supposedly in a smaller tank ammonia spikes are minimal to undetectable, which was true for me, for the first month and a half my nitrate was undetectable, however my nitrites were through the roof, and then followed as jason mentioned the hair algae and cyano, which i got rid of with water changes and red slime remover, but eventually the hair algae went down and now stopped all together with only a few tiny patches left, however for some reason my nitrites are still a little high, good luck with the tank
