meloyelo
Aquarium Advice Activist
I've been struggling with what my API liquid test kit show as high Nitrates. When I test I come up with 80ppm. Tap water results show 30. Seems like no matter what I do I can't get the reading down to a reasonable one. I've actually done back to back testing to make sure I was being careful and always come up with the same results. Today I went by 3 of my LFS to get them to double check my readings. Two of the shops were fish only, salt and fresh. The third was a Petsmart. They ALL used a test strip and ALL came up with an identical reading of right around 20ppm. I questioned them as to why they used strips when all I've read is that they are pretty much worthless. I got the same answer, "they are pretty accurate now days and much easier than using the liquid kits". So now I'm torn as to what to believe is correct. I don't know if I'm wrong with the 80ppm or if the 3 of them are wrong with 20ppm.