0 ammonia, 0 nitirite, 0 nitrate?

[laceyb]

Hello! I started cycling an 80g community tank about 2 months ago, using 5 platies, 5 danios, a cory cat and a bristlenosed pleco. I also have all live plants. My ph is about 7.6 (I'm using a small bag of crushed coral and would like to lower the ph a little if possible). My ammonia spiked a few weeks in, and I did 25-30% water changes about twice weekly, whenever the ammonia got too high. It leveled out after awhile and has been consistently 0 for about a month now. After that, as expected, the nitrites climbed. They never got too high, and I continued to do the 25-30% water changes when needed. The nitrites have been at 0 now for about 2 weeks. The nitrates, however, haven't seemed to climb at all. I'm using the API master test kit, and sometimes I think that the yellow color is a LITTLE darker than 0 ppm, but nowhere near the orange-ish color of the next level. My fish seem to be doing fine. Do you think there is a problem, or maybe my tank has cycled? I'd love for it to be cycled already, so I can start getting the fish I really want!

 

[Terrance]

Nitrites have been zero for the past 2 weeks. Same for ammonia?

The bioload from the total number of fishes in your tank is really light. Plus you're doing good weekly water changes. Seems fine to have undetectable nitrate reading if the above question is zero.

 

[FishN00b83]

Some live plants are known to suck up nitrAtes. That could be the reason for the close to zero readings. Have you tried shaking the hell out of the bottles before testing?

 

[HeatherW]

I am thinking you are cycled. how high did your nitrites climb?
so you had ammonia and then went to 0 and nitrites and went to 0... I am thinking cycled. but... if you are going to be adding new fish keep an eye on it again