false positive nitrate test possible?

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

I have been checking my water paramaters daily, and while my ammonia is not dropping, the nitrates have been steadily climbing, right now showing between 40 - 80 ppm.

here is where my question comes into play, I have tested my tap water several times, and it comes back showing anywhere between 10 - 30 ppm nitrates in the tap water, I thought this could not be correct so I did a nitrate test on some RO bottled water for a control and it came back with zero nitrates.

I called my local water company and I asked them about the nitrate content of my local water and the guy in charge of water quality said they tested it back in jan and it was 2.2 ppm, which is the same numbers I found online listed here - http://www.bgmu.com/docs/media/2012_Water_Quality_Report.pdf

what could be causing my tap to read such high nitrates when everything indicates that it should be reading well under 5 ppm?

 

[Scott28]

To be honest I think all water companies are full of rubbish.. I had sooooo many arguments with mine over the water levels. My resolution was buying just normal tap bottled water from a supermarket. This was cheaper than RO water and NitrAtes were lower than 5ppm.

 

[ZombiesAteMyDog]

Yea, I am not sure what is going on, if they are lying or what but it is very frustrating