[CStrickland]

Good post, I would add 2 factors from my own experience.

1) patience. The denitrifying bacteria need time to populate, and they do it slower than the nitrate-makers. New tanks, especially ones that are not started with actual live rock, follow a pattern: first the ammonia gets cleared, then the nitrites, then the nitrates. That third step can be months behind the first two. That lag time is especially noticeable in tanks that are started with dry rock and bottled bacteria. I don't think biospira has any denitrifiers in it, so you get front-loaded on nitrate production and then have to wait until the denitrifiers build from zero.

2) hands-off. The only times I've had trouble with nitrates in a cycled tank is when I've had a fit and reaquascaped a perfectly fine tank because that one crooked rock was bugging me, or to catch a fish. Idk if that's because I kicked up a bunch of settled detritus, or the rearranging exposed denitrifying bacteria to oxygen, but it was a hassle to get back on track both times.