Mid Cycle ?

Hi Guys,

I have a recently setup planted 25g hex tank. I started with 5 neons, a week later added 5 more and 1 week after that added 5 rasboras. Each week I monitored the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate lvls and each week they came back at 0. I posted as such and decided from feedback that any wastes the fish were creating were being used up by the plants.

Then I had an outbreak of ich. I suggled with this for 3 weeks before getting rid of it with a combination of high temps and medication. My plants suffered with the medication and I lost all but a couple. Mid way through battling the ich some of my tetras looked like they had a fungal/mildew type growth so I changed meds to one that treated both ich and common fungal type stuff. (This was the stuff that killed my plants.)

I tried to test the water a couple of times while medicating but was not convinced I was getting true readings because the water had a blue tinge to it and I thought this may effect the final colour of my test.(My tests are the type you add 8 drops of this and that to a 5ml water sample and shake.)

Towards the end of treatment I had to euthanise a couple of tetras for what I think now was dropsy. I also 'lost' a tetra... he has dissappeared, he either jumped out and was eaten by a cat, (highly unlikely as it is a 2 inch jump) or he died and was eaten by the other tetras or died and rotted away. I have never found any trace of him. Once the ich cleared up I added carbon to clean the water. I also had to euthanise another 2 tetras at this stage. Of the five that are left only 1 looks like he will last. Surprisingly to me the rasboras have come through the entire thing without missing a beat.

Now that water is clear I have tested it on 3 consecutive days. Ammonia is sitting between 0.25ppm and 1ppm. Nitrite = 0ppm and Nitrate = 5ppm.

My questions are... has my tank cycled and is now having an ammonia spike? Is it possible the ammonia is from the missing dead tetra, if so how long would that last? He has been missing for about 7-8 days. Or have the meds killed off my good bacteria and i'm going through the cycle again?

What affect does alot of dead plant matter have on these readings? I was removing alot of leaves everyday while the meds were in my tank.

The remaining plants are an amazon sword and a bunch of Cabomba.

Thanks

Mark