My tank refuses to cycle I feel like I have tried everything! I can't get the water straight...it has been running for 6 months already!
It is a little 5 gallon tank with a betta fish and 1 plant with gravel at the bottom has a light whisper filter,
Ammonia-alittle over 0, not even .5
Nitrate-40
Nitrite-0
hardness-moderate around 150
Alkalinity-0
pH-0
I use Prime to condition my water, I heard from some people it changes your readings but others say it doesn't I'm lost. <_<

KH is 0ppm and pH is 0?
Could you retest please?

the two bottle ammonia test works fine with prime. it messes up the nessler ammonia tests (one bottle tests).

Retested, came out the same, (color chart) The color it came out as was to light to even be on the chart. it might be just barely over 0.

what kind of ph test do you have?

What is the temperature of the tank, as well?

the temp ranges from 72-75 it generally stays at 73 all day right now it is at 74. I use Mardel 5-1 (everything but ammonia) and Mardel for Ammonia only.

Could you check pH and KH in your tap water?

Should I be useing a different testing kit?

Straight tap water. To tell you truth, your water pH CANNOT be zero. I would suggest that you get a new test kit with liquid reagent which are more accurate than test strips.

The AP master test kit is good. It''ll cost more initially than strips, but per test it's a lot cheaper and more accurate.

Okay..
Nitrate-10
Nitrite-0
hardness-120
Alkalinity-80
pH-6.8/7.2
I'm going to the pet store tomorrow, I'll get a different kit, what are some of the better types I could find?

Well, from your last set of readings (combined with an earlier ammonia reading), I can't see any real problems. Ammonia is a tad high but 0.5ppm is not exactly dangerous at pH of 7 and that can be a transient spike from a big feed or even measurement error. NO2 and NO3 are both good. KH is fine, could a bit higher (100-150) but once again, not in danger zone. I would prefer pH more around mid 7's but not a big issue. So all in all, everything points to a cycled filter. Is there a reason why you think that your filter hasn't cycled?

well it was b/c of testing the water and everything was 0, Thanks, there I was going insane tring to figure out what was wrong but there was nothing! That makes me feel much better thank u so much!

how often do you change the water? maybe there is ammonia because you just need a partial water change every week....but your test results other than that seem fine

My tank was doing really bad before (overstocked), but when I got just my betta in it just 2 months ago, the ammonia has been dropping, I do 50% change his tank every week.