dskidmore
Aquarium Advice Addict
You could try it if you have it on hand, but I wouldn't waste good money. I havn't heard many people find it very useful. A better bet would be dirty filter media or substrate from an established, healthy tank.
Now i KNOW something is screwy with your water, your test kit, or with the performance or interpretation of the results. The nitrate test frist converts nitrate into nitrite, then measures the amount of nitrate you have by how much nitrite you have converted it into. Therefore, there is no way you could have 50ppm of nitrite AND 0 nitrate, since the AP test kit would read the nitrite and the nitrate levels the same . In a tank that did have 50ppm of nitrite, the nitrite test would be 50 and the nitrate test would be 50, if your tests were being done right and not being interfered with.smells fine to me. I just did a 35% water change, and the nitrates are now close to 0 and the nitrites are still off the charts.