new set up paramater concerns

[zazou]

hello everyone
just set my neww 55 gallon fish only aquarium, i am using cc ,2 filters one is penguin 200 with biowheel second is older second nature powerwhisper 3 my concerns are tank been running for a week and tested paramaters for first time as my water seems abit cloudy ,my ammonia is 0,nitrite 0, and nitrate also 0, ph 8, kh/gh is about 180 , is this normal and yes i did put nutrafin cycle in tank wish i didnt hoping causing cloudy water .should i do water change or ride it out . i thought i would be ok as i have been on more web sites than i can count ,need some friendly advice

 

[Hondatek]

Are there any fish in this tank yet ? That will help us give you the best course of action . The parameters seem normal but I doubt you went though the nitrogen cycle yet.

 

[zazou]

no fish yet doing a fishless cycle and rinsed my cc real good too ,tank only running for a week, water was clear for 1 day now cloudy but am puzzled on ammonia being 0

 

[Hondatek]

Ok this is what you need to do. Either get some pure ammonia with no scents or surfactants in it and dose the ammonia to 4 ppm . Or a raw shrimp in a nylon bag and put it in the tank to decay. This will kick your cycle into action. Make sure you use a liquid drop test kit not the strips. You want to keep the ammonia up then you will see the nitrites go up. After this stage keep the ammonia up because it will be dropping. After about a month the nitrites will drop turning into nitrates . At the end of your cycle you will be able to dose ammonia to 4ppm and convert it into nitrates within 24 hours . Then do a big water change to get the nitrates down and you are ready for fish.

 

[zazou]

thank you for fast reply will try ammonia my only other question is how much do i put in

 

[Hondatek]

Just do a very little at a time and test an hour after adding before you add more