A few questions!

[Biotope Dude]

Well yesterday I checked my water parameters and the water parameters were as followed:

pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 20 ppm

Now this indicated my cycle was completely(after 3 weeks). I read a site that says do a 100% water change after ammonia and nitrites are 0 and the nitrates are at least 10 ppm. I did the water change and planted the tank with Hygrophila polysperma(until I get my other plants). Today I added 5 Zebra Danio(one long finned variety) and a Dwarf Gourami as I heard that you can stock fully once cycle is done and the tank is planted with fast growers. Well today I checked my parameters after adding fish(well like an hour after) and these were my parameters:

pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0-.25ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 0 ppm

The parameters after filling the tank up yesterday were:

pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 10-20 ppm

Now these are the things I suspect happened:

1. Added too many fish at one time. Im guessing not everything you read on the web is accurate.
2. The plants absorbed all the Nitrates and I am experiencing a mini cycle.
3. Somehow I killed the bacteria.

Stupid me not thinking of asking before adding fish, and now this . I havent done really anything new but I added peat(peat in a old filter cartridge and put in my filter) before adding the fish. I will be watching the pH though. Now to my questions.

1. My gourami wont eat. I heard that you should feed new fish to see if they have any problems. Is this normal in Gourami's?
2. Is this a mini cycle Im experiencing? I added dechlorinator to the tank on the water change.
3. Did I add to many fish at one time? . I know it may seem obvious but I was reading a site that said this.

 

[Biotope Dude]

Bump........

 

[Lotus]

How did you cycle the tank?

 

[Biotope Dude]

I added fish food into the tank everday(a pinch in the morning and one at night) at the end of the first week the Ammonia was at 5 ppm. Then I cut back on the fish food and then I seen the nitrites go up. By the end of the second week the Nitrites were at 5 ppm and the ammonia at .25 ppm. yesterday I checked the water and found there was 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 20 nitrate. The process was done by fishfood. I dont beleive in using fish for cycling a tank.

 

[Lotus]

By cutting back on the food, you probably didn't get a large enough bacteria population. It's quite a heavy fishload to be adding, assuming this is a 10g tank (you don't say). The ammonia spike seems to be over, however.

The gourami may take a few days to eat.

 

[Biotope Dude]

By cutting back on the food, you probably didn't get a large enough bacteria population. It's quite a heavy fishload to be adding, assuming this is a 10g tank (you don't say). The ammonia spike seems to be over, however.

The gourami may take a few days to eat.

Yeah this is a 10g(Very tired today). So the bacteria didnt die it just didnt have a large enough colony. Should I up my water changes from 30% to 40 or 50%?

 

[Lotus]

Keep checking parameters. If ammonia or nitrites go up, do a water change.

 

[Biotope Dude]

Will do. The gourami is now eating and he is more active then yesterday.

 

[MissFishy]

My opinion: I would not suggest a 100% water change after a fishless cycle. 50-75% max. Make sure you treat the water with conditioner before adding it to the tank, otherwise the untreated tap water will kill off the bacteria. Also, good idea with the fish food, but like Lotus said, it probably didn't create enough of a bacteria population for that kind of stocking. The best way is to get some pure ammonia and do the fishless cycle, or just seed the tank from another tank. Another thing...when you say added new filter cartridge, did you take out the cartridge you cycled with?