First tank, thoughts?

[Jexnell]

With the load of fish in the amount of space I would be doing water changes daily at least.
As reference I have a 6ft 125gallon with one 10in cichlid in it and I do 80% changes ever 3 days.

Do you have a water test kit? Most of us use the API master test kit.

 

[esoxlucius]

In the time i’ve had it I have done one 20% water change about a week ago.

You're a month in, at least, and you've only done one 20% water change? It's alright saying "crossing my fingers it works out," and "so far so good," and "so far they've all survived," but you are treading on very dodgy ground here.

As Jexnell said, you need to be testing your water to get a real grip on when, and at what rate your water changes need to be at to keep your tank parameters in check.

 

[Evankeirce]

You're a month in, at least, and you've only done one 20% water change? It's alright saying "crossing my fingers it works out," and "so far so good," and "so far they've all survived," but you are treading on very dodgy ground here.

As Jexnell said, you need to be testing your water to get a real grip on when, and at what rate your water changes need to be at to keep your tank parameters in check.

I have a dip test kit that measures nitrate, nitrite, hardness, and ph. Only thing that has been high is nitrates and phosphate (used a different kit for phosphate). Will do another 20% change today but so far parameters have been stable (all be it not ideal). Once it is fully cycled I will fine tune it as needed to get it where I need to be. It’s this transition period I worry about.