Cycling - water chemistry

[elliott_001]

My tank has cycling about 4-5 days now and i have carried some water tests. (the cycle is being done with brine shrimp - all i could get my hands on)

Nitrite - 0.5 mg/l
Nitrate - 75 mg/l
Ammonia - between 0 and 0.25 mg/l
PH - 8.5

I know its early days, but i would have thought the ammonia would be on the rise by now. I have used some seeded items, like plants and rocks. My brother also squeezed his clogged filter media all over mine y-day. Does anybody have any idea of whats happening now in my cycle?

I thought that maybe the ammonia is not rising too much because of the effect of the seeded material (bacteria is already gobbling up the ammonia, so it is not suddenly rising). And why is the nitrite and nitrate so high??
Any thoughts??

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Could be because of the seeding. May have helped in the ammonia end of the cycle, but still have a ways to go. Just keep up with the tests, and could add a little more seeding to help. I seeded my 55G with things from my 26G cycled tank and completed my cycle in 19 days.

 

[rich311k]

Put a pinch or two of flakes in the tank. That will help with ammonia productiion.

 

[TomK2]

I gotta suspect that your tap water has nitrates in it. I cannot see the nitrate level getting to 75 in four days. Have you tested your tap water? Sure you didn't mean 7.5? Your ammonia and nitrite levels are consistant with a seeded tank, or with a tap water supply that has chloramines.