0 ammon. 0 nitrite. 0 nitrate. after 1 week!

E

eylk

AC Members
Aug 5, 2007
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Hello,

At first I thought my tank was established. Now I dun know anymore....

I used the same test kit for my 2 other tanks - ammonia and nitrite they appear fine. I cant test for nitrate as the other 2 tanks are new too...

I dun think the solution for the nitrate could have expired or something...

any ideas?

(oh, I will not be able to reply for about 5 days... as I will busy..)

thanks
 
Before tossing test kits, tell us exactly what you've done to cycle the tank, what (if anything) is in there now...
 
If the tank(s) have only been running 1 week then you probably wont see any nitrates... Maybe I am reading this all wrong but it is kinda confussing to me.... I am also wondering how you are cycling the tank(s).
 
Out of those 3, the nitrate test is the hardest to do. You have to shake the ever-living-daylights out of bottle #2 before adding those drops. Failure to do so could lead to false 0 readings for nitrates.

That being said, everyone's right. It typically takes more than a week to cycle a tank.
 
Read the nitrate testing directions very carefully and make sure you're testing it correctly. Nitrate test solutions (specifically API) needs to be shaken VERY well. Bottle #2 is suppose to be shaken vigorously for 30 seconds, and the test tube should be shaken for 60 seconds.

If you find you haven't been doing this correctly, and you've done many tests from the kit without shaking the bottles enough, the solution will not give completely accurate results from here on out. I ended up replacing my nitrate test solutions when I figured out I'd done this.
 
did you add ammonia to the tank? if you didn't, that explains the whole thing.
 
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