Nitrate Testing...

[Reefugee]

I have been battling nitrate problems for the past couple of months. In the past two months, I have probably used 3 bucket of salt on my 120. But no matter what I do, I can't get my nitrate below about 10ppm. The test kit I am using is Aquarium Pharmaceutical. After Tony's talk, I was wondering if the AP nitrate kit are inaccurate. So I did a search on RC for the best nitrate test kit and found the following:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1021231&perpage=25

Summary: Nitrate test seems to be unreliable at best.

Minh

edit: correct link added

 

[kevin95695]

Link didn't work for me. Have you tried alternate test kits or calibrated samples?

 

[Reefugee]

Correct link edited:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1021231&perpage=25

Kevin - haven't tried any new test kit. I was search to see what test kits were the best when I ran across the post. The guy seemed to have done a pretty good control test. I hate to buy a new test kit only to find out that it's not any more accurate.

 

[funman1]

I'm starting to love the elos test kit for nitrate.
When there's none, the solution is CLEAR.

The trick to the test kit is to NOT follow the instructions


SWIRL NOT SHAKE and you can do it for 1-2 mins and get the same results.

These Elos kits are really starting to grow on me now that I don't shake them.

 

[Reefugee]

Steve - how accurate are the Elos test kit? With AP nitrate test, it goes something like 0, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80. But it's really hard to distinguish between 5 and 10 at times. I hate to blow $30 on a kit to realize that it doesn't work any better than what I am currently using.

Minh

 

[CaptiveReefSystems]

Minh, I would not lose sleep over a nitrate reading of 10. Thats not bad at all.

 

[funman1]

The Elso also measures in 0-5-10-15-20-25-30
But like Bruce said 10 is pretty good

 

[Pico1]

elos and salifert are both very accurate.

 

[Reefugee]

Jordan - Do you know what the scale of the Saifert is?

Steve - how hard is it to tell the difference between 5, 10, 15 on the Elos test?

 

[funman1]

To be honest I don't know.
Since I added my fuge my Nitrates have been 0, so that's all I get when I test
I have never seen 5 on the test kit yet

 

[kdblove_99]

Mihn,

Slaifert is 0 2 5 10 25 50 100

 

[dots]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9830669#post9830669 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CaptiveReefSystems
Minh, I would not lose sleep over a nitrate reading of 10. Thats not bad at all.

Agreed

IMO the resolution on all the Nitrate tests I have found are horrible and don't trust them. I believe these came out not too long ago if you had not seen them:
http://www.marinedepot.com/md_viewItem.asp?idproduct=AM1123

However possible solutions I would suggest: Clams, sugar dose lightly, more/larger WCs.

More for other interested parties rather than yourself Minh, I have found the below links helpful. Take a look at the second one and review your WC % and frequency according to the charts. Perhaps this may be where your excess is comming from?

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/iss...st2003/chem.htm

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

 

[Nu2SW]

IVe been up to 40, 10 dont loose sleep over it.

I know u got a 10g fuge, Do you have room for larger under your tank at all?