19 Litre Fluval Spec

[Cylindric]

Hi folks, I thought I'd capture some details of the new little tank (my smallest yet) that I hope to turn into a home for some shrimp.
 The tank was first filled 21st February 2021. Plants were added on about 26th.
 
 So far this consists of the following:
 
 

• Tank: Fluval Spec 19
• Heater: Interpet Nano 25W
• Substrate: Fluval Plant and Shrimp Stratum
• Substrate: Pettex Roman Aquatic Gravel
• Plants:
  • Cryptocoryne parva
  • Limnophila sessiliflora “Ambulia”
  • Anubias nana
  • Christmas moss
  • Riccia
  • Hygrophila polysperma

[TropicalFishForums]

[Cylindric]

 Cycling is currently under-way. I think it's going okay - I put in a glug of Ammonia on 25th Feb (it really doesn't take a lot in a tank this small!) to get it up to about 4ppm, and it's now (4th Mar) down to pretty much zero. I have been adding Fluval Cycle, and a tiny bit of Fluval Grow+ went in to give the plants something to chomp on.
 
 

• Ammonia: currently <0.1ppm
• Nitrite: off the chart >5ppm
• Nitrate: off the chart >80ppm
• pH: steady at about 7.6
• Temperature: about 25°C
• Hardness: 15.23dKH (272mg/l CaCO₃, from official test results, not my own)

Should I bump the Ammonia back up to 1ppm and see what happens to it, or wait until the Nitrites come back into a measurable range?
 

• 22nd Feb - First fill. Stratum made the tank look like it was filled with bad coffee​
• 24th Feb - Replaced most of the water to remove the bulk of the floating particulates​
• 25th Feb - Added 1ml of 9.5% ammonia (up to ~4ppm)​
• 1st Mar - Added 2L of fresh water to bring to full. Added ½ml of plant ferts, and ½ml of the bacteria​
• 2nd Mar - Added another ½ml of the bacteria​
• 3rd Mar - 7L water change. Signs of possible algae growth - almost invisible strands on the rocks and tinting on the white sand. Light was probably an error, so turned off now.​