Fish-in cycle complete? now what?

[goshinkansen]

I *think* my 5 gallon tank has finally cycled. My betta has been muddling through.

About 3-4 days ago I had a big nitrIte spike but the nitrAte was starting to tick up, so I changed a bit more than half the water. Now the ammonia is 0, nitrIte is 0 and nitrAte is somewhere between 5-10, but probably closer to 5.

I'm wondering if my tank is cycled or if I just changed too much water the other day? The ammonia has been under control for awhile, so I'd just been managing nitrItes.

If cycled, how frequently should I be changing water and how much? Or do I just regularly test the nitrAtes and change when it starts to get high?

And last question, do I need to keep checking ammonia and nitrIte? Is there any reason to think the tank cycle could become disrupted?

[registereduser]

Anything in the tank besides the betta? If so you might need to do weekly water changes and vacuuming. If all you have is the one fish be sure not to over feed and check the numbers every few weeks, change water if you need to. Algae might start to grow so you might want to clean the tank of that now and then.