You're probably using Red Sea... that's what ***** sells. That's what i have as well, and i haven't had a problem with it yet, but i've read that Red Sea test kits have been off in the past. It's strange that your ammonia has been 1.0 for the past 3 weeks with no spike in -ates or -ites yet.
This is what a cycle does for your tank: Ammonia is introduced to the tank (the whole point of phantom feeding/adding a dead shrimp/LR, etc). This ammonia (toxic) causes bacteria to grow that turns the ammonia into nitrites (also toxic). Then, bacteria grows that turns the nitrites into nitrates (much less toxic). The whole point of this whole mess is to establish a bio-system that will turn the two toxic wastes (ammonia and nitrites) into the less toxic nitrates, so that when you introduce fish, the system will be able to quickly turn their waste (poo and pee) from ammonia to nitrites to nitrates, making the tank inhabitable.
The reason i say it's weird that your -ites and -ates are still reading 0 after 3 weeks, is that the ammonia-eating bacteria should've formed already, and you should at least be showing nitrites.
When you say "My Ammonia was present in the water so I have had it since day one". does that mean the ammonia read at 1.0 with just the water? So you didn't add anything to the tank to kick the ammonia level up that high? If not, then your test kit is most likely wrong. I'd suggest getting "salifert" test kits, they're a little pricier, but much more reliable.
Jenn
