Where oh where have my nitrates gone??

Morning all just a quick cycling query...my filter has been cycling for about 8-10 weeks now (I say filter and not tank because it has moved from a 60l to a 180 l to help seed the new tank) anyway I digress lol...
I tested the water a few days ago and it had finally cycled!!! Ammonia 0..nitrites 0...nitrates 10ppm...just tested it again and got a zero reading for everything!!! Where have my nitrates gone?
Has my cycle crashed? or is this normal and it takes a while for the nitrates to build up? Please help I'm driving myself insane with all this cycling...

 

Some basics:

Did you maintain an ammonia source (food for the bacteria)? - your bacteria shouldn't die in a few days, but without a food source, then the concentration will drop.

Were your parameter readings prior to the move or after - 60 to 180 is triple the size, thus you could expect a third of the concentration (i.e. 3ppm), and the API test kit [assuming you're using this one] may not pick it up.

Did you introduce plants? Plants can feed on nitrates.

Just some preliminary thoughts.

 

If you are using the API liquid test kit, you need to shake, pound and beat bottle #2. Bottle #2 contains crystals suspeneded in liquid, and the crystals tend to separate out and clump at the bottom of the bottle. If not shaken well enough, the crystals will not re-suspend in the liquid, leading to a bad test result.

 

It's a nutrafin liquid test kit I use and have used that from the start...there is a constant supply of ammonia as it was a fish in cycle (don't shoot me I didn't know any better) I'm just confused as I haven't done a water change since the first test a few days ago and nitrates were showing then I have been feeding the fish every other day as I didn't want to overload everything...would that be enough for the levels to drop?? Should I start feeding every day again??

Some basics:

Did you maintain an ammonia source (food for the bacteria)? - your bacteria shouldn't die in a few days, but without a food source, then the concentration will drop.

Were your parameter readings prior to the move or after - 60 to 180 is triple the size, thus you could expect a third of the concentration (i.e. 3ppm), and the API test kit [assuming you're using this one] may not pick it up.

Did you introduce plants? Plants can feed on nitrates.

Just some preliminary thoughts.

Readings were after the fluval has been in with the juwel for about two weeks now...I was having real problems getting it to cycle in the 60l so wasn't holding out much hope for it in the 180l but finally I started getting lower readings, so it must be cycling...
All the plants are artificial in the 180l...although stock has changed slightly but not enough to change anything drastically I don't think

 

Readings were after the fluval has been in with the juwel for about two weeks now...I was having real problems getting it to cycle in the 60l so wasn't holding out much hope for it in the 180l but finally I started getting lower readings, so it must be cycling...
All the plants are artificial in the 180l...although stock has changed slightly but not enough to change anything drastically I don't think

I think maybe after this explanation, that the cycle has just begun again maybe? Going from a smaller tank to a larger tank, and then backing off on the feeding, may have starved some of the beneficial bacteria to have a minI cycle...at this point, I would watch for the next week or so, for some ammonia/nitrites and just be ready...I hope you just get to see nitrates instead!!!!!!

 

So do I!!! I just want to be cycled!!! Lol

 

Without water changes, adding a nitrate removing chemical of some sort or live plants, I don't see how your nitrates would have dropped, even if you lost your cycle. So I still think you got a bad reading either when it read 10ppm or now that it reads 0ppm.

 

I'll try it again and let you know the reading

 

With a Nutrafin kit it is bottle #3 that needs to be beaten against the counter. Make sure it has been thoroughly abused.

 

With a Nutrafin kit it is bottle #3 that needs to be beaten against the counter. Make sure it has been thoroughly abused.

I absolutely shook the heck out of it for 30 seconds like it says lol (mine blooming leaks though typical) and got a negligible reading this time certainly less than 5mg/l I took a pic but it looks slightly darker than it actually was...so as I got a reading is it just a case of waiting for it to get really established?