Questions for chemists - esp. fishless cycling advice

[anonapersona]

Originally posted by FastFish
So, if ammonia->nitrites happens in 24hrs, then nitrites->nitrates is presumably functioning enough to be considered "cycled"?

No.

This is fortunate, because my nitrites are orders of magnitude off the scale right now (which tops at 10ppm, btw).

Plants and fish will arrive next weekend, if everything goes well.

Put a hold on those fish!

You are only about 1/3 of the way done. The nitrite phase is longer than the ammonia phase.

If the fish are not able to be postponed, you have a lot of water changing to do to get the nitrites down to below 1. Get it down to >1 with back to back large water changes, then keep it there even if you need to change water daily or more when the fish are in the tank.

A small dose of salt will help the fish, but not much for it won't help the plants.

Really much, much better to get the plants several weeks before the fish.