Wow! Nitrates out the roof!

[AForys]

I almost never test my 28g nano, im cycling a new tank and figured I'd test the nano since I had kit out. Everything is thriving in the tank from hammers,duncans,mini maxi, lots of zoas,shrooms,galaxia, candy canes, sinularia,acans and a few others. I do 5g wc's weekly im a couple days late, and wow! I think I should be doing more regular testing....but if everything is doing fine in tank, should I change anything? Maybe this api kit is wrong? Hopefully?! lol. Now im kinda scared to upgrade if all my livestock goes in a much cleaner new tank...hopefully everything doesn't die...I do feed quite heavy basically to feed coral, but I change filterms daily. Just shocked, I think it's time to invest in a redsea test kit. But the the cycling tank reading weren't off beat. I'll check with lfs today.

 

JbJ 28g reef tank

Ammonia 0.10-0.15

Nitrite 0

Nitrate 40-80? Possibly higher!

[Bingo1213]

Yes do have the lfs test your water. But I don't think moving things to a new tank will cause anything to die off. I try to keep my nitrates at zero and the just feed heavily to keep the corals happy. You may have to feed the corals more but they should be just fine! I'd also try and keep those nitrates down a little lower in the new tank.

[Mariaface]

Make sure there aren't chloramines in your water supply, get it tested at the LFS or with a better test kit, and feel free to lower nitrate through water changes, basting rocks to get rid of detritus so more doesn't accumulate, etc. But keep in mind that bacteria can also help to an extent, so long as there's a small amount of phosphate available.

[Fishgirl2393]

My API kit was off by a large amount (it was reading 80+ppm) and I got a new kit. The new kit (it has also been tested against a Red Sea kit) reads much lower (at the time, it read about 10ppm but now my tank is at less than 2ppm).

[AForys]

I use store bought ro/di I do check tds but never tested it for other things. It was a api test. In my newly cycled tank ammonia and nitrite is 0 but nitrates are at about 40 did a 25% wc and nitrates are still about 40. I think it's time for a red sea or salifort, any recommendations? I did check nano for ma/ca/KH regularly with a red sea and I like their tests.

Never got around to getting water tested at lfs. I did test nitrates again and they were at about 20-40. I did do 2x 5g wc in the 28g. So it could be right. But 8 think what's doing it is, as im upgrading I've been moving lr and sand from nano to new tank to seed and disrupting sand might be the cause of these high readings.

[Fishgirl2393]

I like Salifert and Seachem. I know some people don't like Seachem but in my experience, they are very accurate (I've tested mine against several other kits like Red Sea, etc.).

[reefernanoman]

My API kit was off by a large amount (it was reading 80+ppm) and I got a new kit. The new kit (it has also been tested against a Red Sea kit) reads much lower (at the time, it read about 10ppm but now my tank is at less than 2ppm).

Yup, that's exactly what happened to me. My API test kit was expired(I didn't know) and my nitrates were like 100 ppm. I was going crazy doing massive water changes, and never thought about reading the damn expiration date. Duh! I use the Red Sea kit now, but I still use API to test my CA.

I use store bought ro/di I do check tds but never tested it for other things. It was a api test. In my newly cycled tank ammonia and nitrite is 0 but nitrates are at about 40 did a 25% wc and nitrates are still about 40. I think it's time for a red sea or salifort, any recommendations? I did check nano for ma/ca/KH regularly with a red sea and I like their tests.

Never got around to getting water tested at lfs. I did test nitrates again and they were at about 20-40. I did do 2x 5g wc in the 28g. So it could be right. But 8 think what's doing it is, as im upgrading I've been moving lr and sand from nano to new tank to seed and disrupting sand might be the cause of these high readings.

Yeah, check the expiration date on your kit first before going crazy like I did on my 28G too! I have heard many people that AIP is very inaccurate when it comes to nitrates anyways. I'm currently using the one made by Red Sea.

[Mariaface]

API's nitrate test involves insane amounts of shaking, and over/under doing it messes things up. I just use it while cycling to get a general read, but Salifert/Seachem/RedSea, etc are better options.

[Beer]

Pretty much all of the nitrate kits require heavy shaking of one of the reagents. Some people even suggest banging the bottom of the bottle on a table or something (I use the palm of my hand) if you haven't used it for a while because some of the components floculate and compact at the bottom and do not redistribute easily, which causes readings to be off.

If you don't normally shake vigorously, as the bottle gets older, the reagent gets more concentrated with that component and slowly starts reading higher.