Fast Fish-less Cycle

[fishbulb]

I've spent our pouring over threads here, as well as following this guide: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...e-and-faq-to-fishless-cycling-148283-176.html

So far the information and support seems to be excellent here, therefore i wanted to ask a question...

I've several posts about cycling going very slow and some about it being fast or wildly inconsistent.

My question is, I started cycling my 29 gal aquarium around the 24th of July and as of the past two days it appears to be completed, that seems fast from what I've been reading?

Here is my setup:
29-gal tank
Aqua-Tech Power Aquarium Filter 30-60 filter (New filters)
60# Eco-Complete Substrate
a few rocks and one piece of very old driftwood (All boiled for a long time)

I went to the LFS and told them i was setting up a new tank and they gave me these to start:
API STRESS ZYME
API FRESHWATER MASTER TEST KIT
Dechorlinator (forgot the brand but it's a tiny bottle, 1 drop per/gal)

I got no readings for the first 4-5 days, then after researching a lot I found this forum and a few other resources and realized I needed Ammonia, which makes me believe the LFS person thought I was going to do a Fish-in cycle..
After going to the dollar store i bought pure ammonia (doesn't bubble at all when shaken) and began dosing up to 4ppm. Also noted the pH was extremely high 8.4.

(Last week) Gradually the Nitrites appeared as the ammonia started falling as expected, then the nitrites were off the scale of the test chart after being away for 4 days. Then the Nitrates started rising slowly to 5-10ppm

Then these past few days the Ammonia has been zero within 12 hours and now the nitrites are also 0ppm. After consistently dosing for the past 3 days I am still getting the same results ammonia 0ppm and nitrites 0ppm and now the nitrates are slowly moving up to 10-20ppm. Now each time I dose with Ammonia it only takes about 12 hours. Also, the pH has gone down gradually to 7.4ppm.

Everything appears to have happened exactly as every guide explains, however, I've done no water changes or anything other than dosing the ammonia and I added more API STRESS ZYME for bacteria as I feared the nitrates were moving slowly due to lack of bacteria.

I plan to keep dosing with ammonia but is it possible to cyle in less than 3 weeks?

 

[Barliman]

Based on what you wrote here, I'd say "Congratulations, you're cycled!" But it does seem awfully fast.

 

[TMaier]

Did you happen to use filters or decor or substrate from an established tank?


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[Lrigyttiw]

How much ammonia did you pour in? A capful, half a cup?

 

[fishbulb]

Ok, to answer a few questions:

Did you happen to use filters or decor or substrate from an established tank?

• The tank was used, but I cleaned and soaked it thoroughly with bleach and vinegar (separately)
• The Eco-complete substrate was brand new, unsealed each bag and poured the liquid right in with the substrate.
• The larger rocks and driftwood came from the tank we had when I was a kid, so they are 20 years old at least and had been sitting in the basement for just as long dry and dusty. I also washed and boiled them thoroughly before putting in.
• The filter unit was used and came along with the tank but I threw away the old carbon filters cartridges and bought new ones. I also cleaned the entire filter unit and soaked in bleach and vinegar, so I doubt any bacteria was still alive.

How much ammonia did you pour in? A capful, half a cup?

I've been measuring out ammonia by the cap ful, roughly 1-2 Tsp. of pure ammonia per 1 ppm, so I usualy pour in 3 cap fulls to bring it up to 4ppm. Pretty sure it's not concentrated since the bottle was only $1..
Also, I've used a total of about 1-2 cups by now.

Ok, now here are some notes I thought of after posting:

1. I never measured my starting water, and I also never kept records of all my water readings. (Lesson learned)
2. The chlorine and chloramine remover I'm using is Nutrafin
3. The heater came with the tank, it's not a very large heater but it's been keeping the tank in the mid 80's temperature-wise
4. I started doubling up and adding ammonia up to 4ppm as soon as I see it get below 1ppm, which means the last few days I was adding twice a day
5. I'm color challenged but, both my girlfriend and I agree the API kit color chart on the manual isn't great, some of the colors are difficult to distinguish
6. I've probably gone through 1-2 cups of ammonia total

Now, I did some water testing this evening
The tap water coming out of my sink read like this:

• 0 - Ammonia
• 0 - Nitrite
• 0 - Nitrate
• 7.4-7.6 pH

Now here's where everything took a turn, I did water testing on the tank next and got these:

• 1 ppm - Ammonia (pretty sure I topped off to 4ppm this morning, if not last night then)
• 0 ppm - Nitrite (this was very low, barely had color)
• 10 ppm (again the color chart is a bit difficult to read but I'm certain it's a darker orange than 5.0 ppm
• 6.0-6.4 pH (The color on this was very light, but not yellow as the lowest level on the chart but seemed closer to 6.4 but I'm not convinced that matched either)

Per the(Almost) complete guide on this forum, I realized the pH had plummeted so I just did a 50% water change. My guess is it's right in the middle of cycling, the Nitrates still need time to establish and also I need to cut back on the ammonia to once a day. Seems like the cycle started quick and slowed down.

Thoughts anyone? Or am I way off?

 

[plantnoob]

I'd definitely say you're cycled. No reason to keep bringing ammonia concentration to 4+ ppm. And also refrain from doing water changes until you've got established flora and fauna. Don't worry about having cycled the tank faster. I personally used media from an established tank and my tank cycled within three days. The difference in your tank might be the ecocomplete. They claim to have heterotrophic bacteria to "help" with fish waste. I believe your tank still needs cycled but there is a good chance you got some help. If your ammonia concentration consistently decreases, consider your tanki ready for fauna. Just make sure that you introduce fishes in batches - for a 29 gal tank I'd say no more than 3-4 at a week.

 

[plantnoob]

Also, the pH tends to fluctuate during the cycling process. I observed this in my tank too. Dont worry about the pH yet, until the tank is fully stable. Even in that case, unless you're getting sensitive fishes that absolutely need a certain pH, you should be good.

 

[fishbulb]

I'd definitely say you're cycled. No reason to keep bringing ammonia concentration to 4+ ppm. And also refrain from doing water changes until you've got established flora and fauna. Don't worry about having cycled the tank faster. I personally used media from an established tank and my tank cycled within three days. The difference in your tank might be the eco complete. They claim to have heterotrophic bacteria to "help" with fish waste. I believe your tank still needs cycled but there is a good chance you got some help. If your ammonia concentration consistently decreases, consider your tanki ready for fauna. Just make sure that you introduce fishes in batches - for a 29 gal tank I'd say no more than 3-4 at a week.

Thank you for the reply, your help is appreciated!

I have a feeling the Eco-Complete helped acelerate it as well, I only need 2.5 bags but I have no use for 1/2 a bag so I did all three so I'm confident there is a lot of bacteria in there.

After the water change I let the water settle for about an hour then plugged everything back in and dosed the ammonia back up to 4ppm.
I took water readings as well, maybe premature but I wanted to know what levels were at.
The Ammonia was at the 4ppm after dosing, the Nitrites were 0 and the Nitrates were steady at 10-20 ppm (I need to figure out the color card..) The pH went back up to 7.4.

This morning I took readings again and found the Ammonia at 1ppm, Nitrites were .25-.50 and Nitrates were steady at 10-20ppm. pH was back down to 6.4.

I left everything alone and as you have suggested I will cut back on the doses of ammonia and continue to monitor over the next few days, only dosing once per day and also only testing the water once per day.

Not in a rush to get fish or plants in yet, but soon want both so I want to get the cycle done 100%

 

[fishbulb]

Also, the pH tends to fluctuate during the cycling process. I observed this in my tank too. Dont worry about the pH yet, until the tank is fully stable. Even in that case, unless you're getting sensitive fishes that absolutely need a certain pH, you should be good.

I took the advice here:
The (almost) Complete guide

K) Wait for the magic to happen. Keep watching your levels and adding the ammo up to 4ppm. Keep a very sharp eye on pH at this point. If you see any hints of the pH level dropping…time to break out the bucket and bottle of Prime to do a 50% water change. We want to make sure we have plenty of
buffers in the water to keep the pH stable.

Which is why I cycled the water, mainly because it appeared the pH bottomed out.

 

[plantnoob]

Ok. I'd suggest you establish a baseline on your tap water pH first so you know what your stable tank pH should be. You want to do this after letting the tap water sit for a day. GH and KH hardness values also will be helpful to set expectations on future pH fluctuations. I live in Houston where both GH and KH are quite high and that keeps the pH pretty stable at about 7.8-8.0. I don't buffer my water with RO water or anything like that, just plain tap water and have fishes that can survive it.

Also keep in mind that Eco Complete (and the liquid in it) does alter your tap water pH to some extent. I found this after a lot of research since my tank pH initially was always different from the tap water. This should stabilize after the first few water changes.

And one last thing, your pH will also change later if you plan to dose your tank with CO2.

As for the Nitrate, make sure you follow the instructions on shaking bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds and the test vial for a minute. Otherwise you are bound to get bad readings. That said, the color chart for 10-20 PPM range is indeed very hard to discern!

 

[fishbulb]

As for the Nitrate, make sure you follow the instructions on shaking bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds and the test vial for a minute. Otherwise you are bound to get bad readings. That said, the color chart for 10-20 PPM range is indeed very hard to discern!

Thanks for all the input, I definitely have been shaking the bottles and tubes vigorously, especially for the Nitrate test. Shaking bottle #2 for 30+ seconds and then the whole tube for 1 minute.
I have found that after watching a few videos, people only invert the tubes on some tests and only shake vigorously on the Nitrate test. I don't know if this would have any affect on the tests, I doubt it as I usualy let them set for at least 5 minutes to settle out.
I did find a good replay on the test kit here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/api-master-test-kit-346290.html

Then found a thread with information from an API support rep, basically saying that it's not easy but they say you need to hold the tube against the card itself. That being said, I noticed the reading were somewhat darker with that method, as I've been using a paper towel as a background.

Important Information for API Freshwater Master Test Kit Users!

 

[fishbulb]

I tested the tank water tonight and got the following results:
6.6 - pH
0 ppm - Ammonia
0 ppm - Nitrites
5-10 ppm - Nitrates

I followed the guidelines I found for the links i provided in my last reply, hold the tube against the card and using the insert to cover the other colors. It was much clearer using that method.

I believe I may not have read the Nitrates correctly, The levels appear to be steady between 5-10ppm, even though I reported seeing 10-20ppm. Aside from that I feel like the cycle is definitely established, do I need to get my Nitrate levels up though? I know the goal is keep them under 20ppm, but is 5ppm too low?

Should I just keep feeding 1-2ppm of ammonia to the tank until I load it? Or do I need to continue the cycle process to get higher Nitrate levels?

 

[plantnoob]

There is no such rule in non planted tanks. The lower the better. In a planted tank, nitrates act as fertilizers. Your fauna will take care of that. Don't worry about low nitrate levels now, it's the higher numbers you'll need to manage later. You should go ahead and plant. Let your plants settle down. In the meantime, dose with small concentrations of ammonia every other day or so (<2 ppm). Just maintenance until you have your fishes. The good news is, you already have a bacteria colony established and they'll be ready for when the fishes come!

Good luck!

 

[fishbulb]

Ok. I'd suggest you establish a baseline on your tap water pH first so you know what your stable tank pH should be. You want to do this after letting the tap water sit for a day. GH and KH hardness values also will be helpful to set expectations on future pH fluctuations. I live in Houston where both GH and KH are quite high and that keeps the pH pretty stable at about 7.8-8.0. I don't buffer my water with RO water or anything like that, just plain tap water and have fishes that can survive it.

I will do that, I'm certain I have some pretty stable water though. Not sure about GH or KH levels, guess I have to buy that kit.

Also keep in mind that Eco Complete (and the liquid in it) does alter your tap water pH to some extent. I found this after a lot of research since my tank pH initially was always different from the tap water. This should stabilize after the first few water changes.

That makes sense, as it also accelerated the cycling process

And one last thing, your pH will also change later if you plan to dose your tank with CO2.

No plans to do this, however I do have a kegerator with a 20# CO2 tank right next to the aquarium so it would be easy enough to tap into that....

As for the Nitrate, make sure you follow the instructions on shaking bottle 2 for at least 30 seconds and the test vial for a minute. Otherwise you are bound to get bad readings. That said, the color chart for 10-20 PPM range is indeed very hard to discern!

I did that many times, and also I found that thread that talks about banging the base of the bottle against the table a few times to loosen up the solid parts, I did so very vigorously tonight and mixed well, I did notice the solution seems more viscous than previously so I most likely have had off readings because of that, as I had a very high 40-60ppm reading tonight.

Last night I wanted to test the cycle again just to verify the numbers, I accidentally overdosed the ammonia, somewhere between 5-8 ppm but didn't realize it until after. I left it for 24 hours and then I did a water test tonight and found:
2ppm - Ammonia
0 ppm - Nitrites
40-60ppm - Nitrates
6.2 - pH

I am thrilled the Nitrates are much higher than the previous readings, however I'm certain that was a combination of the solution not being mixed well (solids stuck at the bottom) and not reading the card/tube accurately.


I will let things settle out and make sure the ammonia goes down to 0 ppm, but i'm 100% confident it's fully cycled. Next up we are adding plants, just need to find which ones we want with the low level light we have.

 

[plantnoob]

That's the fun part. I've had great luck with Amazon swords, Anubias Nana in the back/middle and Staurogyne Repens and Pygmy swords in the front. Mine is a low tech setup too.


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[ElanaJoy]

HI fish friends. I don't want to start a new thread, as I have been reading this one and others for advice. I think I am nearly cycled, but I am not sure. My ammonia is dropping every time I add more. Three days ago, it had fallen to .25 so I dosed it back up to 4 at 11:30 pm, at 9am the next morning it was 2 and at 11pm it was .25 again. Yesterday morning I brought it back up to maybe 5ish (I know, I went too high!) and tonight, it was 1.5. I have never seen any nitrites. I learned this is not completely unheard of. My nitrates are reading at 80, but have been that way for 2 days without climbing. Are they supposed to go off the chart? If they don't, and 4ppm of ammo is dropping to 0 in 24 hours, will I be I cycled? any other advice? Thanks!!

 

[fishbulb]

HI fish friends. I don't want to start a new thread, as I have been reading this one and others for advice. I think I am nearly cycled, but I am not sure. My ammonia is dropping every time I add more. Three days ago, it had fallen to .25 so I dosed it back up to 4 at 11:30 pm, at 9am the next morning it was 2 and at 11pm it was .25 again. Yesterday morning I brought it back up to maybe 5ish (I know, I went too high!) and tonight, it was 1.5. I have never seen any nitrites. I learned this is not completely unheard of. My nitrates are reading at 80, but have been that way for 2 days without climbing. Are they supposed to go off the chart? If they don't, and 4ppm of ammo is dropping to 0 in 24 hours, will I be I cycled? any other advice? Thanks!!

Be careful with over dosing, I wouldn't go past 5ppm. I over dosed one time and it threw everything off for a few days.

Do you mean your ammonia was at 1.5ppm after the overdose? Thats exactly what happened to me.
I only saw a small amount of nitrites at first, but have never seen any since. Which is good because they are lethal to your fish.

My Nitrates never really went off the chart when I cycled my tank, they were about the same 60-80ppm. Although the readings I took at first may have been off.
I actually cycled the tank and let it go for about 3 weeks before adding anyting, I did a 90% water change the night before going to the LFS and did readings and found the Nirtrates were over 160ppm. I actually did 2 water changes just to get them down to a safe level. Then another 50% water change a week later.
They take awhile but let it build up and have patience, you may also need to let pH levels balance out as well.

In short, it sounds like you are cycled. If you have no Nitrates and Ammo in 24 hours or less then yes, you are cycled.
However I would recomend taking your time and just dosing 1-2ppm a day just to keep the bacteria alive and make sure everything balances out. The cycle is one part, make sure you pH levels are stable before adding any fish.

At the end of the 3+ weeks after my tank was established I kept dosing 1ppm of ammonia and never did a PWC. The pH was down to 6.0 and Nitrates well over 160ppm.

I then began regular water changes after two massive water changes. My pH was very high 8.0+. I should have waited but instead watched many fish die one by one over the past two months..

Now i've got a stable pH and the water parameters have leveled off. I still have one survinging fish though.

Have patience and good luck! FYI if your adding any live plants, do so now, no need to wait. But I'd wait to add fish, or at least only get a few for now.

 

[ElanaJoy]

Be careful with over dosing, I wouldn't go past 5ppm. I over dosed one time and it threw everything off for a few days.

Do you mean your ammonia was at 1.5ppm after the overdose? Thats exactly what happened to me.
I only saw a small amount of nitrites at first, but have never seen any since. Which is good because they are lethal to your fish.

My Nitrates never really went off the chart when I cycled my tank, they were about the same 60-80ppm. Although the readings I took at first may have been off.
I actually cycled the tank and let it go for about 3 weeks before adding anyting, I did a 90% water change the night before going to the LFS and did readings and found the Nirtrates were over 160ppm. I actually did 2 water changes just to get them down to a safe level. Then another 50% water change a week later.
They take awhile but let it build up and have patience, you may also need to let pH levels balance out as well.

In short, it sounds like you are cycled. If you have no Nitrates and Ammo in 24 hours or less then yes, you are cycled.
However I would recomend taking your time and just dosing 1-2ppm a day just to keep the bacteria alive and make sure everything balances out. The cycle is one part, make sure you pH levels are stable before adding any fish.

At the end of the 3+ weeks after my tank was established I kept dosing 1ppm of ammonia and never did a PWC. The pH was down to 6.0 and Nitrates well over 160ppm.

I then began regular water changes after two massive water changes. My pH was very high 8.0+. I should have waited but instead watched many fish die one by one over the past two months..

Now i've got a stable pH and the water parameters have leveled off. I still have one survinging fish though.

Have patience and good luck! FYI if your adding any live plants, do so now, no need to wait. But I'd wait to add fish, or at least only get a few for now.

oh thanks. You gave me a lot to think about. It's hard to because impatient hubby thinks I'm always being overly cautious. And we have a patient but eager 9 year old in the wings. And because I'm well... me, I just had the tank with water in it running for half a year before starting the cycle! It's become like the inside joke that isn't funny.

So, the other day I dosed it up to 4ppm and over the night it cycled down to 0! Oh, and I finally "caught" some nitrites 4 hours after dosing up the ammo (but still low, just not a fat 0). So now you are saying the concern is the nitrate may still continue to go up? And my PH may not be stable yet? How long do you recommend to keep an eye out? Since writing this, I have gotten the nitrates up to near the 160 mark (I think, they ARE hard to read that high). Do you think they will continues to rise? Thanks so much for you help!

 

[fishbulb]

oh thanks. You gave me a lot to think about. It's hard to because impatient hubby thinks I'm always being overly cautious. And we have a patient but eager 9 year old in the wings. And because I'm well... me, I just had the tank with water in it running for half a year before starting the cycle! It's become like the inside joke that isn't funny.

So, the other day I dosed it up to 4ppm and over the night it cycled down to 0! Oh, and I finally "caught" some nitrites 4 hours after dosing up the ammo (but still low, just not a fat 0). So now you are saying the concern is the nitrate may still continue to go up? And my PH may not be stable yet? How long do you recommend to keep an eye out? Since writing this, I have gotten the nitrates up to near the 160 mark (I think, they ARE hard to read that high). Do you think they will continues to rise? Thanks so much for you help!

If you had water running in the tank for quite a while you may have had a tiny amount of bacteria in there, not a total loss. At least you know the tank won't leak, better to know that before you have a tank full of fish!
I too was very impatient after hours or research, I was ready to go.. But I had some mis-steps along the way and now I have 1 fish instead of 12.

What I've lost:
5 Bloodfin tetras
7 X-Ray tetras
4 amano Shrimp
1 Yo-Yo Loach.

So yes, you may want to get started right away, but serisouly wait. OR if you just can't wait, get a few very hardy fish like danioa or bloodfin tetras(I still have one sole survivor bloodfin). Only get a few, and let them be your "canaries".

If your going from 4ppm of ammonia down to 0, overnight then your definately cycled!
Your water parameters may still need to balance out, depending on what your planning to put in your tank. I used Eco-Complete Substrate, which added a lot of starter bacteria and helped cycle quicker, but also most likely added a high pH level. Another member had posted a reply telling me they had used the exact smae substrate (Eco-Complete) and it made their water very alkaline 8.0+ pH but stabalized many weeks later around 7.8, which is exactly where mine has stayed for the past month. The reason I used the Eco-complete for substrate was that we wanted a planted aqurium, and after exhuastive research I found it was very popular and worked well, also we liked the look of it.

We pruchase several fish and plants in one day and over all they seemed fine for awhile. But I ignored the fact that the pH was 8.0+ which put stress on them. I started losing fish, then tried "pH Down" by API, I lost shrimp. Then plants we melting and just dying away. Now i've got stable water, all tests are almost identical aside from Nitrates, which will also rise. I have new growth on my plants and I now feel like my tank it mostly stable. The pH may have been from the Eco-complete subsrated, but that has balanced out.

What I should have done was add plants during the cycling, as the dying plants certainly affected the balance of the water. Then we should have added a small group of tetras and waited.
I also neglected to test my tap water before I even started! So you should definately test your tap water, set a base line and understand that's what your water is. I don't steer away from trying to treat your water to the levels you want. As I noticed the pH down dosage didn't really do anything to my tank.
Many people have said that the fish will tollerate and adapt to somewhat higher pH levels.
Also, another thing I should have done was replace the small stock heater. Definately get a larger heater than you need, I learned this the hard way when I saw all the fish huddling aorund the heater and noticed the tank temp was droping down to 75F during a cold spell in October. I quickly bought a 200wat adjustable heater and it works perfectly. I noticed instanly how the fish responded when I brought the water temp back up.

I had a lot of issues with the API test kit for reading Nitrates, I found a thread in these forums that pointed to another forum where an employee from API agreed that false readings can occur and they you need to tap the Nitrate #2 bottle on the table to "losen up" the settled solution. After I started doing this and vigoursly shaking the bottle I noticed that it was more viscus than before and I started getting higher Nitrate readings.
Yes, the Nitrates will continue to build until you do a PWC.
Don't worry about building up Nitrates, once you have the cycle going the bacteria is there. You're good, go ahead and do a 80-90% water change and bring those levels down.
Also, test your pH level now. See what you get, then test a day or so after the huge PWC.
Don't be affraid to put a few fish in, just watch your temp and pH levels.

 

[ElanaJoy]

If you had water running in the tank for quite a while you may have had a tiny amount of bacteria in there, not a total loss. At least you know the tank won't leak, better to know that before you have a tank full of fish!
I too was very impatient after hours or research, I was ready to go.. But I had some mis-steps along the way and now I have 1 fish instead of 12.

What I've lost:
5 Bloodfin tetras
7 X-Ray tetras
4 amano Shrimp
1 Yo-Yo Loach.

So yes, you may want to get started right away, but serisouly wait. OR if you just can't wait, get a few very hardy fish like danioa or bloodfin tetras(I still have one sole survivor bloodfin). Only get a few, and let them be your "canaries".

If your going from 4ppm of ammonia down to 0, overnight then your definately cycled!
Your water parameters may still need to balance out, depending on what your planning to put in your tank. I used Eco-Complete Substrate, which added a lot of starter bacteria and helped cycle quicker, but also most likely added a high pH level. Another member had posted a reply telling me they had used the exact smae substrate (Eco-Complete) and it made their water very alkaline 8.0+ pH but stabalized many weeks later around 7.8, which is exactly where mine has stayed for the past month. The reason I used the Eco-complete for substrate was that we wanted a planted aqurium, and after exhuastive research I found it was very popular and worked well, also we liked the look of it.

We pruchase several fish and plants in one day and over all they seemed fine for awhile. But I ignored the fact that the pH was 8.0+ which put stress on them. I started losing fish, then tried "pH Down" by API, I lost shrimp. Then plants we melting and just dying away. Now i've got stable water, all tests are almost identical aside from Nitrates, which will also rise. I have new growth on my plants and I now feel like my tank it mostly stable. The pH may have been from the Eco-complete subsrated, but that has balanced out.

What I should have done was add plants during the cycling, as the dying plants certainly affected the balance of the water. Then we should have added a small group of tetras and waited.
I also neglected to test my tap water before I even started! So you should definately test your tap water, set a base line and understand that's what your water is. I don't steer away from trying to treat your water to the levels you want. As I noticed the pH down dosage didn't really do anything to my tank.
Many people have said that the fish will tollerate and adapt to somewhat higher pH levels.
Also, another thing I should have done was replace the small stock heater. Definately get a larger heater than you need, I learned this the hard way when I saw all the fish huddling aorund the heater and noticed the tank temp was droping down to 75F during a cold spell in October. I quickly bought a 200wat adjustable heater and it works perfectly. I noticed instanly how the fish responded when I brought the water temp back up.

I had a lot of issues with the API test kit for reading Nitrates, I found a thread in these forums that pointed to another forum where an employee from API agreed that false readings can occur and they you need to tap the Nitrate #2 bottle on the table to "losen up" the settled solution. After I started doing this and vigoursly shaking the bottle I noticed that it was more viscus than before and I started getting higher Nitrate readings.
Yes, the Nitrates will continue to build until you do a PWC.
Don't worry about building up Nitrates, once you have the cycle going the bacteria is there. You're good, go ahead and do a 80-90% water change and bring those levels down.
Also, test your pH level now. See what you get, then test a day or so after the huge PWC.
Don't be affraid to put a few fish in, just watch your temp and pH levels.

Thanks SOOO much for you advice. I think I will add some sand for the coradoras I plan to have. And some plants... then see how the parameters settle out after a few days. My tank is small btw, so I'm only getting a small school of cory cats anyways, then a betta... maybe after I know it's all super stable. Then when it's extra super stable perhaps some shrimp.