New to the aquarium hobby, fish less cycling/water problems

[Pizza_]

Hello,
I recently got into the aquarium hobby about 2 weeks ago, I did a ton of research before hand and decided to do fish less cycling with dr. tims one and only. I purchased a 20 gallon tank that came with a marina s20 filter with 4 cartridge spots, I put bio-max media in one, an aquarium sponge, 1 bio-clear marina cartridge and 1 carbon cartridge in the others. I plan on having a freshwater tropical fish tank, I have a heater set to 78 degrees, petco colored gravel substrate, and currently artificial plants and decorations, but I do plan on getting live stuff in the future. On day 1 I added my tetra aqua safe dechlorinator to the water, waited about a half hour and then added the entire bottle of one and only and 80 drops of dr. tims ammonium chloride (4 drops per gallon as it says on the bottle). Now the issue I'm having is its been 2 weeks since I started and haven't noticed any changes with my api master test kit. My readings have been ph:7.3, ammonia:4ppm, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate and I have tested 6 times in this period of 2 weeks. I know fish less cycling is a long process but i thought when using dr. tims one and only I should begin seeing some kind of results after 2 weeks. I'm nervous the bacteria may have been killed in transit because the bottle was very warm when it arrived from amazon and I also kept in the refrigerator for a bit and don't know if that's what effected it.

So I decided to contact dr. tims about this issue and they said the bacteria is unlikely to be dead and putting it in them refrigerator slowed them down. Then they asked what was the hardness and alkalinity in my water, which were issues I hadn't considered being a problem. But I went to my local fish store to have it measured and it turns out I have extremely soft water it was 0 on the api test from my tap water and a 25 in my tank and my alkalinity is also 0 but my ph is in the neutral range with a 7.3. Dr. tims customer support then told me these water conditions are terrible for nitrifying bacteria and almost all fish and recommended i raise the hardness of the water.

So this is where I'm stuck, I planned on setting up a betta community tank, I hadn't put much thought yet into exactly what fish I was going to add with the betta until I got my tank cycle started. But is having 0 hardness and 0 alkalinity truly a bad thing for fish and the nitrogen cycle? also in the future whenever I'm ready for fish and do my weekly water changes am I going to have to add stuff to harden the water every time I add it to the tank or is this just for cycling? Also should i start all over and do 100% water change with a new bottle of bacteria before attempting to harden my water or will the nitrifying bacteria already in the tank become more active once I harden my water?

The hardness and alkalinity of my water was kind of a curve ball and has really confused this whole process for me. Would really appreciate if anyone could give me some advice on this issue, cause I'm totally at a loss.

Thanks

[j.falk]

I would recommend asking your local fist store about what type of what they are using and how they would recommend cycling the aquarium since they are possibly using the same waster source as you.

[j.falk]

* fish store

[j.falk]

WITH CORRECTIONS: I would recommend asking your local fish store about what type of water they are using and how they would recommend cycling the aquarium since they are possibly using the same waster source as you.

[sde1500]

This is a question best directed to a tropical fish forum, not a saltwater fish forum.

[Smokey Stover]

A Freshwater Tropical Fish tank? You may need to do another ton of research and find a Freshwater Tropical Fish Forum. This is for Saltwater Reef fishes, Inverts, and Coral mostly.

[Smokey Stover]

Originally Posted by sde1500

This is a question best directed to a tropical fish forum, not a saltwater fish forum.

LOL, I type so slow you beat me.