Nitrates Water Test Problems

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Sep 15, 2004
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London, UK
First of all apologies for the bad quality of the pic. I took it on my window sill using my camera phone. But basically they are two nitrate test results. One's from my tank, and the others from my tap. They're both identical, and they both come in around the 50mg/l mark. I've been told London water's bad for nitrates so first time i noticed this I bought a small cheap RO unit, but a test on the water from that showed it still had nitrates in it too. It was a cheap RO unit from an eBayer who would'nt return my emails asking her how to set it up. So I figured I'd just set it up wrong or it was dodgy and left it in the cupboard.
But the thing is, if my water has been around the 50mg/l mark all this time (the tanks about a year old) then it should be showing signs such as out of control algea, unhappy fish and no plant growth. I've never had any algea, my fish seem happy (my corys lay eggs which they're not supposed to do in bad water) and my plants are fine. Could the tests be wrong?
I'm using a Tetratest kit.

p.s. Amonia and Nitrites are 0.

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From the pic, I would say you're not in too bad a shape at all, depending on the fish you are keeping. Some are more sensitive than others where water quality is concerned, but you say they are looking ok even after a year. I would do some independent reading on the Internet (fish profiles), along with the responses from others to your post, just for your own peace of mind. Perhaps you might perform a search on this site as well. I recall reading somewhere that if it gets up around 80ppm, then some fishkeepers get anxious. Then again, depending on the fish, some do better around 20ppm or less. Seems you're doing ok though. From the pic, it looks like 20 or 30 ppm at the most.
 
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This is indead a timely topic! For the last goodness knows how long we've been using interpet liquid test kits and in general we've been happy with them. I record all the results diligently using aquarix software - so its pretty easy to see the trends.

Now heres the problem - we ran out of tests and couldnt source the same brand locally - so I switched to Nutrafin mini test kits, much to the chagrin of my partner. She tests her tanks far more frequently than me (I still test every other day) and she liked the consistency. But now we have experienced problems.

I performed an Ammonia test on my big tank - thought nothing of it until I recorded the results, and it had risen from 0 mg/ltr to 0.6 mg/ltr. I reran the test and realised that the MINIMUM reading on the colour chart was (0.6) - the same colour as the water!

So I gave that test kit to Julie and went and bought another brand.

The new one gives me the same consistent readings as the other two now for Ammonia and nitrite. But the Nitrate readings! Jeese! Through the roof! I am now trying to find out what method is used in these test kits to arrive at the nitrate level. And also what nitrate level is actually recorded (nitrate or nitrate-nitrogen, they are quite different)
Does anyone have any info on this please?

My other problem is that Im colour blind and any test that uses green or red to display the results are pants!
 
bummer about being colour blind! their all green and red test so far as i know.

I'll get a new brand. One that measures in ppm. There's a shop quite nearby that sells Sera products. Are their tests any good? All other Sera products I've bought have been excellent
 
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