That's all well and good that you feel that way, but it didn't answer my question. I asked if you *saw* the phases of the cycle. I'm assuming from your answer you did not. If you don't see the cycle develop, and/or you cannot detect the end product of the cycle (namely, nitrate) you cannot assume it has occurred. Trust me on this. Nature doesn't work any other way.
It probably won't matter much one way or another, except for the principle of the thing. You should know what's going on in your tank. I'm only trying to help you.
I would encourage you to do this: just a day or so before your next scheduled water change, test the water yourself and note the results, then take a water sample to your local fish shop and ask them to test your parameters (they'll do this for free as a courtesy), and compare results with your test kit. If both tests get consistent results and they don't find anything either, then I wouldn't worry about it (though it's still odd). If they do get different results, I'd throw out my test kit and get another one.
Seriously, if your tank has been established for several weeks and you aren't showing any nitrogen compounds in the water at all, something funky is going on. If your fish eat and produce waste - and I feel fairly certain they do - you have to have ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate in the water. The only possible scenario I could imagine for detecting no nitrogen compound in the water whatsoever is if the tank is uncycled and your bioload is so low you don't even have enough ammonia to kickstart it (for instance, if you had one guppy in a 30-gallon aquarium). But I don't think this is the case here.
pendragon!
/www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/test_kits_life.php
