nitrogen cycle Tank Cycling - No Nitrites?

[Skylar.grey]

So I’m new at both fish keeping and shrimp keeping. Now I have 2 - 5 gallon fish tanks (one with a Hillstream loach, 4 Danios, a couple moss balls and some hornwort. The other has 1 male betta, 2 mystery snails, a moss ball and some hornwort) and 1 - 29 gallon tank that I’m currently trying to cycle (right now it has hornwort, java moss and some spiderwood in it but no fish/snails/shrimp)

 

I’ve been testing my water in all my tanks about once a week. I started my two other fish tanks out of an impulse almost... I saw my betta at Pet Supplies Plus had a tank in my basement and decided I had to take him home... so I hadn’t cycled my 5 gallon tanks before I stuck anything in. I know it’s not good but I hadn’t done any research so I didn’t know better. Now I do.

 

But my question is: I haven’t had ANY nitrites in any of my tanks. My ammonia and nitrates are there... my ammonia hasn’t gotten over 1 ppm and my nitrates haven’t gotten over around 40 ppm in ANY tank that I have. But why am I not seeing any nitrites? Is it Bc my tanks have plants in them?

 

Thank you for reading this super long post and thanks in advance for any advice/answers you can give😊

[madcrafted]

The spike in nitrites happen so quickly, most people miss it if not monitoring it daily (who does?). I would test your water out of the tap and see where nitrates are at, from there you can determine how much of that nitrate reading is from the actual cycling process. If you are getting readings around 10-20 ppm of nitrates and your tap water is less than 5 ppm and your not supplying a nitrogen based fertilizer, then it's safe to say ammonia is being converted properly. 

 

In the 29 gallon without livestock, are you adding ammonia or food to feed the bacteria? With pure ammonia, you can bring level to around 1 ppm and check it 24 hours later and it should be at undetectable levels once the cycle is complete.