Last Cycling Question For Me!

I have been cycling my daughter's tank for about 7 weeks and all looks good. Our Nitrite readings were looking good and started to decline and then completely stopped. So that's good news, but, I have no readings yet for Nitrates. Is It possible to not have Nitrate readings and still be cycled? I believe that the tank is cycled and since the Nitrite readings stopped just about 4 days ago, that it will be a matter of time before the Nitrate readings kick in. I still check for Ammonia and have none and PH looks normal as well.

Thanks in Advance for help!!!
Michael

 

hey mike! i've read somewhere on here that just as long as you have no more ammonia and nitrite readings are zero, then your tank has pretty much been cycled. I'm not completely sure on though. I'll try and find more info on it. hopefully everyone will be able to help us out ;D

me,
christyn

 

Do you have a lot of live plants in the tank?

 

Thanks for some of the speedy replies... I do not have any live plants, just a few decorations. I think that maybe the Nitrate levels are so low that it may be impossible to read them with my test kit. And by not having any ammonia I am not to worried about it. My daughter is doing her science fair project on the Nitrogen Cycle and we are looking for the answer just in case she is asked in her demonstration.

Thanks again!
Michael

 

aww how awesome is that! I love science fairs =]
I'm sure your daughter will do well!

 

What kind of tests are you using? I don't have an answer at the moment. I will have Dino take a look.

 

I would test a water sample to which ammonia had been added.
This would assure that you have a working test kit.
No responce at all, has me thinking the test kit may be faulty.

Dino

 

We had our first detectable reading of Nitrate just the other day. The test is a Liquid test set which is the same kind I have used for Ammonia and Nitrite. The kit has been very reliable. I suppose that I assumed the atypical sequence would have been us seeing a steady decrease in Nitrite while also seeing Nitrates on the rise. Anyways I do have the Nitrate readings that we have been wanting to see.

Thanks for the help
Michael