Newbie Needing Cycle Help!

[dylanuc]

I have a 20 gallon tank, it was given to me by a friend before I left for college a couple months ago. I set it up immediately, as I was extremely excited to have a real fish tank (throughout most of my childhood, my parents kept small goldfish tanks for me, I now know they absolutely did not know the first thing about cycling or fish in general because they always died within a year). I didn't even realize there was such a big community of fish keepers out there. Long story short, I learned a lot about this hobby in a short period of time. About 4 weeks ago (after 2-3 weeks of running fishless) I noticed a bacterial bloom that went away after about a day and the internet said this meant the cycle was complete so I added RCS. 2 weeks later, I added a cory pair, male dg, and 6 neons. I got API test kit about a week after this, just out of curiosity. Since then, I've noticed every week my total ammonia is slowly increasing and is now ~4ppm (NH3 is about 0.1). My pH is about 7.6 consistently, despite having 7.0 tap water. I have ~0 nitrite/nitrate. Sooo... it seems I'm actually not cycled. I do 40-50% water changes weekly, use Stress Coat+ every wc, and I still have a good bit of SafeStart. What should I do?

 

[Fel]

You have do enough water changes to keep ammonia below 1 ppm same with nitrite.

Basically now your in a fish in cycle, which is fine your just going to have more work to do.

Make sure your doing very small feedings, checking your water frequently so ammonia and nitrite stay below 1 pmm with water changes. You can also dose seacham prime when your toxins are high to help your fish out


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[dylanuc]

Is stress coat plus useful to keep toxins low, or just to reduce chlorine? I also have some start up bacteria, should I be using that regularly or is it just a waiting game? How often should I be doing these water changes without stressing my fish?