a couple of things got me scratching my head....
fisrt... its my 3rd day of cycling (w/ 2 fish i know ppl dont like cycling with fish but got way to many mixxed answers about doing it fishless and my lfs was no help ) but i do 2 pwc a day to keep water as clean as possible for the fish . I didnt add any chems to the water save water conditioner and stress coat.

my water param. is
0.25 ppm ammonia
0 ppm in nitrites
between 5 and 10.0 ppm in nitrates
Ph 7.8-8.2
Gh around 160+
KH 180+

i use a API water sofetening pillow ( which seems to be helping with hardness)
my concern is the Nitrates...not sure i should see them till 3rd stage of cycling
any feed back would be great

Thank you in advance

nitrates are no big deal...just keep testing every two or three days for ammonia and nitrite...ammonia should rise then when the nitrites rise the ammonia will come down, the nitrites will rise quite high, then out of nowhere, as the nitrates rise the nitrites and ammonia will drop suddenly to zero, and then your tank will be cycled...key to cycling is the feeding...food means fish feces which in turn means ammonia then will rise but the nitrites will soon feed off the ammonia as soon as the nitrates peak or have fed off the ammonia and nitrites, the tank is cycled...so just be mindful of feeding and water changes...water changes as the ammonia and nitrite levels rise will help dilute the water, understand the process? You get to control the cycle, believe it or not simply by the way you feed and water change (of course always testing the water to know exactly when to water change and how much to feed, understand?)......if you have any other questions, do not hesitate to ask (so don't worry about the nitrates, just watch the ammonia and nitrite)

One other thing, if you can, pick up a bottle of Prime to help on the water change (rids the water of ammonia)

I personally wouldnt use a ammonia binder unless the readings were off the chart. I would use water changes to control it.

I cycle with fish and only waterchange when testing says its needed. Doing unecessary water changes will only extend the cycling time.

I would not worry too much about the nitrates you have showing. Once they get to 20ppm, i consider that time to do a partial water change. Its more the ammonia and Nitrites you need to be keeping an eye on

The tank will take about 4 (upto 6) weeks to cycle with fish


Can i ask how big is the tank, and what fish you are cycling with??

Prime works by removing chlorine from the water and then binds with ammonia until it can be consumed by your biological filtration (chloramine minus chlorine = ammonia). The bond is not reversible and ammonia is still available for your bacteria to consume. Prime will not halt your cycling process. Furthermore, Prime removes chlorine and chloramine (even in high chloramine levels), and detoxifies ammonia and nitrite. Provides essential ions and stimulates natural slime coat. Prime also detoxifies any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels. When used during cycling, Prime enhances nitrate removal and does not cause a pH drop or overactivate protein skimmers. Great for setting up new aquariums, or when adding or changing water, or to remove nitrate.

Not sure if I answered your question, so let me know if I didn't.

I do agree with Alasse, by liquid testing the water you will know how much water to change. That is, if the ammonia is very high (1.0 ppm or higher) change about 40%, if 2.0 ppm change 60% or until the water test reads back to 0 or nearly so, understand? The key to water changing during cycling is, to test before the water change and then test after the water change (same thing goes for nitrite).

Depending on the tank, it will take about 4 to 6 weeks...the amazing thing about cycling is, after the ammonia starts to drop to 0 as the nitrite rises, you will test one day and bam, out of nowhere, the ammonia and nitrite levels will have dropped completely to 0, then you will know the tank is cycled.

The tetras you are using are hardy enough to withstand most chemical fluctuations - when I first started to cycle my tank back in May 2008, I used 2 zebra danios which are similar to tetras, so there is no problem in this regard.

Let us know how it goes. Cycling a tank is a rather interesting experience because there is anxiety and then out of nowhere, the cycle completes itself overnight.