Cycling Problem 2

[Jay22]

Hi, I'm very confused right now. I put ammonia in to 4ppm 2 weeks ago then it slowly dropped to 0. I add enough to get it to one everyday. The ammonia keeps dropping, but I have no readings of nirate or nirates. I am using the api master test kit. Thank you

 

[StevenF]

Any plants in the aqaurium?  Plant like bacteria will process nitrogen in all its forms.  If they absorbe all of the ammonia and nitrite, there will not be enough left to form nitrate.

 

[Jay22]

No live plants. Just sand, silk plants, and a cave.

 

[Gruntle]

Have you shaken the living daylights out of the second bottle of nitrate tester? The reagent is a powder and it drops out of solution quite quickly. The bottle recommends shaking for 30 seconds, it's advisable to go for two minutes, bang the bottle on a table and shake it til your arm falls off.
 
I would also suggest letting your ammonia drop to zero again, and dose a full 3ppm. See what happens and post your results here so we can advise. Dosing to 1ppm won't let us know what's going on in the cycle.
 
My initial suggestion would be you're on the way to a cycled tank, but without nitrate (it's the hardest test to get an accurate reading) I couldn't say for sure.
 
Have you ever had a nitrite reading?