Nitrate Staying Stable Despite Water Changes

[stefday]

I currently have a 130 litre tank.

I am making weekly 20 to 25% water changes but the nitrate level seems to stay in the 25 to 50 level. I am using a Tetra kit which I am told is reliable. The pH is stable at 8.2 and both nitrite and ammonia are 0.

I currently have a blennie,cleaner wrasse,gobbie and two humbugs.

Is this a major problem? The fish and coral seem fine.

I am still very new to marine keeping so any advice would be very welcome.

 

[seffieuk]

Take your water to a good lfs and get it checked

Seffie x

 

[ben1987]

agree with seffie, or try a salifert kit

 

[mark1979]

i no this isnt the greatest of help,but some test can be "dud"

i had a nitrite tester bottle on my freshwater test kit that was not correct.

i would take to a decent lfs as said above and let them check

 

[Crazy fishes]

Tetra kits are generally reported to be grossly inaccurate when it comes to marine systems. Get it checked as Seffie says and then look at invested in some Salifert kits as these are proven to work.... (This was just to re iterate want ben and seffie said as numbers induce changes )

All the best and kindest regards

 

[owlbassboy]

how old is the test kit and is it a marine test kit??

 

[johnnyjtaylor]

Are you using RO water to make up your WC water? If not tapwater may well have high nitrates and other nasties. As has been said get a more reliable test kit, as already suggested a salifert one is good. Then test everything, your tank water,your WC water,your RO water and your tapwater before its gone through the RO(well unless the new test kit shows very low nitrate when you test the tank, in which case problem sorted)

Johnny

 

[Trod]

Test your unsalted RO water, it may be high in nitrates before you even start. I had this problem when I bought mine from my LFS, thats why I bought my own RO unit with DI

 

[kj23502]

well my api was saying I had 15 or so ppm nitrates and a salifert test said 5ppm. try a different test.