Odd Nitrate Reading...

[erikharrison]

I have not been testing my parameters as usual as I should be. Let me first start with this, I have little to no algae of ANY type. I clean my glass once every four days, that is the ONLY algae I have present in my tank. My striped burrfish and tangs have no signs of ICH and my fish seem happy. My nitrates have been reading off the charts? The polyps on my monti are fully extended, my frogspawn as well. All of my zoas are healthy looking, and my RBTA gets bigger while you look at it. Every other test has stayed at 0 and never spiked. Is it possible that the test liquids have gone bad???

[Texreefer]

yes it is possible,, but also possible is that many of the type of corals you have might like a slightly elevated nitrate level.. when you say off the charts.. you mean you cant get a reeding,, how high does the chart go
?

[tony]

what brand test kit? ive heard the aquarium pharmaceutical tests are notorious for this

[aprilmayjune]

i think they can become acclimated to higher nitrates, but if you added someone new who wasn't used to that reading, they would probably be affected by it.

[Bill S]

Buy a new kit or take some water to be tested.

[edawgm]

I have little to no algae of ANY type. I clean my glass once every four days, that is the ONLY algae I have present in my tank. My striped burrfish and tangs have no signs of ICH and my fish seem happy. My nitrates have been reading off the charts? The polyps on my monti are fully extended, my frogspawn as well. All of my zoas are healthy looking, and my RBTA gets bigger while you look at it.

I experienced the same thing. I could not find why my readings where so high. My test kit showed them to be 80-120ppm. I took some water to louis at the old AW and his showed them to be between 20-40ppm. I just did some minor changes but have never lost anything. Or at lest nothing that would shot up the alarm. I would think having that high of readings would show some ammonia or something else but nothing ever showed up. Since that time, about 3 months ago and I know bad on me but I have not tested my water. everything is growing and thriving.

[erikharrison]

I found mine to be due to a bad test kit. All of the other tests perform correctly, but when I saw 160+ (blood red, not kidding) nitrate readings, my first thought was "Umm, why are my fish alive?" Mark came by this weekend and we re-tested with his kit. Thank God. I was seriously perturbed about it!

[tony]

what brand?