slight drop in nitrate?

[AmyD]

I tested the water yesterday, and tonight the nitrate test seems to be showing up a slightly lighter shade. Nitrites are off the chart and i need to add more ammonia. Could this just be that i didn't shake the second nitrate test bottle enough yesterday? I'm certain i did it right tonight even banging the second bottle a few times on a hard surface before giving it a hard shake for at least 30 seconds.

 

[AmyD]

I should have added that i'm doing a fishless cycle!

 

[librarygirl]

Not sure, this seems to be happening (disappearing nitrate) to people lately and I'm not sure why. It could be a faulty test; it happened to me once even though I was sure I did the test perfectly the first time. I'd say to dose ammonia and test again tomorrow.

 

[jetajockey]

I wouldn't worry about a nitrate fluctuation, could be a testing thing, or not, but either way it's really not that important.

 

[AmyD]

Not sure, this seems to be happening (disappearing nitrate) to people lately and I'm not sure why. It could be a faulty test; it happened to me once even though I was sure I did the test perfectly the first time. I'd say to dose ammonia and test again tomorrow.

I've dosed it with ammonia again and will test tomorrow, but the nitrates don't seem to be increasing quickly, levels have been the same for a number of days now is this normal?

 

[librarygirl]

I've dosed it with ammonia again and will test tomorrow, but the nitrates don't seem to be increasing quickly, levels have been the same for a number of days now is this normal?

Is ammonia consistently dropping to 0 in 24 hours? How high are you dosing? How long have nitrites been off-chart? Have you done any water changes and if so how long ago?

 

[AmyD]

Yes i test every day and the ammonia has always dropped to 0 so i dose it back up to 4ppm (slightly less a couple of times but always between 2 & 4 ppm). Nitrites have been high for at least a week now and i haven't done a water change yet as i waiting for the nitrates to rise a bit more. Do you think i should do a 50% water change?

 

[librarygirl]

Yes i test every day and the ammonia has always dropped to 0 so i dose it back up to 4ppm (slightly less a couple of times but always between 2 & 4 ppm). Nitrites have been high for at least a week now and i haven't done a water change yet as i waiting for the nitrates to rise a bit more. Do you think i should do a 50% water change?

It wouldn't hurt. Sometimes high nitrites for a while can stall the cycle. I doubt you're at that point yet, but if you want to do one, as I said it won't hurt. If you are, you might as well do one large enough to make the nitrite readable on the test kit, 2 or less would be ideal. Don't be surprised if the nitrite shoot up again fast though, that's normal (and no need to do a pwc each time nitrite gets high).

 

[AmyD]

I think i'll do that tonight, thanks for your help

 

[AmyD]

Just did my water change and now my nitrates are showing between 80 and 160 but before the water change they were at 2ppm. What's going on there? Lol

 

[Chino1130]

I don't know why that would happen. I was just recently having nitrate issues myself. I'm now 16 days into my fish less cycle, and I'm still not sure if they are doing good or not. After only four days my ammonia levels started dropping. I had to re-up the ammonia to 4ppm three times until I saw my nitrites beginning to increase, and eventually go off the chart. Next thing I knew I was showing little to no nitrites within a day of adding more ammonia. My nitrates went from 40ppm to off the charts in less than 24 hours. They held high for about 2 days, then out of no where dropped to 10-20ppm. They have been at that level for about a week now. I can clear 6ppm of ammonia in 24 hours, with a nitrite reading of .25 or less. Yet for some reason my nitrates don't move. I did a 30% water change, and all that seemed to do was throw off my ammonia and nitrite decreasing rates for about a day. My nitrates still haven't budged. I know it's not the test kit because when I test my other tank I am getting the readings I expect. The only thing I can recon is that my plants are helping to keep the nitrates down. They are all still really small though, so I am not sure if that's the case or not. At this point I am just going to let it be. If all is still well on Friday I plan on dropping a few fish in there to see how they do.

 

[eco23]

I know it's already been covered...but in 99.9999% of cases it's from a faulty test kit (normally user error, occasionally a bad liquid). The shaking part is really important.

Scientifically nitrAte only leaves an aquarium in 3 ways. #1 water changes, #2 live plants absorbing them and #3 denitrification (turns into nitrogen gas from anaerobic bacteria). The thing about denitrification is that you'll virtually never see it happen. NitrAtes are produced much faster than they will ever leave...especially during a fish less cycle.

The fact that the results are varying so much leads me to believe even more that it's a bad test. But like jeta said...it's really not important. We just care about the ammonia and nitrItes zeroing out constantly to tell if you're cycled.

 

[librarygirl]

I know it's already been covered...but in 99.9999% of cases it's from a faulty test kit (normally user error, occasionally a bad liquid). The shaking part is really important.

Scientifically nitrAte only leaves an aquarium in 3 ways. #1 water changes, #2 live plants absorbing them and #3 denitrification (turns into nitrogen gas from anaerobic bacteria). The thing about denitrification is that you'll virtually never see it happen. NitrAtes are produced much faster than they will ever leave...especially during a fish less cycle.

The fact that the results are varying so much leads me to believe even more that it's a bad test. But like jeta said...it's really not important. We just care about the ammonia and nitrItes zeroing out constantly to tell if you're cycled.

Hey Eco, can you look at her other thread: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/nitrate-confusion-172674.html She found out she has 80 ppm nitrates in her tap water. :/ Not sure what that means in terms of pwc for when she gets fish.