First Steps... Tropical Freshwater Tank.

[AlbertShipman]

Thank you eaglesaquarium for such a detailed response

 
Get yourself some ammonia (or fish food) and add it to your tank to give the ammonia oxidizing bacteria some food to get their colony growing (2-3ppm ammonia dose is ideal).  Also, add some baking soda about 1tsp per 5 gallons to start - to raise your pH to anywhere from 8.0-8.4 (just for during the cycle, you will need to do a massive water change at the end anyway, so you can remove the baking soda then as well).  Your temp is ideal for the cycle, but also will need to be lowered for the fish eventually.
 
Lastly, you never mentioned your AMMONIA reading?  That's something you are going to need to know about, for the cycle, as well as the fish later on.  What test kit are you using?
Live plants is best left for the END of the cycle, not the beginning.  Live plants require light and light + ammonia = algae.  Best to start researching plants while you are cycling, and add them towards the end.
 

I have a bottle of ammonia on standby.
My readings from both tank and tap are very low. Between 0 and 0.5 at most.
The kit i am using is "king british"

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Ammonia and nitrite readings for the tank should be ZERO all the time when the fish are in the tank...

 

[AlbertShipman]

just a quick update for anyone that's interested...

as mentioned before this is a family tank with decisions taken together. The ammonia i intented on using was never opened, instead it was decided to go solely using the "nutrifin cycle" process (roughly) although hesitant in the beginning all is well so far.

So, on the 4th February, four cardinal tetras were added. For the next week water tests were carried out everyday, all readings showed no reason to worry. Happy with the results it was decided the time was right to add live plants. We had already decided upon the cabomba and the Lilaeopsis (micro sword) unfortuanately no cabomba available so in it's place Cryptocoryne and echinodorus were chosen.
The follwing twelve days again water testing showing no worrying signs with todays reading being
Ph 7.2 - 7.6
Kh 100 - 180
Gh 125
Nitrate 25
Nitrite 0.5
Ammonia 0

...despite the fact i wanted to wait until the end of feb//start of march, more additions were made today. A further 3 cardinal tetras and 2 yomato shrimps.

(In the 19 days since the first tetras were added, 5 partial water changes were made, replacing 12Ltrs out of 60, around a fifth...)

 

[b3cca]

Hiya i'm new as well and been cycling mine with fish for about 4 weeks and used some "bottled bacteria" so have been constantly reading and learning lately.
 
Have you seen any high ammonia or nitrite spikes yet ? Your nitrite and nitrate seem the same now as when you started the other week so idk even if it has started to cycle yet, maybe somebody with more knowlege would know.
 
I only ask because my 70 litre with 4 small fish showed nothing for the first few weeks all looked fine like yours does. But all of a sudden things changed and I am now going through the spike phase with high ammonia and nitrites and having to change out 50 % water every morning and 50 % every evening just to try and keep my levels from killing the fish.
 
Your bioload seems a lot higher than mine does, so just please make sure you check parameters all the time everyday until it is fully cycled because, as i have just found out a huge spike can come on very fast without warning.
 
Oh and welcome and good luck too

 

[AlbertShipman]

Hiya i'm new as well and been cycling mine with fish for about 4 weeks and used some "bottled bacteria" so have been constantly reading and learning lately.
 
Have you seen any high ammonia or nitrite spikes yet ?

morning b3cca, thanks. Only increase was the Nitrite levels around 3-4 days ago, this was combated with a water change and been steady since. ammonia readings still registering as zero.
Will be doing todays tank readings in an hour or so.