PLEASE HELP!

[Opalocka16]

hi, my tank has been cycling for about 2-3 weeks, and i added 2 gouramis and 5 tetras to get the cycle going.... th e guy in the pet store said they were pretty hardy. well the good news is that the fish SEEM to be OK. except the gouramis, who hide in the bottom of the tank , although they are not beng attacked by the other fish ror nipped at. so i frequently test ammonia ph and nitrite levels exepecting them to go down, as the cycle establishes itself, + i have the emprorer 280 filter with the biowheel, which suypposedyl makes it a lot faster. anyway so i feed my fish either each day a little, or every other day a little more. i give them variety of bloodworms (frozen) and flake food. ok now for the problems.
1. my tetras always zoom to the food, and my gouramis end up getting nothing.... they are seemed to be scared of the other fish's eating habits, and they will not go up to the surface to eat, and when they finally do, all the food is gone. what can i do?
2. i tested my ammonia and nitrite, and change my water 20-25% each week one time. on thurs nite my amonia was at abouyt .50 and nitrite at about .75 - - now, two days after a water change, with pretreated water and everything, my ammonia is at .50 and nitrites are at 1 ppm!!! what am i doing wrong? arnent ammonia and nitrites suppsoed ot go DOWN and NOT UP after water changes?
if anyone can help me it weould be greatly appreciated thank you!
david
ps = email = [email protected]

 

[catman]

Ur biggest problem IMO was adding fish before the tank was cycled! I do notuse fish to cycle a tank, but never mind. too late for that now.

First off, you need to understand the cycling process.

Fish, produce fish waste (ammonia) bacteria in the filter changes the ammonia to less harmful nitrite (which is still highly poisonous to fish)
Bacteria in the filter then changes the nitrite into nitrate. You perform water changes to remove the nitrate.

As ur tank is mid cycle, there is not enough bacteria to convert all the ammonia into nitrite and all te nitrite into nitrate.
All you can do is feed less. (everyt other day max) to keep the ammonia and nitrite levels low, and perform regular water changes. I would add a biolife starter to the tank to speed up the cycling process.

You can tell when the tank is fully cycled, because you will have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and your nitrates will begin to increase. At this point, you can feed your fish as normal, and just perform water changes every week to keep the nitrates down.

Hope this makes sense...