Nitrate Test Kits

[Waterloo Kid]

Well, I've been dosing nitrates for a few weeks, upping the levels a bit at a time to try to get some sort of reading on my test kit. Well, after dosing 12ppm PER DAY and still getting a zero reading I took a sample tot he lfs for them to do a test. Lo and behold they get a reading of over 110ppm. Panic set in and I got home after purchasing the same test kit they used and retested my water. I did a 25% water change before I retested ( I took the original sample , did a water change and then got it tested at the lfs). My home test, using exactly the same kit as the lfs showed between 5-10ppm.

How am I supposed to dose correctly when I don't know what my levels really are? It's getting ridiculous. I put an extra 100W of T5 on the tank to boost the plants to reduce any excess nitrate and the tank looks like a bottle of lemonade that's been shaken and then opened. Bubbles from the manic pearling everywhere. Even my anubias are pearling!

Out of interest, what nitrate test kits do people here use. I'm (currently) using the hagen test kit. I have used the Red Sea and API test kits, both of which never gave a positive test at all.

WK

 

[ChrisP]

I use the API kit, it can be a pain to read sometimes but I get a rough reading.

You need to know what the levels are out of your tap to give you an idea of what it will be like in the tank ofcourse its going to be slightly higher. You need know what the levels are before you dose really althoggh if you have dosed a lot like you say I would let things settle for a bit.

Personally I dose 10ppm 3x a week.

 

[madcaow]

my nitrate kit is pretty specific in how you test.

like you HAVE to shake one of the bottles for at least 30seconds and then shake the test tube for a whole minute after you have added all the stuff in.

makes so much difference in the readings.

i am using the aquarium pharmaceuticals kits for all my tests at the moment.

 

[scubadoo]

Thats the API test kit - its the same one that I have.

I think I'm coming to the end of my fishless cycle 'cos my ammonia and nitrite are both at 0, but my nitrate only ever reads 5ppm (which is the same as when it comes out of the tap !).

I'm in cardiff too - same as WK - shouldn't have anything to do with it but who knows.

Someone else posted on another thread somewhere that they had similar results to what I've been getting, but that it was the nitrite tests that were so far off the scale that the kit couldn't read it and just gave a 0 reading!

How are you supposed to know what to do when the £@**%$ kits cant give you a tidy reading.

 

[BWBettas]

Im trying to sell my master test kit at the moment if anyone wants it. £15 ono is what i want. Practically new only used it 3 times. includes all main master kit plus GH and KH

 

[pseud]

I use the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit, and as previously mentioned you have to, have to, have to follow the instructions and shake vigorously for the time instructed to get an accurate reading.

 

[Waterloo Kid]

Yeah, the API and Red Sea kits need a good old shake to get them working apparently. That's one thing I like about the Hagen kit. No shaking! It's a three part kit though.
Scubadoo, I've though about it being the very soft Cardiff water affecting the kits. Who knows?! All I know is that it's a pain in the Hornwort!

WK

 

[scubadoo]

Yeah - I shake that second nitrate bottle (and the test tube) like Tom Cruise in Cocktail

- the mrs might disagree tho'

 

[madcaow]

also it make a hell of a difference to the colour depending on what light u are looking at it under. i was getting readings that looked to be off the scale (80+) and then i looked at the reading under direct sunlight and the colour was a whole lot lighter (more like 10-20).

so if you are taking your readings at night under ordinary room lighting chances are you're reading the results incorrectly.

now if i have to read at night, which is most of the time, i stick the tube under my bright as aquarium lights to get the right colour.

 

[plantbrain]

While some clain the AP test kits work, I've never suggested anything other than Lamotte or Hach.

They work fairly well and you do not get wild readings and based off of many folks, and the stand solutions set I did on the AP test kits we tried out, they appear to be what their worth, if not overpriced........

If you plan on modifying anything in your routine outside of KH, GH, pH, do yourself a favor, get a decent test kit and then calibrate it to make sure the darn thing sworks.

NO3 tesr kits are notoriously inaccurate.

Things where going along just fine till they tested.
The plants where the test kit before and where pearling like mad.
They added 12ppm a day, or about 70ppm a week and no issues.

Then they tested with a cheap, uncalibrated test kit.........

12ppm a day is too much, 4-5ppm a day is an assumed maximum.

That you can dose accurately.
A 50% weekly water changes with tap that has 0 ppm NO3 will never build up beyond 70ppm max, that assumes no plant uptake at all.

Note, 70ppm from KNO3 is radically different than NO3 derived from fish waste which starts out as NH4, bacteria consumes the NH4 into NO2=> NO3, or worse, the algae get the NH4 and bloom.

Long story short, the plants make a better test kit if you ask me and you are doisng over 2x what you could ever need for the plants and messing things up based on very likely cheapy test kit error.

But NO3 has a wide effective range before you can mess things up, shrimp will die first at the high end(120ppm), BGA will appear at the low end(less than 2-3ppm).

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Waterloo Kid]

Thanks for that. Interesting y I have a few shrimp in my tank (Japonica) and they are doing fine. I'm going to leave the water undosed until the pearling subsides. I'm checking the level every day with the Hagen kit and it is showing a drop of approx 2-3ppm per day, which sounds right to me. I'm only guessing at that due to the slow fade in the colour of the resultant solution.
Out of interest I've just been onto the Hach Lange website. Now I may be assuming here but I'm guessing that due to the fact that prices are not show we are talking mega bucks here. I think for the mean time I'll struggle on with my cheap and cheerful kits.

Thanks for the info though.

WK