Nitrates Won't Fall

[@ombomb]

Thanks for all your comments.

Last night I measured again and still the reading is over the top of my test kit (160+)

I decided to read the water straight from the tap and, you guessed it the reading showed just as high. This set the mind thinking.
I have some left over RO water in the garage which I also tested, this again read extremely high.

My next step is to take a sample of my tank water to my LFS and get them to read it. If all is OK, I will be asking for them to refund me for the Nitrate test kit they sold me just two weeks ago.

I'm using a test kit made by Sera. Has anyone else had any problems with this make?


Regards

Steve

Never used Sera, my rcommendation would be to see if you can find an API Master Test kit.

 

[rdd1952]

I'm also not familiar with that particular test kit and also use the API kits. I have read that nitrate kits can become very inaccurate if they get old so that could be the problem.

 

[Patchwork]

rdd1952 You misread my post
im not looking for a fall of nitrates, it is nitrites i was trying to get lower

 

[Steve C]

I'm also not familiar with that particular test kit and also use the API kits. I have read that nitrate kits can become very inaccurate if they get old so that could be the problem.

I have also heard that Nitrate Kits can become unreliable with age, however as I said, I only bought this kit two weeks ago and the sell buy date is long.

I am going back to my LFS today to get some fresh RO water (Supposedly free from Ammonia.Nitrites and Nitrates) and will test that before using.

IF it has the same high reading, I will then have grounds to complain either about the water or test kit, both of which the LFS supplied.

If it turns out to be the test kit, I could probably boast about having the cleanest tank around.
Thanks Again


Steve

 

[rdd1952]

rdd1952 You misread my post
im not looking for a fall of nitrates, it is nitrites i was trying to get lower

You're right. Sorry about that. The nitrite spike takes the longest to drop, generally about twice as long as the ammonia did. If you are seeing your nitrates rise, then the nitrite is definitely being processed but since there is so much of it, it takes a while for the bacteria to catch up. Basically, you are adding more nitrite everyday when you add more ammonia (and it is processed into nitrite) so the nitrite will spike much higher than the ammonia ever did.

 

[laurasmithuk]

i found that moss balls helped to lower my NitrAtes. the tap water has quite high nitrates in it here so might also be worth testing your tap water.

 

[The-Wolf]

Sera are a good make of testing kit.
the only trouble is the induvidual kits tend to stay on the shelf a long time.
this would possibly lead to the one you brought being out of date.

here is a little tip always select the kit in the middle of the row, the ones at the front maybe old if they actually do stock rotation but the ones at the back maybe old too if they don't do stock rotaion. If you have two employees one does and one don't (stock rotate) chances are the middle ones are newest.

 

[Steve C]

Hi,

Yesterday I bought 20L of RO water from the LFS and last night I tested it with the same test kit. The readings were as high as my tank water.

RO water is supposed to be nutural pH and have no impurities including Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate, therefore I think I now have reason to take the kit back to the shop and get them to do further investigation. I may well take along some of my tank water and get them to give me a reading.

I believe that they use the same manufacturers test kit, so a direct comparrison would be interesting.

Hopefully, the tank water is within acceptable limits and the poor Danios are living in clean water, rather than toxins.

Again thanks for all your input and I'll let you know


Regards

Steve

 

[rdd1952]

Hi,

Yesterday I bought 20L of RO water from the LFS and last night I tested it with the same test kit. The readings were as high as my tank water.

I may well take along some of my tank water and get them to give me a reading.

I believe that they use the same manufacturers test kit, so a direct comparrison would be interesting.

You definitely have a faulty kit then. Take the water to them and let them test it. Your water is probably fine and the kit is the problem.

 

[Steve C]

Just an Update.

I took my test kit back to my LFS and had good and bad news, but at least the mystery is solved.

It appears that my test kit was reading very high (ie Instead of reading 50mg/l it was around 100 mg/l )

However, to compound the error, the instructions told me that I could adjust the range of readings by diluting the tank water with distilled water, therefore instead of using 20ml of tank water to get a measurement range of 0 to 80 mg/l, I could use 10ml of tank water and top up to 20ml with distilled water to get a measurement range of 0 to 160 mg/l.

When I did this, instead of using Sera Dest (distilled water) I was using RO water and therefore again getting very high readings.

Since my visit to my LFS (very helpful by the way) they agreed to change my test kit, I have carried some further tests and I'm now happy to say that my tank has ideal test levels

Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 50mg/l
pH 7.5

Again, a big thankyou to all who posted.

Regards

Steve