Water parameters? Cycling? I dont know what's going on here.

[jcarson]

It's still cycling, and most new tanks usually take 2 months to complete a full cycle. (that's why you still see nitrite, and high nitrate often corresponds to the conversion )
But sometimes when you add fish before it is finished cycling, it messes with the timing of the process, and numbers tend to bounce around.
You have added lots of fish (IMO, its at full population capacity now) to an uncycled tank, and though to you, it seems gradual, (at this point in a cycle), I would have added to more than 3 or 4 in total for the first 2 months.
Water temps in the great rift lakes of Africa, usually hover in the mid 70s, and are very consistent. Not that this has anything to do with your issue, but since the majority of your fish (the cichlids) are rift lake species, which would be more comfortable, lower than 80'F, just an FYI.

I know was adding a little quick, I ordered 2-2.5” fish and got adults. 2 females are already eggs.

When cycling, every time you do a water change you are removing the food that the bacteria need to get to their capped (cycled) population level. SO it is a trade-off; do no water changes and tank cycles in usually 4-5 weeks, but possibility of fish death is high. Or do water changes to protect the fish, and extend your cycle to 8-12 weeks. Doing the constant water changes is prolonging your cycle greatly; with that said I would recommend it, since like Duanes said, this is actually a lot of fish added quickly, rather than the 3-4 max hardy fish recommended to be added during cycling.
So at this point, I would probably just keep doing what your doing, it just may take a while for the nitrites to hit zero, since the water changes will be needed to keep it at a non-lethal level.
I would also rethink stocking; Mbuna with gouramis is a bad idea. The gouramis' trailing fins eventually will get picked off, and they would much prefer to keep those fins

Gouramis, mollies, danio, we’re part of fish cycle. They were cheap but I still want to be fairly responsible. I was willing to lose them but now I don’t want to lose them, at least to poor husbandry. But if they picked off then they get picked off. They are not they fish I was intending to keep. But now I’m kinda attached.

 

[jcarson]

It's still cycling, and most new tanks usually take 2 months to complete a full cycle. (that's why you still see nitrite, and high nitrate often corresponds to the conversion )
But sometimes when you add fish before it is finished cycling, it messes with the timing of the process, and numbers tend to bounce around.
You have added lots of fish (IMO, its at full population capacity now) to an uncycled tank, and though to you, it seems gradual, (at this point in a cycle), I would have added to more than 3 or 4 in total for the first 2 months.
Water temps in the great rift lakes of Africa, usually hover in the mid 70s, and are very consistent. Not that this has anything to do with your issue, but since the majority of your fish (the cichlids) are rift lake species, which would be more comfortable, lower than 80'F, just an FYI.

I know was adding a little quick, I ordered 2-2.5” fish and got adults. 2 females are already eggs.

When cycling, every time you do a water change you are removing the food that the bacteria need to get to their capped (cycled) population level. SO it is a trade-off; do no water changes and tank cycles in usually 4-5 weeks, but possibility of fish death is high. Or do water changes to protect the fish, and extend your cycle to 8-12 weeks. Doing the constant water changes is prolonging your cycle greatly; with that said I would recommend it, since like Duanes said, this is actually a lot of fish added quickly, rather than the 3-4 max hardy fish recommended to be added during cycling.
So at this point, I would probably just keep doing what your doing, it just may take a while for the nitrites to hit zero, since the water changes will be needed to keep it at a non-lethal level.
I would also rethink stocking; Mbuna with gouramis is a bad idea. The gouramis' trailing fins eventually will get picked off, and they would much prefer to keep those fins

Gouramis, mollies, danio, we’re part of fish cycle. They were cheap but I still want to be fairly responsible. I was willing to lose them but now I don’t want to lose them, at least to poor husbandry. But if they picked off then they get picked off. They are not they fish I was intending to keep. But now I’m kinda attached.

If I assume your August 15 post was for this tank, then if you started the tank on the first of August (2 weeks then, 6 weeks now), with very few small fish (as you stated), and didn't do water changes for most of the 6 weeks (implied by an 80 ppm nitrates), then added a lot more fish (inferred from high nitrites), it would probably look like that.

A mini cycle more or less fits the posts, but I'm guessing due to the vague nature of the info (when the water metrics were taken, the actual WC schedule, the pattern of when fish were added, exactly how much the fish were fed, etc.)

Yes this is the same tank

 

[RD.]

No need to use live fish to cycle a tank. I sat on my hands previously but I'm finding it more difficult the more I read.

I was willing to lose them but now I don’t want to lose them, at least to poor husbandry

Yet that's exactly what this is, poor husbandry.

 

[skjl47]

No need to use live fish to cycle a tank.

Hello; Been following this thread in case I can glean some new (to me) information. I finally understand a bit better about how those with chloramine tap water can in effect have ammonia for the bacteria when the water is treated with water conditioners.

When I set up a new tank I usually throw in a few snails right away. I like to run a new setup a day or few before adding fish just to make sure all is running correctly. Cycling is not usually a problem as I have established tanks but I have been thinking.
It might be much slower to use snails to cycle a tank but seems to me it should work. Snails might have some bb on their shells. ( I do not know this for sure but seems possible.) That might help seed the tank if true.
Even without any bb on them the snails metabolism should make some ammonia as a waste product. Throw in some food for them to eat and that should add to the process. If this is a possible way to start a cycle then no fish are harmed. May not be enough metabolic activity to make a difference.

 

[RD.]

google fishless cycle

 

[jcarson]

google fishless cycle

Too late, tank was already set up with fish.
But beyond my ignorance and lack of "better" judgement to due as much diligence as I should have...... that part is over.

Tank is cycled-ish

I took nitrite test twice just to make sure.
This feels good.

 

[skjl47]

Hello; You have a bit of a catch 22 right now. To get the bb (beneficial bacteria) population established they need to have ammonia and nitrites in the water, both of which are toxic to fish at the levels needed. There are two sorts of bb. One sort takes in ammonia and turns it into nitrite and the other takes in the nitrite and turns it into the much less toxic nitrate.
The ammonia using sort will be established first because that is what the fish and rotting organic stuff put into the water from their metabolic processes. A bit later on the second sort will have enough nitrite in the water to start forming colonies and then eventually they convert the nitrites into nitrates. Once the tank cycle is established we (human fishkeepers) do WC to keep the nitrate levels down to a goal of around 20 ppm or less.

If the tank is done from scratch this cycling process can take six weeks or much longer. My take is that while the bacteria are around and will eventually find a way into a tank, it can take a while for this to happen.

We fish keepers with tanks that are fully cycled can do a short cut when we set up a new tank. We seed the new tank with some bb from the established tank. The bb make a film of colonies on tank surfaces so we just move something from the old tank into the new setup. This might be your next move if you have either a friend with a tank or can get some solid material from a fish shop. ( A word of caution here - taking stuff from someone else's tank means you can also get any diseases or parasites that tank may have.) Another catch 22.

Back to the first catch 22 which is the more you do WC right now to protect the fish from the ammonia and nitrite toxins then the slower the cycle process will be because the bb are not getting a sufficient level of those toxins. However even with WC there will be ammonia and eventually nitrite at some level because the bb are not yet in place to convert them.

Sorry for the long post on this.

 

[jcarson]

@skjl47 My ammonia and nitrites I have watched go from zero to lethal.
This test is from a couple days ago and will test again tommorow but have been doing water changes everyday for over a week and half.

Today I fed my fish 4 times and have not done a water change.

I will watch this closely over the next 2 weeks and even add some fish.

 

[skjl47]

and even add some fish.

Hello; While adding fish will increase the amount of ammonia there are other ways to do this. The current fish are already being sacrificed o the process and will suffer from the toxic ammonia. There is no real need to add more fish to get the cycle done. What you can do is simply give the process some more time. It is going to take more time even if you add the new fish.
You made a mistake by adding fish to a new uncycled tank back at the start because you did not understand. Now that the information has been made clear about the suffering of the fish then adding new fish anyway brings this to a whole new level.
Not sure how you will fair in the hobby if you do not care about the welfare of the fish.

 

[Gourami Swami]

If he watched the ammonia and nitrite spike to lethal, then fall back to 0 as he says, then his cycle is more or less complete.
Yes he cycled with fish in the tank... not the greatest method but he's new and is learning. I'm pretty sure every aquarist has either cycled with fish in a tank, or messed up their cycle with meds, or some other mistake that caused a cycle to break, and had fish in an uncycled tank.
My advice to the OP; take it in stride, get rid of those community fish If you want to do cichlids. Maybe add one more group of cichlids max, but in a 55 you don't have too much more room, with 12 cichlids already. If you don't give the community fish away I would add nothing.