Cycling question, Dr Tim's

[vVStarlord]

Iv had my tank up and running for a week now, added Dr Tim's one and only roughly 48 hours ago, with around 2 ppm ammonia, as of now my ammonia has been staying at around 1ppm without me ever adding anymore into the tank, my guess is I have a few plants that aren't doing so well causing my ammonia to stay steady, my nitrites are reading 0.25ppm right now and my nitrates are reading 5ppm, where should I go from here? Iv purchased a second bottle of Tim's one and only just in case, do I add more ammonia? Or the second bottle of one and only? And a off topic question I have is, I'm afraid to get an algae outbreak doing this so Iv left my light off pretty much the whole time, it's probably on two hours a day at most, and iv heard lights out makes cycling faster, but it's killing my plants, would leaving them on for 9 hours be ok while I'm at work to help my plants?

 

[vVStarlord]

Oh and my bro has another tank currently being cycled and he has his new and old filter going on that tank, am I able to use his filter somehow on my tank without jeopardizing his cycle

 

[BBradbury]

Hello vV...

You can use a portion of the established filter media. It will speed up the cycling process.

B

 

[rlederer]

My admittedly low tech and overly simple solution is to leave things be. Don't feel like you have to test frequently and just let nature take over. You have already added bacteria, no need to add more of Dr Tim's. Cyclilng takes time. Some filter material from another tank might help, but patience is the best tactic. Might take a month or six weeks, but it will happen.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello again...

I cycled my last tank using the following:

B

Set up the tank and add some floating plants. Let the tank run without fish for a few days. Add 3 to 4 small fish for every 10 gallons of tank volume. Feed the fish a little every day or two and remove and replace one-third of the water every three to four days for a couple of weeks. Then, remove and replace half the water weekly. If you want to add a few more fish later, just increase the amount of water you change, but change it weekly.