My new 150 gal tank

Hi all first time on this forum. Greetings fish fans!!!
Well after many years of not having a tank i once again have rose to the challenge of a freshwater tropical community tank. i have all the grow lighting in place i have 2 whisper 60 filters going i put in the normal filter pack with carbon and also put in 4 water softerner pillows behind filters i have very hard water where i live and i am trying to condition the tank water while my r/o filter is on order.
My question is how long in a new tank of this size do you recomend cycling water before i add fish it has been up and running for 3 weeks the hardnes is off the chart but just put in pillows yesterday ph is 8 alkilinity 120 nitrates 0 nitrites 2,5 but they just spiked chlorine o also i added live plants last week the big ones i purchased are ok but the smarler ones are showing signs of struggle and 2 of them have hairy fungi on the stems and advise would be great. im probably just being impatient on the cycling process but im sure it didnt take this long before i am wanting to add discus,angelfishn and silve dollars,neon tetras thanks toby

It can take more than a month for a large tank to cycle, but there are easy ways to speed the process. The live plants will help, as will a few cups of gravel from an established aquarium. You can also add a piece of raw shrimp or fish. Probably you will also need an ammonia test kit. As you may already know, the objective of cycling is is to grow beneficial bacteria which digest toxic ammonia and nitrite compounds. You can read more about the nitrogen cycle in one of our blogs. Before adding fish, the ammonia and nitrite should measure zero. The beneficial bacteria live mostly in the substrate and in filter media, so you don't want to thoroughly clean all of the filter media at one time.

Most common aquarium fish have been bred specifically for aquariums and as a result can tolerate a fairly wide range of water parameters, thus adding too many chemicals to adjust water parameters is usually not a good idea. A good water conditioner like Stress Coat should be all you need, that and a heater that keeps the water at the right temperature.

I guess this answer rambles on too much, so I'll wait for more questions.