I just bought a master kit. I tested two tanks and came up with zero nitrates. I then tested my tap water and came up with the same. I reread the directions to make sure I didn't do anything wrong. I live in the middle of Kansas around a bunch of farm ground, so the likelihood of zero nitrates in the tap water is unlikely. We do get our city water from a well under limestone that's under a lake. I use purigen in my tanks. I read the directions and did it exactly how it said. Do you think I could've gotten a faulty test kit? Thanks.
Bought API Master test kit, 0 nitrates possible?
- Thread starter aaronb
- Start date
Well I assume I just got a faulty test kit. I went to someone's house that said the never have done a water change only top offs and got nothing on the test. The have no plants to use them. I don't have plants either. It has been 2 days since I did a water change on my tanks though. I ask my wife to read the directions and try testing one of the tanks to see what she came up with when she has a chance. I read the directions more than once just to see if I screwed up somewhere, so I don't think she'll come up with any different results.
Make sure you're shaking the bottles enough to thoroughly mix all the chemicals in the bottles. When I first started using liquid tests I was getting extremely low nitrate readings, and when I learned that the bottles need to be shaken hard for 30-60 sec and even tapped then my readings went up quite a bit.
Thanks. I counted and even shook for twice as long as the recommended time just to make sure after I got such a low reading the first time. I'll try again and shake even harder. My ph came out to 7.8 and nitrite and ammonia were zero, so they seemed accurate.
Yeah, usually you get 0 nitrates with the API test if you haven't shaken it similar to how paint gets shaken before you buy it. Other than that, you can check to make sure it isn't expired.
You really gotta shake it, I had the same problem a few months ago. There's a chemical that hardens up a bit in bottle #2 and doesn't give a proper reading if you don't mix it well.
Yeah I was reading the directions wrong and was shaking the tube after I added the drops from the first bottle instead of shaking the second bottle before adding it. I still got zero nitrates from our tap water that seems unusual. One of our 55 gallon aquariums I had just done a 40 gallon water change on 2 days before was at 160 ppm, so I'm working on getting that under control and trying to find the problem.
When I started my 75 it tested 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, ph was neutral....I was curious and tested my tap water, it came out the same...I took it to my lfs and had them test it when I was lookin at fish, they came up with the same thing I had...maybe just dumb luck or I have awesome water lol
If your NO4 readings are low due to not shaking it properly, then will they still be off once you start shaking everything properly? If one of the components wasn't being utilized and was giving false low readings, then will there be too much of that compound present now which would give a higher than normal reading? If so, should the test kit be replaced?
That its actually a really good question. I was doing this for a couple months (not shaking properly) and ever since my readings have been higher than normal. Is it possible to throw off the accuracy of the kit by repeatedly using bottle#2 without shaking properly?