Nitrates problem

[chapel210]

I've done 2 water changes in 2 consecutive days. The first was a 15% water change to drop my nitrates because they were to high. When I checked my nitrates they were at 40, so I did a 50% water change and their was still no change in the nitrate level. :at_wits_end: Does anybody know what's going on??

[edawgm]

To cover this before anyone else does we need specs. What tank size? what live stock or how much live stock? Filtration? What are you feeding, how much and how often?

[erikharrison]

Chapel, take your water to a LFS and have it tested. My trates were showing blood red, and technically everything would have been dead. It was a bad kit.

This (http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/nitratecontrol/l/aa091901.htm) is a great way to do water changes with high levels.

[tony]

sounds like a faulty test kit

[hobogato]

also, test your makeup water. you may be adding nitrates to your tank when doing a water change. are you using tap water or RO/DI?

i would definitely get another test kit to validate the first results tho.

[chapel210]

It's a 75g tank, wet/dry filter, I have 2 clowns, 1 cleaner shrimp, 1 fox face, 1 scopas tang, and 1 six line, and 1 lawnmower blennie. I just did another water change before reading this. It was still the same. fox and scopas are both small.....

[MissT]

bio balls in the wet dry? how old is the test kit? did LFS test come out the same?

[erikharrison]

Bad test kit. Have you taken your water elsewhere?