Cycling and levels

Question
Hey Karen

I have started a Cichlid tank i currently have 7. My question regards tank cycling, I check the levels every day and usually they stay .25-.50 ammonia(looks to be closer to .25), .25 nitrite, and 0 nitrate. I do a 30% water change every week and use ammo-chips, freshwater aquarium salt, vita chem fresh water, prime, and stability.
The fish seem to be doing fine, great coloring and all. Are these levels bad or is it normal? I'm pretty sure my tank hasn't cycled yet by reading past posts by you. Also a friend has a cichlid tank which he started roughly the same time as mine and there has been a massive amount of algae growing, is it better if your tank grows this? and if my tank hasn't been growing it is it a bad sign?

Thank's
Daniel

Answer
Hi Daniel,
You are doing a great job with your tank already. But I probably wouldn't use ammo chips in your filter. This could slow down your beneficial bacteria growth. The test readings might be false too. Since you use some water conditioners that may produce false readings on your test kit so check the label for that. You may not have any problem at all it just might be false readings.
It's great to hear your fish are doing so well!

Nice job on keeping on top of water quality. One note though, you don't really have to use salt all the time in your aquarium. It typically is not necessary in most aquariums and is best reserved for a side-treatment when your fish gets sick, it can be great for fungal infections, bacterial infections and parasites.

As far as the algae problem with your friend's aquarium. Most algae problems can be traced back to the two main key triggers to algae overgrowth.... Light and nutrients. Too high a nitrate level is always a big problem with cichlid aquariums and will result in algae issues eventually. So make sure your friend checks that.
Cutting back on light to only a few hours everyday or just enough so they can be fed and then lights out and help get rid of the algae. As long as the fish aren't in complete darkness (there is a good amount of light in the room) the lights should be out most of the time for now.
So the keys to getting rid of an algae problem typically are-
*Daily 30-50% water changes to lower the nutrient level
*Cutting back on light as much as possible.

From then on, simply try to keep the nitrates as low as possible (20 or less is ideal) and keep the tank light on a schedule of about 8-12 hours a day or so.

Its not a bad sign that your tank isn't growing algae. All aquariums are different of course and your aquarium just doesn't have the right conditions.

Best of luck and I hope this helps!
Karen~