noob.

 

[Mama.funk]

Had a strugglebus moment getting the picture uploaded. Attempt 2

 

[Goldguru]

You dont mention how many Tetra's you put in,or how you cycled your tank.
how ever adding fish load requires the bacteria to grow which takes time to multiply.(you cant estimate fish load from a bottle)
I wouldnt remove any media from the 10 to help the 29 out just yet.
not knowing how you are cycling makes it @ best a guess as to why 29 is not working(remb it has 3x volume of your 10),so methods for it would be different then your 10.
water changes on the 10 to keep levels safe,add some plants & enjoy,fish keeping is not supposed to be stressfull for the fish nor the keeper.
changing your filter would require you to start over on the cycle unless new filter used same cartridge.even if you placed old media inside new filter it may take weeks to populate the new one,due to old doesnt have enough on it now for present fish load.
If there is room in 10 filter for the 29's media you could place that after the 10's & perhaps get some BB that way.(29 filter closetest to the spillway).
the BB grows everywhere in the tank surfaces not just the filter.
you could also try gently squeasing some of the juice out of the 10 onto the 29 media next time u rinse your 10's filter.
0.25 is not a concern if you are watching,if it continues to climb for a week feed a lil less.

 

[Mama.funk]

Sorry forgot to put the number! We currently have 5 tetras in the 10g. We cycled by dosing ace how brand ammonia to 4 ppm, then once nitrite appeared kept it at 1 ppm until it was 0/0/20 THEN we added the fish. We've been testing nitrite every other day (never higher than in the picture) and doing 30% water changes every time (roughly 3-4x/week). I'm not stressed about it, just don't want to stress out my tetras . We've also been dosing prime with every water change to try to keep it safe for the Fishies. We are just anxious to get our 29 cycled as the 10 is in our son's bedroom and we want to watch some fishes after he goes to bed thanks for the input!

 

[Goldguru]

let the water go for a week to see how the levels respond you may find they improve faster,for the BB has more to eat rather than limiting their food with 3-4/week water changes.
if they climb steadily then its very possible you are feeding to much or your cycle is not caught up to the fish load yet.( which is prob only 40-50% presently)
also try not to vaccum to heavily & dont vaccum & clean/rinse filter @ the same time.
BB lives on everything in the tank,so everytime you clean anything the BB must repopulate that area to keep levels stable.(total bacteria volume)
general stocking tool
AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor
play with the numbers & you can see by changes in # of fish how your stocking % change,direct relationship to your BB factory.
you could also place the removed 10g water & place it in the 29 though most believe that BB are not part of the water column however if that was true then you would not see any nitrites in your test.(may help never tried or read about that).
but def slow the water changes & 20% or less. (you'll note AQ adv says 15% weekly for what you have)

 

[Mama.funk]

Cool, I will definitely give that a try! Everyone made me feel so concerned about having ANY nitrite that they made me feel I needed to change it more often. Thank you!

 

[Twistedrider]

GoldGuru gave great advice. If you want to speed up the bacteria growth I would recommend Aquavitro Seed by Seachem. It will help. Worked great many times for me and is easy to use.