Need advice on really long fishless cycle. The problem - lack of nitrates

Hi,
I am a little confused now.

In your first post, you mentioned "lack of nitrate" and "0ppm NO3". So I thought you have never had any nitrate in 7 weeks of fishless cycling.

In your second post, you mentioned 4 weeks ago you have had nitrate concentration of 20~40ppm.

So, which one is it?

By the way, you do not need to do partial water change to lower nitrite to 1~2ppm. Maybe 10ppm is too high, but it should be no problem at even around 5~6ppm. Nitrate is also fine at 20~40ppm, unless you see a sudden large drop in PH.

Increase temperature to 86F is one of the methods to speed up the fishless cycling, but you also need to increase aeration to make sure the water has enough oxygen for the good bacteria. Warmer water can hold less air.