ammonia seems to be decreasing, but no nitrites yet?

Whoa - please take care here. By my calculations, you started cycling only 7 days ago. Normally, that's not nearly enough time to have a tank cycle. (Unless you have also added some seeded filter material when starting your cycle).
Apparently you have had NO nitrite readings, and you SHOULD have some before you know that the bacterial colonization is in fact developing properly. In fact, a spike of nitrites should have developed before you know that the process is proceeding as it should , and this USUALLY does not take place until into the 2nd or third week of the cycle. Keep in mind that the nitrifying bacteria which renders ammonia into nitrites develops faster than the bacteria which converts nitrites into nitrates. Which is why many cycles, if not most, take 4 to 6 weeks to fully complete. As for your reading of nitrates, water in many parts of N. America does contain nitrates right out of the tap, so a reading now of 10 ppm of nitrates may not be at all unusual.
This does not mean your cycle is nearing completion.
I would suggest giving your tank more time - but keep adding ammonia to keep the cycle moving along as it should - that bacterial colony needs to keep getting nourished.
 
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Only way to see if the above post is correct is to test your tap water. But if your tap water reads 0 nitrates then obviously the nitrite consuming bacteria is there converting your nitrites into nitrates.
 
Also read Jannika's post above.
Personally I have never seen a tank cycle as quickly as one week (unless it was helped out with seeded material). I've been fish-keeping for over 50 years, and have started up many new tanks.
I suspect evident's nitrate test may be giving an inaccurate reading.
 
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emile said:
Also read Jannika's post above.
Personally I have never seen a tank cycle as quickly as one week (unless it was helped out with seeded material). I've been fish-keeping for over 50 years, and have started up many new tanks.
I suspect evident's nitrate test may be giving an inaccurate reading.
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You are partially correct. I should have measured nitrates from the beginning to get a baseline, i measured PH ammonia and nitrites. i really had no idea why i just assumed zero nitrates from the source. shows how much of an engineer i really am! apparently i have around 5PPM nitrates from my tap water, so i'm not as far along as i thought.
 
looks like nitrites are starting to show up, but slowly. I was able to record a reading today of 0<.25 PPM of nitrites. ammonia decreased from 5 to 2ppm. going to do a measurement tomorrow of ammonia to see how much it has decreased.

Nitrates are holding steady around 10. also added about 5 gallons of water to replenish what had evaporated.

Another interesting to note is that my pH in the tank is around 7.6-7.8 but the pH from tap is actually 7.2. I have pfs and driftwood in there, could they be affecting it?
 
Good. It appears you're beginning to cycle properly. Your nitrate levels @ 10 ppm are coming right out of your tap water, as you now know. pH moving up a few tenths out of the tap after sitting in your tank for a bit & gassing off, is just normal - don't sweat it. Driftwood might tend to lower it, not the other way around. Your cycle seems to be moving along as expected. Keep dosing ammonia to bring it back up to 4 or 5 ppm.
 
i added some more ammonia on 3/13 to get it up to 5ppm.
as of 3/14 ammonia went down to around 2-3ppm, nitrites still between 0 and .25 and nitrates at 10.
 
update: put some media from msjinkzd into my canister filter and planted some anubias and java fern. hoping that will speed the process up a bit!
 
Yes, it may help.
It's been what, 2 weeks now?
The cycle is progressing as it should - will still likely take 3-4 weeks.
Your pH is real good @ 7.6-7.8, to help speed things up.
Many cycles take close to 6 weeks.
Patience, my friend.
 
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