Cycling questions and help please

[devinwfy]

I tested my first 56 gal aquarium and tap water yesterday and today with API master kit.
The tap water (stayed for 48 hours) is
PH 8.2
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrite 0 pm
Nitrate 0pm
Yesterday
My aquarium is
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0.5 ppm
Nitrite 0pm
Nitrate between 5-10 ppm.

Today
PH 8.0
Ammonia 0.5 ppm
Nitrite 0.25pm
Nitrate between 5-10 ppm.

I am doing my fish-in cycling with tetra safe start plus, and anyone can tell me which stage I am at? This is my first time of cycling a tank.
It seems that my tap water PH is high, how can I deal with that?

Thanks a lot!!

 

[mrvincent]

You have some nitrites, it mean your BB have started to develop, they transformed some ammonia into nitrites.

Wait until you get 0 ppm ammonia and 0 ppm nitrites. Then you can do a WC (removing nitrates) and add some fishs.

 

[flitabout]

What are you dosing the ammo to? Is it 4ppm or lower. If it's 4ppm and it's dropping to .25 in 24hours, then you are getting really close.

 

[BBradbury]

Hello dev...

You don't need to use chemicals in the tank water. These won't speed up the cycling process and might change your test results. You need only to put in some hardy fish along with some floating plants like Common water weed (Anacharis).

You test the tank water every day for traces of ammonia and nitrite. If you get a positive test, you remove 25 percent of the tank water and replace it with pure, treated tap water. You don't need to remove more water. The 25 percent will keep the chemistry relatively safe for the fish and still leave some ammonia and/or nitrite for the growing bacteria.

Just test daily and remove the right amount of water when needed. When you test for several days and there are no traces of ammonia or nitrite, your tank is cycled. The process takes 4 to 6 weeks. Sorry, if this is your first tank cycle, it's best to go by the book, there are really no reliable shortcuts.

B