Start up--High nitrites and a few questions

[Phishhead46]

Hi everyone! This is my first post and I have a few questions. I recently set up a 37 gallon tank. I set it up with a sand bottom. Has a good filter, air stones and a heater staying around 79 degrees F. No fish in it yet. I have an established 10g and I put one of its filter cartridges and some of the gravel in the new filter. I also put some gravel and a fake plant in the tank itself as well. Currently my water test readings look like:
pH: 7.6
Ammonia: (0.20-0.25ppm)
Nitrite: 5ppm
Nitrate: currently 2.5ppm ( yesterday AM was 7.0ppm, yesterday PM was 5.0ppm)

I added prime yesterday. My water was treated with stress coat and stress zyme when initially set up.

So my questions are,
Mainly--How can I lower my nitrites?
Once my nitrites are at zero I can add fish?
Is there anything I should be doing that Im not, or anything I shouldn't be doing?

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[Mebbid]

The nitrites will drop on their own. This is all part of cycling a tank.

Take a look at this link for all the information you need
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...guide-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283.html

 

[shellieca]

I see you're using seeded media from a smaller tank but what is your ammonia source in the new tank to keep feeding the BB? In order to build up the proper amount of BB in the larger tank you'll need to properly dose it with ammonia. Nitrites should process out & sense you are doing a fishLESS cycle you don't need to do anything with them at the moment.