Freshwater Fish less Cycle

Cuttle bone may not help much as your pH is over 7 but it is worth using even if it just raises them a bit. I would try one cuttlebone to start with - you can test the water to see how much of an effect that has. It won't be instant because officially calcium carbonate is insoluble in water, though the acids found in all tanks will help dissolve it. Wait a week after adding the first one before testing. You may find that GH goes up bit but that KH doesn't. This is just because cycling makes acidic things and they'll use the carbonate from the water and cuttlebone.
If you do find it increases GH a tiny bit, try adding another. You don't want to add so much that the tank GH goes up a lot more than your tap water once you have fish because when you do a water change that will will lower it, then it will creep up again until the next water change lowers it again. A small swing is OK but not a big one.

Cories and harlequins will be fine in your water, though snail's shells will erode. But the cuttlebone will help them. My GH is 5, and I have nerite snails. I've had two for 6 years and their shells are looking worn, but it's taken 6 years for this to happen.

My pet store doesn't sell crush coral I was shocked. I thought I would just add like half of one cuttlebone and see if the pH holds always just for a precaution. It has not dropped for awhile now but would hate for it to drop when I am trying to get this thing cycled and me not know that it has dropped. I would like t get away from testing the water everyday and instead checking it more like every two days instead because my time is pretty limited been working a lot myself. Just to make sure I did the kH &gH test correctly I retested it and yeah it is still showing 3. So I guess just put a little in my filter then?

That sounds fine.

You may want to have a small piece on the bottom of the tank once you have snails.

I tested the water today hopefully it wont be much longer.

I know it is hard to judge colours on a computer screen, but you ammonia looks to be about 0.5 and your nitrite between 2 and 5. You are now at the stage where you need to test once every two days. You need to do this until you test on one day and find ammonia at zero, then you test again two days later and find ammonia at zero again. Then add enough ammonia to get a reading of just 1 ppm. Continue testing every second day until you reach the stage were ammonia is less than 0.25 and nitrite is less than 1. When you get this, add 3 ppm ammonia and test next day. *If they are both zero, the tank is cycled. If one or both are not zero, test every day until ammonia is under 0.25 and nitrite is under 1, then add 3 ppm ammonia and test next day. Continue from * until they are both zero after adding this 3 ppm ammonia.

This fishless cycling on this tank has been a real pain in my butt this time around. Checked the water this morning and the pH had dropped once again below 7.0 ppm, So I re dosed a little baking soda to the water once again. I really don't understand this at all. Okay so my gH & kH are both number 3 but other tanks in the home were all done with the same fishless cycle method with the exact same tap water with no pH issues dropping of any kind.

My local pet store does not carry crushed coral. This tank more then likely would of already been cycled if the tank pH would stop losing the pH. The test show nitrites but the more the pH drops the longer the cycle will be delayed. Here are the readings with adding just a little baking soda. I am thinking about just doing a water change and adding fish and treating with prime and just saying forget it, Beyond frustrated here with just trying to do it the right way and correct way lol

The good news is that your nitrite reading has dropped, though the nitrate reading does not seem to be increasing.

I have to ask this just to make sure, but you are shaking nitrate bottle #2 like the instructions say?

Yes I always shake bottle two and hit it on the table few times. Do you recommend that I go buy some crushed coral today and add some to a mesh bag and just add it to my filter? Reason I ask I think crushed coral would increase both the gH & KH both at the same time. This pH issue is also causing the amazon plants in the tank to die pretty quickly as well. I guess plants do not like baking soda.

How many plants do you have in the tank? It is usual for plants, if there are enough of them and they are growing well, to use ammonia as fertliser. In theory, if you have enough plants you shouldn't actually see any nitrite. And there are a lot of plants that can't cope with the amount of ammonia we add at once during cycling - when there are fish in the tank the total amount of ammonia they excrete might be the same as the amount we add during cycling, but the fish make tiny amounts constantly throughout the day; it isn't a whole lot at once.

It is possibly the combination of the baking soda and the added ammonia that is making the swords unhappy.

I had 4 amazon swords, I am down two three now one plant roots died. No they are turning brown and yellow I have been trimming them once the leaves die and ordered some liquid flourish for the other ones to add to the water so I don't lose them all. I swear none of my other tanks have ever gave me as much trouble as this one has lol

I re added the ammonia tonight to 1.0 ppm after I seen that it went to zero. I have noticed if I add more then this amount then the nitrites go over 5.0 ppm and force me to do a water change.

I hadn't realised you had live plants when I said to add 3 ppm ammonia. Adding just the 1 ppm is much better for the plants.
What would help is floating plants. They are nearer the lights and they can take up CO2 straight from the air, so they are capable of processing ammonia faster than lower down plants. What fish are you planning for this tank? There are many species which prefer a tank with floating plants overhead.

The stock I have in mind. Is all I can think right now, I already have tanks with neon's and Gourami's for this tank I wanted something different. I have had Bolivian Rams before but mine always die months down the road, Those Bolivian Rams seem to be pretty picky and hard to deal with. Here are the tank test readings today.

8 Harlequin Rasbora
6 Panda Cory
2 Mystery Snails

I have Espei's rasboras which are closely related to harlequins, and these fish definitely appreciate cover. Mine huddled in a corner until I got some floating plants. They ventured out of their corner as far as the edge of the plants, and as the plants grew, they moved out further, still under cover. It was only when the plants covered almost all the surface that they started to swim all over the tank.

I would definitely recommend some floating plants. These range from the tiny, but invasive, duckweed, through the larger Salvinia, then water lettuce and frogbit to the large water sprite. The smaller plants would be better for a smaller tank - the water sprite in my 180 litre (40 gallon) tank grows rather large.

Floating plants will also help to cycle a tank as they will use a lot of the ammonia made by the fish so you won't need to grow as many bacteria.

I almost thought about starting the tank completely over not sure if I am making progress on this fish less cycle or not. I have patience just would like to see better results with the test. Yeah I plan on getting some floating plants as well once this tank cycles if it ever does.