Water Values for Dummies.?

The rise in nitrates is a natural occurence for a cycling tank. Pretty soon it will drop off and your nitrites and ammonia will rise. Ammonia is very dangerous for your fish so keep an especially watchful eye on those. A product called stabilizer (made by seachem) can be purchased to help the cycling of the tank. I honestly think you added the fish too quickly, but cichlids are pretty hardy. If your ammonia and your nitrites spike, a water change will help that out, but not totally eliminate it. If you have a large tank, say a 75 gallon or larger, your fish may not notice the spike in ammonia too much, but anything less and they may get stressed, so watch your levels. On a side note, cichlids do not mix well with other fish so setting up a community tank is not really possible. Also you have been doing fine with your Ph levels as they like it relatively high (7.6 - 8.0) Cichlids like places to hide so you may want to invest in an elaborate rock system, such as slate. If you put alot of slate/large rocks in your tank, water flow will diminish, aiding in causing a dirty tank. Installing a powerhead can help to alleviate that problem. Cichlids can be fun to take care of, but can be somewhat complicated at first. I hope this helped, and good luck!