I've had my tank set up for about six months now and there's never been any nitrites or nitrates. The water is crystal clear and my 2 fish are healthy.

I have live plants, an Emperor-280, and a Penguin-125.

Water additives: Stress Coat
Stress Zyme
Leaf Zone
Freshwater Aquarium Salt
Jungle Correct Ph

I know that you're supposed to have nitrates in cycled tank, should I do anything about it?

Have you tested for nitrates from the tap water?

I would think you should be getting some kind of reading. How often do you do water changes, and much do you change at a time? What kind of test kits are you using?

Robert

Also, how are you cleaning the filter? If you are changing the filter pad, then you are throwing away all the cycle bugs.

I would like to know also...I would use some help cause I range from 40-80 in nitrates every now and then

I haven't tested for nitrates from the tap water, only the tank.

I change 25% of the water every 14 to 30 days, I use a freshwater test kit I got at the petstore.

I throw out the filter pad every 2-3 weeks, but I rinse it out every now and then in between changes. I thought the gravel holds alot of "good bacteria" so I didn't think I was throwing away the cycle bugs?

PS: What are cycle bugs?

Cycle bugs is jargon for the beneficial bacteria that convert the ammonia to nitrites and then nitrates. You should do some more reading on cycling the tank if you are still confused. http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/cycle.html

From what I understand, the bacteria will grow on everything in your tank but the largest population on bacteria is living in the filter media. This means you should almost never change the filter pad, and if it is really falling apart and it needs changing, you should find a way to add the new filter media to the filter and leave it there for a while before you remove the old filter. This will allow bacteria to start growing on the new pad without killing the bacteria you already have. It is ok to (gently) rinse the filter media, but only in old tank water. The chlorine in tap water will kill the bacteria.

So the reason your tank is not cycling is because you get rid of them regularly.

Have you been testing for ammonia?

is it possible to put some type of sponge on the flow side to have cycle bugs to grow on that side

Yep, that would work. or add things like bioballs, lava rock or ceramic rings.

mimodok also has biowheels on both filters which should house quite a few biofilter bacteria. Plant could also be helping as they suck up ammonia and nitrogen.

Okay...

I'll change the filter pads less often and rinse them using the tank water. And I'll get some kind of media while I'm at the pet store tonight, if I don't see anything good I'll get a sponge.

I check the ammonia levels along with everything else once a week, the ammonia is always 0mg/L