Fish Have Arrived - Nitrites Still Stuck At .5ppm

[jiffy]

My 30 gallon tank (fishless cycling) is still stuck at .5ppm of nitrItes, and its been like that for about a week. Yesterday morning I did a 30% water change and then at night added 5ppm of ammonia. The tank has rid itself of the ammonia in about 14 hours, however the nitrItes are still at .5ppm

Trouble is, my order of fish arrived today, 20-25 Ps. Saulosi. They are still in the cooler they were shipped in and I am kinda wondering what to do. I am thinking I should do a large large large water change asap, let the tank run for a few hours and get to the correct temp and then put the fish in.

I can monitor water parameters and do water changes as necessary at that point.

How does that sound?

 

[AMS]

Have you got a nitrate reading yet?

 

[jiffy]

No, I haven't got a nitrAte test kit.

I did just do a 65-75% water change but I haven't began to acclimate the fish yet...

 

[jiffy]

Another question:

I just did a large water change (about 65%) the tank ran with both filters going for about 15-20 minutes since then and I rechecked nitrItes, they still say .5ppm.

Just to be sure tis not my kit, I checked my other tank, which came back 0ppm.

How could I have changed so much water and the nitrItes didn't change at all?

 

[jiffy]

In a mistake of my own, I realized I must not have let the test kit sit as long as it should, at that my nitrites are infact much higher than .5ppm. Nitrites began to show up just over a week ago, so I think it probably has another week to go before it goes down on it's own.

I have now done 2 large water changes and the level is still above 1ppm.

I don't really know what else to do at this point. I am going to do another water change and try to bring it lower still but then what do I do???

I mean if I have the fish in the tank and do water changes to keep it under .5ppm, will the tank still continue to and finish its cycle?

 

[Neal]

Your probably waiting for advice, so the only thing I can offer you is to either rehome the fish for a while, or put them in your tank and do daily(ish) water changes.
Sorry, this is the only advice I can give you.

Neal