Tank Is Cycling...!

[CrazyDiamond88]

I just checked my water parameters after my snail wasn't looking so good.
 
Here are the levels:
 
pH 7.4 
Ammonia .25ppm
Nitrite .25ppm
Nitrate 5ppm
 
This is a fishless cycle.
 
I had a ramshorn snail in there because I thought they could tolerate the cycling process.
 
He's in my other tank now, doesn't look too well
 
 
 
So where do I go from here? I have just been using fish flakes to produce ammonia so far.

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

I am doing a water change and I just poured tap water straight in without dechlorinating it D:

Arrrg. It was only a little bit, do you think my bacteria will be okay?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

If you added the dechlor fairly soon after, you should be in OK shape.
 
Tho know where you are in a cycle tajes more than a single reading, More details are needed. Cycling is a progression in which things follow a specific order. We know what is going on based on test results. Therefore it takes a series of results to have an idea where in the processs one may be.
 
Fish flakes are usually a poor choice to use. The amount of organic matter available is not great. Switch to hunks of shrimp or pieces of fish (the kind one eats not the kind in tanks).

 
Using shrimp or fish food: One of the more popular fishless cycling methods is to buy a few dead shrimp at the grocery store, cut them up into chunks and add them to the aquarium. The shrimp decay, which produces ammonia to feed the nitrifying bacteria. There are a few drawbacks with this method, one being that the hobbyist really has no way to know how much ammonia is being produced by the decaying shrimp, and the aquarium does not look very good with dead shrimp laying on the bottom. Also, the organic material of the shrimp can cause bacteria blooms which turn the aquarium water cloudy. This method works but it takes time and patience and you will probably see a spike in ammonia and nitrite if you add a medium to heavy load of fish after the initial cycling. Note that some people use flake fish food instead of shrimp but this is not recommended because flake food does not have much organic material compared to shrimp and so does not add a lot of ammonia to the water, but you can use cut fish instead of shrimp.

from http/www.drtimsaquatics.com/resources/how-to-start

 

[CrazyDiamond88]

Yes, I plan on testing the parameters daily.

I have ammonia on the way in the post. The fish flakes were something I started with before I found out they weren't so great to use.