Hey thanks so much guys and thanks for the advice also. Sorry for the late reply!
I've used seachem prime prior to adding any water and had been doing a 20% water change every week but now more often as my ammonia had recently risen. I've also used the api stress zime but I've heard conflicting views on this and whether it does anything.
Apart from that have been using aqua sonic ph-up and api ph down to adjust the ph. Have been using api master test kit almost every day.
I added fish food the first few days as I read that the ammonia needed to be increased in a fish less cycle however my local fish shop told me to stop doing that and just let the tank run its course as I'm in no rush.
I've set the light on a timer of 8 hours but noticed a dark (slightly copper) algae appearing on the plant leaves and rock. The fish shop said to leave these but I read this colour algae occurs under lack of light so I'm trying to increase the time I have it on. Is this normal, and should I be adding any plant supplements / fertilisers whilst fish less cycling?
I've finally got my nitrite spike yesterday and I'd never registered nitrite before so I'm thinking the cycling is slowly underway. Definitely regret getting just a small 20 gallon now.
These are my current levels as of yesterday evening:
Ph: 7.3
Ammo: 4
Nitrite: 4
Nitrate: 5
All ppm.
Cheers