By the way both LFS said ammonia and Nitrates are at 0.
Confusing, I know.
Correct me if I'm wrong....from what I recall, you got this tank used, w/ the sand and rocks live right? Then your nitrates then were at 150+ ppm. You did multiple partial water changes, to no avail...is this correct?
But now you're saying your LFS tested your nitr
Ates are at 0ppm...that means you're good to go....I remember someone did say you were cycling. But it would seem you're not, if your sand was already live. When a tank is still cycling, it means that your tank is establishing the necessary bacteria to break down ammonia and nitr
Ites (with an 'i'). Once those numbers go up, then down to 0, then your cycle is complete. The only way to get rid of nitrates were as I said -- water changes or chaeto/algae scrubber.
If your home test kit is still detecting nitrates, but your lfs is not, then it's most likely your test kit is bad (even if you JUST bought it...I bought a never-been-opened API test kit....it kept detecting 20ppm nitrates no matter what I did (but yet my new saltwater tested at 0ppm). Took it to my LFS, did a side by side test with their kit and mine, and mine was off by 20ppm. Bought a new one, tests came back good.