Strange Nitrate Result

[Jazee B]

Sorry to hassle everyone again with more questions but I'm a little confused. I've been testing my tank every 12 hours to make sure that all the levels are going the right way. My ammonia has been cycling in less than 12 hours for about week and my nitrite has just started cycling in 12 hours. haven't tested the nitrate in a while so I have just done it tonight expecting it to be bright purple but it was completely clear. Is this normal? Have I done something wrong? thanks in advance for any words of wisdom. becky

 

[waterdrop]

Becky, Your Nitrates could be low if you have a lot of healthy plants that are using them. In fact, some of your other readings could also be low for this reason and lead you to falsely believe your filter is cycled. On the other hand it could be that you just have a nicely working biofilter that is now doing both ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours and you can now sit back and see if it can keep doing this for a week and be safely qualified!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jazee B]

Becky, Your Nitrates could be low if you have a lot of healthy plants that are using them. In fact, some of your other readings could also be low for this reason and lead you to falsely believe your filter is cycled. On the other hand it could be that you just have a nicely working biofilter that is now doing both ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours and you can now sit back and see if it can keep doing this for a week and be safely qualified!

~~waterdrop~~

I've got three plants in my tank but they are not very healthy at the moment they are covered in brown algae and to be honest I think I will have to replace them at the weekend. I put my plants in when i started the cycle.

 

[iankent]

Becky, Your Nitrates could be low if you have a lot of healthy plants that are using them. In fact, some of your other readings could also be low for this reason and lead you to falsely believe your filter is cycled. On the other hand it could be that you just have a nicely working biofilter that is now doing both ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours and you can now sit back and see if it can keep doing this for a week and be safely qualified!

~~waterdrop~~

I've got three plants in my tank but they are not very healthy at the moment they are covered in brown algae and to be honest I think I will have to replace them at the weekend. I put my plants in when i started the cycle.

your plants should love the cycle! the ammonia and nitrates are both excellent food for them, just make sure there's plenty of surface movement to allow gas exchange so they can get CO2, and make sure you have a strong enough light (three plants shouldn't need too much light though!). try moving the filter slightly higher up to create more surface movement!

hth

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Often times when a Nitrate test shows below expected results it's because the test reagents aren't being mixed properly in the bottle. It is the most infamously tricky and finicky test to do.

As for the state of your plants. I don't know anything about your lighting equipment or choice of plant species but I'll hazard a guess that:
a) Your lighting isn't sufficient. There are VERY few kit tanks that provide enough lighting, and even if you individually bought all of the equipment most chain stores don't have a very good selection of hoods (at least where I live).
b) You may not have aquatic plants. Not uncommon to see terrarium plants marketed as aquatic plants. They can survive for a little while submersed, but you won't see much to any growth and eventually they wither away and die.

Some plants like Java moss, and Anubias are extremely easy to care for, but generally lushly planted tanks require a lot more research, TLC, and money pumped into to lighting, ferts, CO2 etc.

 

[andywg]

Becky, Your Nitrates could be low if you have a lot of healthy plants that are using them. In fact, some of your other readings could also be low for this reason and lead you to falsely believe your filter is cycled. On the other hand it could be that you just have a nicely working biofilter that is now doing both ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours and you can now sit back and see if it can keep doing this for a week and be safely qualified!

~~waterdrop~~

Would plants that are in from the start really go for nitrates to that level? My understanding is that plants prefer to take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia (hence how well planned and planted tanks will avoid any cycle) than nitrate.

This is an honest question as my understanding of plants is less than that of algae (which I view far more useful for the sort of tanks I run).

Often times when a Nitrate test shows below expected results it's because the test reagents aren't being mixed properly in the bottle. It is the most infamously tricky and finicky test to do.

Not to mention the fact they are far from accurate at the price we can afford.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

your right andy, in a cycling tank the plants would take in ammonia before they took in nitrate, for the amount of plants it's highly unlikley that they have affected the nitrate reading this much.

i think the answer is above, 1 our nitrate test kits are inaccurate at the best of time, 2 they are also unreliable and easy to get a mis-test.

honestly don't worry about it at all, ammonia and nitrite tests are much more accurate and they are the critical ones, so long as you know the ammonia is processing it's fine, the big water change at the end of the cycle will get shot of most if the nitrates and the vast majority of the fish we keep will tolerate nitrate up to 100ppm anyway.

 

[waterdrop]

Becky, Your Nitrates could be low if you have a lot of healthy plants that are using them. In fact, some of your other readings could also be low for this reason and lead you to falsely believe your filter is cycled. On the other hand it could be that you just have a nicely working biofilter that is now doing both ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours and you can now sit back and see if it can keep doing this for a week and be safely qualified!

~~waterdrop~~

I've got three plants in my tank but they are not very healthy at the moment they are covered in brown algae and to be honest I think I will have to replace them at the weekend. I put my plants in when i started the cycle.

your plants should love the cycle! the ammonia and nitrates are both excellent food for them, just make sure there's plenty of surface movement to allow gas exchange so they can get CO2, and make sure you have a strong enough light (three plants shouldn't need too much light though!). try moving the filter slightly higher up to create more surface movement!

hth

Ian,

You have to be careful when thinking about light. Photons of light are not a resource that gets "used up" by the number of resource takers (plants). Instead, a better way to think (and generalize) about it is that very dark green plants have a better ability to "use" light (more chlorophyl, more carbohydrate production!) and need fewer lumens of light energy, whereas lighter green or red-ish plants, having less chlorophyl, need more lumens to do the same work of constructing carbohydrates for the plant structure!

So doesn't matter if its 3 plants or 30 plants, the amount of light they will need depends more on the species of plant and the rate you want them to grow!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[waterdrop]

Becky, Your Nitrates could be low if you have a lot of healthy plants that are using them. In fact, some of your other readings could also be low for this reason and lead you to falsely believe your filter is cycled. On the other hand it could be that you just have a nicely working biofilter that is now doing both ammonia and nitrite in 12 hours and you can now sit back and see if it can keep doing this for a week and be safely qualified!

~~waterdrop~~

Would plants that are in from the start really go for nitrates to that level? My understanding is that plants prefer to take up nitrogen in the form of ammonia (hence how well planned and planted tanks will avoid any cycle) than nitrate.

This is an honest question as my understanding of plants is less than that of algae (which I view far more useful for the sort of tanks I run).

Often times when a Nitrate test shows below expected results it's because the test reagents aren't being mixed properly in the bottle. It is the most infamously tricky and finicky test to do.

Not to mention the fact they are far from accurate at the price we can afford.

Hi Andy,

Certainly did not mean to imply that even a lot of plants would explain the "clear" (whatever that means, not sure, but presumably zero) reading for nitrates. I was still thinking of the zero nitrates as unexplained. Its certainly possible that the test kit reagent is dead, or all the shaking periods were not strictly observed while conducting the test. Who knows, just a mystery at this point in my head.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Jazee B]

thanks for all of your opinions and comments I have just done another nitrate test and followed the guidelines to a T but still no colour. My ammonia is fine my nitrite had a little blip it took 18 hours to cycle so will need to keep an eye on that. Still hoping to get my fish on sunday I've fed up of looking at an brown algae tank with snails in it!!

 

[waterdrop]

Well, if you think you're at the end of your fishless cycle and only have 3 plants and are getting no nitrates then its got to be a completely bad nitrate test kit I would think.