Cycling with Axie....no nitrite

I have been looking through the forum not to ask this again so sorry for another cycling question but I have either missed it or just not looked enough for my particular question...again I apologise...

As I mentioned in another post we have been cycling our tank for a couple days due to a delay in cycling and a pet store near us that actually sell Axies was saving us one that had to be picked up yesterday. We got it and planned our testing daily with water changes daily as well as using a turkey blaster for left over food and poo...

We are confused if our test results are good or not...

Yesterday ( before we did a water change and added the Axie)

Ammonia: under 0.25 but not zero so we said 0.15
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40

This morning tested again

Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 40

My partner is currently doing a water change now.

Is it bad that the nitrite is always at 0?

Maybe you're testing it wrong... do you use liquid tests or strips? strips can be unreliable but if it's the liquid tests maybe check the expiry date and double check the instructions. Maybe you're adding too many/few drops?

Hi thanks for reply,

We are using the API master test kit and only bought it yesterday. We re read instructions earlier as well as we thought that we must be doing it wrong

Have you tested your source water to get a baseline reading? There are often trace nitrates in tap water, which could be where your nitrate reading is coming from. If you've only been running the tank for a few days, I wouldn't expect to see nitrites for at least a week or two.

Just tested my tap water and these were the results

Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrate: 80
Nitrite: 0


Oh dear...should I convert to bottled mineral water?

Or is there any safe treatments to get rid of nitrate in tap water?

Tank with plants for example?

Any particular plants recommended for an Axie tank?

Most people recommend java moss, java fern etc...
My little ones are chilling with moss balls atm. Will add java moss and java fern later when I get them too, probably attached to some plastic net under rocks to not have floating variety created by axies
chilling axies

So I have continued with daily testing of water and 20-25% water changes. Our Axie (freckles) appears to be fine, eating, pooping, nice fluffy gills and no changes to colour or activity which we are pleased about.

I get paid on Thursday so definitely will be getting some java moss and lilaeopsis for the tank to replace the current fake plants. Plus we have a bridge ornament and I think the java moss will look really cool on that.

As well as the plants do you think a sponge that removed nitrate will be ok to go in my filter? I will just slot in beside my current sponges as to not remove any good bacteria

I have attached a photo of my tank set up and freckles

Didn't upload photo of freckles