i am 10 days into the cycling of my new tank. i am keeping a very close eye on my water parameters they are as follows today, ammonia 1.0 ppm, nitrite 1.0 ppm, nitrate 1.0 ppm, ph 7.6. the water hasn't really changed much since starting the cycle. i was told to expect an ammonia spike but haven't seen it yet. any idea when that will come? and how much of a spike will i see over the 1.0 ppm i have now? i have been doing regular gravel vacuums no more than 5 to 10 gallons of water removed though.fish seem very content appetites are good,a very active oscar i have here. just want some advice from the pro's as to whether i'm on the right track or if i'm missing antything. thanks everyone!

How big is your tank? You're not doing big enough water changes I'm afraid, you need to keep your ammonia a little bit lower than what it is. It's going to be a few more weeks before you are cycled so just be patient.

You really don't want ammonia to spike too high because that might end up killing your fish, so keep the water changes going so the ammonia doesn't get too high. In hindsight you really shouldn't have used Oscar to cycle your aquarium, however it's a little bit late for us to start telling you that now.

This is the reason why the cycling process takes so long, you can't afford to let the ammonia gets so high that it kills off all the fish.

i understand. my tank is 75 gallon. i have done two water changes one on day 2 of 30 gallons and one on day 4 of 20 gallons. didn't realize that 1.0 ammonia was too high. i'll get right on a water change.

If you have an oscar in the tank then you need to do daily 25% water changes or you run the risk of killing your oscar, unfortunately this will increase the cycling time, however if you have fish you dont care about (like goldfish) then dont do any water changes and wait until your tank is cycled then remove the fish and add the ones you want (like an oscar)- this is the quicker way to cycle

has to be this way, the old tank is only 10 gallon. i do keep a close eye on the water though, did a 25 gallon change today as instructed. so do i test the water daily during the cycling or every other day or what? and do i immediately check water levels after a water change?

leave it for an hour or so before testing