hello and fishless cycling help !

Hello everyone !

Just signed up and was hoping to ask you experts a few questions on my new tank.

I bought a biube the other day and set it up with new gravel, plants and rocks. filled the aquarium with treated tap water and put in it 2 small shirmps in a stocking 4 days ago. my ammonia levels are now up to 5. but the tank kind of smells a bit and the water is all cloudy and there seems to be this white slippery coating on the plastic bits of my heater but nowhere else ! does anyone know what this is ?

anyway i will keep measuring ammonia and the nitrite and finally nitrate but as soon as the cycle is complete ( im thinking in 2 weeks give or take ) can i change most of the water and syphon the aquarium and maybe add another plant as well as arranging the ornaments in it properly ( now i have only put them in but not in their final positions ) ?

also can i clean the heater ? it looks kind of dirty like it is now or is this the bacteria im not supposed to remove ? do you think the cloudiness will go ?

also one the plants doesn t seem to be doing to well , maybe its because i had the heater up to 80, 30 degress , now put it down to 26 degrees.

also when do i remove the shrimp ? i guess when ammonia keeps reading zero right ? and how many days of ammonia and nitrite at 0 should i give before i put my fish in it ? i have 2 platies and a neon tetra ( getting another 5 or so of these but only when cycled and slowly - 2 at a time !) and will also put a siamese fighting fish in there and should i stop at that ? dont 't want to over stock....

oh and my 3 fish now are in a small tank and when i move them can i just put them in the new tank after making sure temp is same (26) ? or is there anything else i should do ?

thank you in advance for your answers and im so happy there is this community to help everyone with their tanks !!!

hope to hear from you soon !

 

here's a good site with a pic tutorial on how to set up a fresh water tank
Setting up a Fresh Water Fish Aquarium, Fresh Water Fish Tank

 

WOW.
Do over...
Check out some of the post and stickies here on this site before your next go'round...It will be very helpful. : )
Good luck.
LG

 

Hey thank you for answers !! sorry yes its fresh water !should have mentioned silly !
anyway i ve been reading everywhere that you need to cycle freshwater also and i couldn t find pure ammonia so trying with shrimp although im thinking that yes less would have probably been engough as ammonia levels are quite high now ! i conditioned the tap water before filling it and there is no chlorine there and today its looking clearer actually weird ! anyway will wait it out and hope nitrite start building up ! keep you posted