What now??

[Grimes87]

Hi all, just looking for abit of advice regarding cycling my tank.

I've been doing a fish in cycle for 12 days. I started out with 4 male guppies as adviced by LFS. After 24hrs of adding my guppies one fish died and the other 3 were gasping at the surface and just looking generally unwell. I was yet to receive my API liquid test kit so called LFS for advice and they thought it may of been an ammonia spike. Did 2 50% wc over 2 days and all seemed great. I then noticed 1 fish with what seemed to be fin rot (guessing from poor water quality) so treated the tank which also meant no water changes for 7 days (today is day 6). My API test kit arrived and i have been testing parameters for the past week and haven't seen a rise in ammonia, nitrite or nitrate.
Current parameters-
pH 7.6 (gone up from 7.2 two days ago)
Ammonia 0.25 (could be abit less but hard to tell with the colour chart)
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
These have been the exact same all week except the slight rise in pH.
Could i have possibly missed a nitrite spike before getting my test kit?
Should i do a water change after tomorrow (last day of fin rot medication)?
I added some evolution aqua balls to my filter. Could this be slowing my process down?

I have also noticed some sort of white algae/slime producing on the heater suction cups which the guppies are all nibbling at.

I know its early days but feel like nothing is really moving or doing much.
Any advice would be really appreciated as i feel i am second guessing and over thinking everything.

Thank you

 

[fishwonder]

Cycling your tank/filter will take 3-8 weeks to complete. Here is information on general Aquarium Tank Cycling. Here is information on doing a Fish-In-Cycle.

 

[Grimes87]

So for now shall i just let it sit but keep testing my parameters. Do i only do pwc if i see spikes in anything or should i still do a small pwc weekly? Am i right in thinking to not disrupt the gravel etc until the tank is established?
Thank you.

 

[fishwonder]

So for now shall i just let it sit but keep testing my parameters. Do i only do pwc if i see spikes in anything or should i still do a small pwc weekly? Am i right in thinking to not disrupt the gravel etc until the tank is established?
Thank you.

The Biggest Error in Fish-in Cycling

While doing this process one must not panic when the ammonia or nitrite goes to 0.5, 1 or even 2 ppm and do water changes (see the chart above). Beneficial bacteria colonies need ammonia and nitrite as their food source. If you do water changes there will be little growth of the beneficial bacteria colonies and the aquarium will take a very long time to become cycled.

But ammonia levels over 2 ppm with food as the source of the ammonia can get one in trouble. This is not because of the ammonia. Rather it is the bacteria that are feeding on the food and feces in the water column. These bacteria are very bad for the fish and can cause disease to pop up. So we recommend water changes when the API ammonia test hits 2.0 with fish-in cycling, regardless of pH.

Just keep going with no water changes unless gaseous ammonia (Seachem Alert test) hits 0.2 ppm, ammonia and ammonium (API test) hit 2 or nitrite hits 2 ppm (at 7.6 pH). Remember, cycling requires three things: Patience, Patience, Patience.

From the above information posted...