cycling?

Question
I've had my tank set up for 1 month and the store I bought it from said they had it two-three months b4 I bought it I had the water tested at petco and there I discovered that my nitrite and ph is high as the gentleman at petco said "rocket high" he wasn't sure if it is still cycling or if it needs to be addressed he believes that it is still cycling due to the fact that ive had it set up for a month and the store had it set up for two-three months I have 5 small fish four damsels and 1 clown my tank is a 20 gallon~ what advice can you give me try to bring down the nitrite or let it cycle longer? Thank you in advance, lizette

Answer
Hello Lizette,

Please clarify if it is NITRITE, and not NITRATE.

Can you also tell me what you do for maintenance?  (do you have a filter taht you clean, and what type, and do you add water every day, ad do you change saltwater a couple times per month?

Do you have any test kits at home, and if so, do you have pH, Nitrate, and Ammonia.

Those are the important tests.  Also do you have a salinty meter, eitehr 'hydrometer' or a spectromter.  

Let me know the following:

Salinity - ?
pH - ?
Nitrate = ?
Ammonia = ?


How much fresh water do you add every day
How ofter do you do water change? and how much



If your nitrite is rocket high, and you are not doing water changes daily, your fish would be dead.

If your nitrate is high, it wont be a big problem for fish, coral yes, fish not so much.

So, please let me know if it is nitrite or nitrate.

Thanks


Mr. Bill