Ideal water parameters?

[WendiDell]

Hi AA,
My 55 gallon Cichlid Cichlid tank finally has Nitrites and Nitrates, after months of none of either.
But now I'd like to know what are acceptable amounts of the bacterias? How much Nitrite to I need to keep the ammonia down and how much Nitrate do I need to keep the Nitrites at a safe level?
I've been doing daily PWC and sometimes twice a day if the ammonia was spiking. Then 3 day ago both the ammonia's and the Nitrites spiked.
I woke up to ammonia levels of 4.0ppm and Nitrites of 5.0ppm. I've been doing 75% PWC twice a day for three days to keep the ammonia and the Nitrites down to .50. Then when I tested (master test kit) the tank tonight the parameters were, pH 8.4, Ammonia 2.0ppm, Nitrites 2.0ppm and Nitrates 80ppm.
I know this is better but not perfect so I did a 50% PWC. Then as usual I tested again.
This time it was pH 8.2, Ammonia .25ppm, Nitrites .50ppm and Nitrates still at 80ppm.
How will I know when my tank is stable and at a healthy balance?

 

[mfdrookie516]

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How will I know when my tank is stable and at a healthy balance?

You'll know when Ammonia and Nitrite are at 0ppm, nitrate is somewhere between 5-60ppm, and the pH is stable. Keep doing 50% PWC's until you get the ammonia and nitrite down to 0, and do them as necessary to keep them there until the tank is cycled.

 

[WendiDell]

Thank you so much for your time and experience. It's helped me avoid and fix some stupid mistakes.
This am for the first time,the water in all 4 tanks isn't to bad. It's not perfect but don't need to run through the house doing 50%-75% PWC in 2 55 gallon tanks, a10 gallon QT and a 5 gallon hosp tank at 6:00am. I get to sleep in for a few hours,YAY!!!
I'll still do the PWC this afternoon, but it's really nice not to need to do the PWC at 6:00am.
It's slow going, but my water has been getting better since I stopped cleaning so much, especially not cleaning the filters at all.
That's all for now.
Still trying to figure out how to post pics on this site. So I can get some feedback on my Cichlid tank set up to find out what I did right and what might be causing some territorial problems.
Many Blessings to you all.