Help with Cycling

[Mebbid]

If a nitrate test gives you a false reading then there's a 99% chance that a mistake was made in the testing which results in a 0ppm ammonia. Ita not going to detect nitrite with the nitrate kit. Even if it did, the nitrite concentration is soo low that the nitrate kit would barely budge.

 

[afurlow96]

If a nitrate test gives you a false reading then there's a 99% chance that a mistake was made in the testing which results in a 0ppm ammonia. Ita not going to detect nitrite with the nitrate kit. Even if it did, the nitrite concentration is soo low that the nitrate kit would barely budge.

I was doubting the false results as well so i took my water to get tested at the LFS for a second opinion and they got very similar results as me. 0ppm Ammonia and 5ppm Nitrates. Also found my PH because i don't have a test, i think it was 7.6 or something like that.
they said my tank is pretty much ready for stocking so right after my vacation i'll start picking up some fish probably

 

[jglover]

Did they test for nitrite?

 

[afurlow96]

Did they test for nitrite?

no, she said it wasn't all that important

 

[jglover]

Well that's a problem as nitrite is very toxic and should be a part of routine water quality testing. Just because there is no ammonia there still could be a nitrite spike.

 

[afurlow96]

scared i may have screwed up

I moved the goldfish out of the ten gallon i was cycling because i was getting consistent readings of 0ppm Ammonia and 5 - 20 ppm Nitrates (it gradually went up). Once i moved the goldfish out, i put in the heater for the fish that will be going in and also bought a couple more plants. When i was putting the plants in it kicked up a bunch of stuff, whether it was pieces of plant, stuff from the bottom, whatever. The tank looked a bit messy so i vacuumed up the mess and did ~40% water change just because thats what came out when i was vacuuming. No new fish were added thus far. I tested the water 2 hours after the PWC and vacuum and Ammonia was at .25ppm and Nitrates dropped between 0 and 5ppm.

Did i screw up my whole cycle or will it only take a day or so to get back on track?