Iana, its fun seeing your pictures but you need to be aware that digital cameras and computers (in particular) do not necessarily accurately portrait colors. We can't be sure what you are trying to tell us. Its important for you to place the tubes in front of the white area and then in front of a bright light and make your own interpretation of the number.
If you have just started to get some nitrite, but not a maximum scale reading of nitrite, then you haven't quite turned the corner to the second phase but you are close.
Once the nitrite spikes and you are definately in the second phase, there are a couple of things you can choose to do to watch the progress a little more easily. Instead of adding 5ppm on the next 24hour mark after ammonia drops to zero, you can just bring it back up to 3ppm. This will help keep you from producing quite as much nitrite, since its a 2.7-times multiple of the ammonia. The other thing you can start doing is 90% water changes on the weekends (with a recharge of ammonia of course.) This will lower the nitrite and nitrate down a lot and usually let you see some progress trends in your nitrite measurements.
Eventually of course, the N-Bacs will grow and the nitrites will finally start getting processed down to zero within 24 hours. At that point you will work your way back up from 3ppm adds to 5ppm adds again and you will end up with very robust bacterial colonies.
~~waterdrop~~
Sorry Iana, got distracted by the kids, didn't have the main thread to roll back down to and usually we refer to 2 phases for fishless and can't detect it when doing fish-in (excuses, excuses )
You're right, seeing some nitrite during the fish-in cycle does indeed let you know you are out there in the middle of the cycle. Sorry to go off giving the usual info for second phase of fishless. You are doing a great job keeping close to zero, especially since that cube is so tall!
~~waterdrop~~
I guess one good thing about having to do lots of water changes as it really focuses you on working on the efficiency of your techniques...
sounds good, ignore the guy downstairs or direct him to this forum, we'll sort him out!!!
def sounds like you're progressing well so keep up the good work.
ah changing out gravel's not as hard work as WD makes it out to be, I wouldn't suggets you do it while cycling but once the cycle is done you do this
1 - in the week leading up to the gravel change clean the gravel every day so you make sure you've no excess waste caught up in it.
2 - wash the new gravel
3 - drain the tank to one third full, remove all decor, catch the fish and pop them, into a large bucket of tank water(use two nets, hold a big net at one end of the tank, use a small net to chase them into the big one
4 - when all the fish are caught stick some of the plants or decor into the bucket to give the fish some cover, stick a tea towel or something similar over the bucket so it's dark and they can't jump out
5 - scoop out all the existing gravel
6 - put the new gravel in
7 - at this point you may see loads of muck stirred up in the tank, a bit is fine but if there's loads then siphon it out
8 - fill the tank up to two thirds full (remember dechlor), turn the heater and filter back on
9 - re-arrange your decor and plants
10 - when the water is up to temp pour the contents of the fish bucket straight into the tank
11 - top the tank up if water level is still a bit low
easy peasy, reckon it'd take me no more than 2 hours on a tank that size
flicking against objects is a common symptom of ich, or white spot however it can also be a symptom of a lot of other disease, fish sometimes do it if there's particles floating around in the water which irritate them, likewise it can just be because the ammonia and nitrite in the water is irritating them.
i would suggest you step up the water changes to try and get the levels down to 0, then very closely monitor all the fish's behaviour and report back with any symptoms.
fish do flick or rub occasionally in all tanks so just seeing them do it once isn't immediate cause for concern, but it is something to keep an eye on particularly in a tank where we know the levels are off.