New to fish, advice on FW setup

Three tests yesterday:

Ammonia: .50ppm
Nitrites: .50ppm
Nitrates: 7-8ppm

From tap a week and a half ago:

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 5ppm

Just tested:

Ammonia: .50ppm
Nitrites: .50ppm
Nitrates: 5ppm

The three tests from yesterday were all takes after the last 30% water change, with the last one at 11PM or so. I just took that other test just now. The nitrates dropped a hair, but I'd say everything is stable. There's just something about everything niggling in the back of my head. I feel like the tests should be zeros, high, or bouncing all over a bit, anything but steady at .5ppm.
 
Even with bio spira, it will take a while for the colony to establish and handle everything. It can only grow so fast. I would just keep the ammonia and nitrites at .25 or under by water changes.

The bacteria that convert nitrites to nitrate are much more slow growing than the ones that convert ammonia to nitrite.
 
Appreciate the "support". It just kinda felt a bit weird with things really not changing for the better, or worse, yet not quite right either. Guess this is what I get for a slight bout of impatience :huh:
 
Just to update, thing seem to be going well cycle wise. For the past 1 1/2 - 2 days I have been testing at <.25ppm on ammonia and nitrites. The nitrates haven't really risen yet though. I also did a water change last night, not to change the water, but to lower it as I added a few plants, removed a few I didn't like (OK, I hated them), and moved some as well.

I've got two problems though:

SNAILS! You want 'em, I've got 'em! I kid you not, I seriously see about 30 or so. And that doens't count the 14 egg pods I just counted THAT I SAW. I'm cutting my feeding down to one a day, at least for now. I didn't think I was overfeeding, but being new it's certianly a possibility. On the bright side, I think the snails knocked down (and almost out) the white tuff I had on my driftwood.

Algae. Probably should put this in the plant forum, but it's also all interconnected. I've got a ton of black hair algae (I think) and some minimal green algae on the acrylic. I added 2 otos yesterday, so hopefully that will help. I was going to replace the actanic light with a daylight, but after seeing the algae, I figure another 32 watts of light will REALLY cause algae problems. I'm just leaving it off for now, and may cut the daylight down to 10 hours, as it's currently at 12.

Here's the "final" fish stock list:

8 Harlequin Rasboras
6 Orange Von Rios
4 Albino Corys
2 Otos (likely will be 3 soon)

It is a slightly planted tank, but even with that I figure for a 24G I'm probably borderline overstocked. I actually may be a little overstocked, but my inexperience has me thinking the tank can handle it. It's all passive filtering, and the pump will cycle 5X the volume an hour. I understand Otos like the same as company, so I forsee adding one, MAYBE (but not likely) two. Whenever the Corys die I think I might replace them with 3-4 Khuli Loaches, but I haven't decided yet.

Hopefully this will close out this thread with words of advice. Ideally (in my opinion) this will complete my first tank post. Once I get my tunnels and rest of my plants in I'll post pics. I'm going to make two posts for the problems in this one. One will be the snails, in the FW forum, and the second for the algae, in the plant section. Really appreciated the help getting set up. I know I didn't follow all the advice, especially since I departed fromt he fishless cycle, but believe me, not one piece of advice was ignored. Thanks again.
 
You might want to mention your snails in the plant section, full information is best when asking for advice. There are methods to treat your plants to remove unwanteds from plants you are bringing in.
 
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