weird nitrate reading

[platycrazy19]

I change and test my water once a week. usually I would get a reading of 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate. But lately I have been getting a reading of 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 0 nitrate. Lately I have been having to leave my tank on the weekends and so I have been doing large water changes before I leave and my fish are not getting fed while i'm gone. I thought this might reduce the amount of nitrate that I get but I still find it odd that i'm testing zero for nitrate.
Any thoughts on this?

 

[CatmanDru]

1) Have you added live plants? Live plants absorb ammonia, nitrite and nitrate out of the tank water as the plants grow.

2) Are you sure you are doing the liquid nitrate test correctly exactly following the directions? People have found it helpfull to bang bottle #2 on a table a few times and then shake the bottle vigorously a while.

 

[platycrazy19]

yeah I have quite a few live plants in my tank and I make sure to shake the nitrate bottles well. though I have not tried banging them on the table first.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Is your test kit expired? Try banging the bottle on something.

 

[platycrazy19]

i don't think my test kit is expired but I will have to double check and i will try banging the bottle on the table to see if that helps thanks for the help

 

[CatmanDru]

Are your live plants newly added, that is, did you add them at about the time you started getting the all 0 readings?

 

[aqua_chem]

Shake the crap out of both nitrate test solutions. They never seem to work otherwise, IME.

 

[platycrazy19]

ive had the plants for quite some time

 

[CatmanDru]

ive had the plants for quite some time

Ok, then it's probably not the plants that are causing your 0 nitrate readings.

It's time to bang and shake the nitrate test bottles

 

[Dwohlge1]

Is it slightly orange at all?

I have a Goldie in a 25 he is only 1 inch. I do 25% pwc's every week and my reading is always below 5. But it almost looks zero. I have to hold it up to the white card under good light to see the orange.

 

[Scouser]

Yea try the "bang and shake" method.

Also make sure you are in a well lot area when reading the results to make sure you aren't mistaken.

The colours aren't always easy to tell apart IME.

 

[platycrazy19]

Tried banging it and shaking it really good, still zero. I just added a rather large piece of driftwood not to long ago could that have affected it at all?

 

[aqua_chem]

Probably not. What kind of plants do you have?

 

[platycrazy19]

The plants that I have are 2 aponogeton, 2 wisteria, 2 amazon sword and a anubias nana.