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Hey guys I'm just wondering how my tank is doing. I tested for the first time and this is what I got. Where am I in the cycle?

pH ~ 8.3
ammonia between .25 and .5 ppm
nitrite 0 ppm
nitrate between 5 and 10 ppm

I know my pH is high and I bought some pH down to fix that. I've put about 4 doses in my tank and the pH hasn't moved at all. Is there anything else I can do to get my pH down. I'm keeping 4 platies so it only needs to go down to about 7.5

Odd. You shouldn't have ammonia and nitrate at the same time especially with 0 nitrites unless you've recently add more ammonia like adding more fish or your tapwater contains either one. How long has the tank been setup?

Don't use ph down. It will only drop the ph temporarily and then it bounces right back up. That will definitely kill fish. Platies will survive 8.3 ph just fine. Most of the fish you find at local stores will actually survive that ph without trouble and they will do so alot better than if you try to mess with it. A changing ph is far worse for fish than a slightly too high of ph. If you do want to lower it for some reason the best way is to first dilute it with pure water like RO or distilled and then if you want it even lower than that to use peat moss.

I haven't tested my tap for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. It has only been setup for about a week and a half. Are you thinking there could be nitrate in my tap then?

It sounds like it. Most tanks won't start producing nitrates until at least 2weeks but usually closer to 4weeks unless you seeded it with gravel or filter media from another tank. It would be a good idea to test your tapwater in case. Although your test kit could also be bad.

well I just tested my tap for nitrate and ammonia and there isn't any of either in there...

Did you add anything to the tank, even water, from another tank when you set it up? Did you clean it or add more fish recently?

I have added nothing from another tank. I looked at my log and I added 4 fish exactly a week ago and these were the first fish. 1 fish died about 3 days ago and the store replaced it with another one. So they're all pretty new but 1 is on its 3rd day I think.

I have no idea where you got nitrates then. I would test it 3 days from now and see if the nitrates go up. If they do then your tank is somehow nearly cycled. It would probably finish cycling in a week or less if that's the case. If the numbers don't go up you introduced nitrates somehow and will probably be 2-3weeks before your tank is completely cycled.

I did setup the tank with the filter running for about 2 days before I added any fish. Would that have helped at all?

Setting up a new filter and leaving it running doesn't do anything but test if the filter works. It won't help cycle a tank unless you added something fairly fresh(still wet and not too many days old) from another tank.

As for where the nitrates came from, it is entirely possibly that they came with the platties, if you just poured the water in the bag they were in into the tank.
But please, stop using pH down? It causes nothing but problems, feel free to search the site for this. Altering the pH like that will only temporarily alter the pH, and can cause fairly wild swings. It is far more important to have a stable pH than one that a book says you should have.