Proper Water Readings

[Pankakes]

Hey everyone, I've had my 55 gallon tank set up now for 15 days. All my readings are good except for the following: Nitrite 10 & Ammonia .5. I've been taking the readings about every 3 days and this morning the Nitrite really spiked to the max. I currently have 8 goldfish in there to help cycle my tank. My question is I guess is how much longer is this cycle going to take and when will those Nitrite levels go down and what else to expect? Please help, thanks

 

[WyldFya]

Your nitrites will go down and your nitrates will start to slowly climb. When the ammonia and nitrite are both .25 or less, then you are cycled. Hard to say how much longer that will take. Could be tomorrow, could be next week.

 

[WyldFya]

Filter out the minirals. Get some filter from home depot.

That makes no sense, as the tank is cycling, the filter is there, but it just takes time. Adding a new filter would do nothing good right now.

 

[Pankakes]

Unfortunately I started with 15 goldfish 15 days ago and i'm down to just 8. Can i expect more goldfish to keep the bucket? Are goldfish good cycling fish?

 

[mojo2776]

Most likely the 8 that made it this far will make it the rest of the way, since your nitrite levels should start dropping before long anyway. Sounds like they made it through the toughest part of the cycle.

 

[Pankakes]

Ammonia is now down to 0. Nitrite has spike to 10 (max). How long does it take for the Nitrites to get to its proper level?