Confused About Test Readings...

[Fish are friends]

i hope someone can help shed some light on the readings i have to help me decide which is correct...
I tested my water for nitrate and wanted to get a comparison between my nutrafin and my api test kits and i got such different results... the nutrafin (which i have been using for over a year) gives me a reading between 5-10ppm (50% water change done last night) and the api test kit is over 80ppm... which one do i believe. the problem is its a 60gal tank so a 20% water change is a biggish job...thanks

 

[Prime Ordeal]

The simple answer is that you can't believe either if you don't have an accurate standard to test each against (i.e. a nitrate stock solution). Do you know about having to bang bottle 2 of the API test a few times on a hard surface to release the precipitate from the bottom of the bottle? It's probably not that anyway because that always gives low, rather than high, readings.

I've not used the nutrafin nitrate test but giving both bottles(if it has 2) a good bang and then a good shake couldn't harm.

Have you checked that both kits are in date?

Have you tried both on tap water and, if you have some, distilled water (where you know you should get zero)?

 

[-Jo-]

ooo! I didn't realise you had to bang the bottle first of bottle 2. hmm...I hope that my results for the past few days havent been that different. I have shaken the bottle before I have used it - so i hope that helps a bit.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

ooo! I didn't realise you had to bang the bottle first of bottle 2. hmm...I hope that my results for the past few days havent been that different. I have shaken the bottle before I have used it - so i hope that helps a bit.

If the precipitate has solidified at the bottom of the bottle then often even vigorous shaking won't release it. If you find that you get different readings after the banging (and shaking) trick and you've used the nitrate test many times before then all your readings from then on will also be wrong (and have been wrong up to that point anyway). In other words the nitrate test is useless (and it's not that great to start with)! You'd need to buy a new one.

 

[Fish are friends]

well i just tested the tap water and the colour wasnt much different from the tank i would say 40ppm... i am leaning towards the nutrafin test results as i havent had any problems over the past year and i have a healthy happy 60l community tank.. ill try get some distilled water just to make sure but i guess the fish will tell me if there was something wrong and my little balloon blue rams are now swimming freely around their caves...

 

[Prime Ordeal]

well i just tested the tap water and the colour wasnt much different from the tank i would say 40ppm

If you're getting 40ppm from the tap it's unlikely it will be lower than that in the tank and would normally be higher. But which test gave the 40ppm reading or were they both reading 40ppm?

 

[Fish are friends]

The api test was 40ppm like I said I haven't had any problems in the past.

 

[the_lock_man]

I've not used the nutrafin nitrate test but giving both bottles(if it has 2) a good bang and then a good shake couldn't harm.

I started this reply, confident in the knowledge that I use the Nutrafin nitrate test, and would be able to tell you exactly how it works. For the life of me, I can't remember if it's a two or three bottle test.

BUT, the main point is, the instructions tell you to shake one of the bottles for at least 30 seconds, so I suspect that it will suffer the same unreliability as the API. (Starting to be more sure it's a 3 bottle test)

 

[Rummynose]

I too have the Nutrafin test kit. When I read the instructions when I first got the test it said to shake the #2 bottle for 30 seconds. I had heard about the API bottle needing to be shaken for 3 minutes so I decided to go for 3 minutes also.
When I saw how dense the liquid of the #3 bottle was I decided to shake both bottles for about 3 minutes and have been doing so for a year.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

I've not used the nutrafin nitrate test but giving both bottles(if it has 2) a good bang and then a good shake couldn't harm.

I started this reply, confident in the knowledge that I use the Nutrafin nitrate test...

Lock_man do you think you'd be able to post pictures of the colour cards for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH for the Nutrafin kit please? I'd like to see the scales and differences in colour squares for each one. Thanks.

Oh, and apparently the nitrate test is a three bottle affair.

 

[the_lock_man]

I've not used the nutrafin nitrate test but giving both bottles(if it has 2) a good bang and then a good shake couldn't harm.

I started this reply, confident in the knowledge that I use the Nutrafin nitrate test...

Lock_man do you think you'd be able to post pictures of the colour cards for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH for the Nutrafin kit please? I'd like to see the scales and differences in colour squares for each one. Thanks.

Oh, and apparently the nitrate test is a three bottle affair.

Sorry, I'm at work, won't be able to post this until about 9pm tonight (about another 9 hours). Maybe Rummynose could?

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Sorry, I'm at work, won't be able to post this until about 9pm tonight (about another 9 hours). Maybe Rummynose could?

Hey no problem. I'm in no rush.

How about it Rummynose, any chance you could post the pics?

And how would you rate the API tests against the Nutrafin tests?

 

[Rummynose]

Sorry, I'm at work, won't be able to post this until about 9pm tonight (about another 9 hours). Maybe Rummynose could?

Hey no problem. I'm in no rush.

How about it Rummynose, any chance you could post the pics?

And how would you rate the API tests against the Nutrafin tests?

Well....I just spent 45 min chiseling out my driveway and car from all the freezing rain we had over night....fingers are thawn again and now I've got to run to get to work.....

 

[HayzH]

i have a nutrafin Nitrate test...it was giving me readings of 2......5......2...i was worried about my bacteria, so i bout another Api Masterkit and tested with that and the reading are 20-40 (which would be right for a cycled tank) How can 1 say 1-5 and one say 20-40???

 

[HayzH]

i have took a few pics for ya.

ammonia chart nutrafin

nitrate chart Nutrafin

Api chart

Salifert Nitrate chart

Nitrate charts for Salifert AND Nutrafin