XeniaMania
Active member
Never being concerned with Nitrates before, I set a goal to be Nitrate free a 2 months ago. When I finally got a Nitrate test, it was through the roof, bright red probrably close if not over 100mg/l. I was wondering why the new Cynaria I got practically died within 2 days..opps(it didn't tho). Doing a 50% water change still left it in the reddish orange zone, approx 60-70 mg/l. I had a refugium, but at levels that high, even the plants can't grow. I sold my flame angel and lemonpeel which were my 2 biggest fish, also the ones who ate the most. Even then after 2 more 25% water changes, the best I could acheive was 50mg/l or a dark orange color. I finally did my DeNitrate bottle mod and added it to the sump, it dropped the nitrates from 50mg/l to 20mg/l within a week, orangish yellow color. I figured I needed a recharge so I dumped out the Denitrate and filled my bottle with a fresh batch. A week later which is today, I tested my water this morning and it still seemed a tad bit orange, which left me baffled. I was sure that it should be 0 by now which is yellow. So, I took 2 tubes of water, 1 from my tank again, and 1 from a pre-made batch of water. I ran tests on both tubes and the color matched identically. yay! Test kit used was made by Tetra.
