125 gallon nitrate problem?

Hello everybody I have been having a nitrate problem in my 125 gallon tank. My nitrates were extremely high like 160ppm!
I've been doing water changes every other day of 30-40%, along with nitrate pads being changed every week. The reason why my nitrates went up so high was because I was over feeding my fault. So I finally got them down to 70 or 80 ppm, the api test kit is so hard to read. My ammonia and nitrite are also 0. Now I don't have that many fish in the tank just 2 oscars and a pleco, and I want to add a new fish in a couple of days. So my question is, is 70-80ppm still bad for South American/Central American cichlids, and will it be a problem if a introduce a new fish to this. Should I do one more 40% water change before I go and possibly get the fish?

2014-08-31T09:40:39Z

Oh and by the way the fish I wanted to add is a Synspilus Cichlid

Anonymous2014-08-31T10:13:07Z

Ammonia> nitrite> nitrate

I never met a tank that was 0ppm of nitrite, unless there was no fish in it... it's normal to have nitrates, it's the last product of the cycle http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm
Read above.... also 40% water change, in my experience can actually break the cycle and cause ammonia spike which will kill your fish. I do lik 25% max.

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