What do we know of these test kits??

[Doan]

I have a tetra test kit that I am very suspect of.. Everything had been going great I had (acording to it) Nitrates around 12.5 but I figured as my tank matured It would eventually work that stuff out with the live rock and sand etc.. The problem is that I did a test yesterday (2 days after my weekly waterchange 10%) and it gave me a reading of about 25. That is just crazy.. I can think of no reason that this is an issue.. I feed everyother day about a 3rd of cube of food (mysis, angel food, formula one and two) Kinda random depending on what I think they might want that day and I give the coral and saddle some krill about 2 or 3 times a week..I have nothing but some carbon I put in my fluval 404. I run a protien skimmer etc.. I have 2 clowns and a flame angel .. not real messy fish and a saddle anomone and a bubble coral. I am not real crazy about this test as I am required to put a scoop.. of zinc in the test that seems a bit subjective to me .. do I put in a lvl scoop a heaping scoop etc.. It just seems that that being my last non seachem test kit this may be the problem.. If not what can I try other than 2 water changes a week to bring this down??

 

[loganj]

I probably wouldn't trust a Tetra kit. Go with either Salifert or Seachem. The only other thing that comes to mind, and this is pretty distant, is that the carbon in the Fluval has gotten bioactive and is churning out nitrates. How long has it been in there? I suspect it's the test kit though. Water changes are the only way I know of to actively reduce nitrates.

 

[Doan]

I thought of that possible thing situatuion too and picked up some new carbon but it has only been in there a month..The thing is I do 10% water changes like it is a religon. Every Sunday at 1:30. I also got a new test kit all they had was red sea which I am not that crazy about either but at least it's something different. IF they both have me in the red then I will get a little bit more worried. I was also thinking (and let me know if this is totally crazy) That about 2 weeks ago I put in 2 2.5 inch clowns and a pretty big anomone (12" across easy) Perhaps the tank is still adjusting to them being in there. The tank is only about 4 months old so I thought perhaps this was a possible answer to the cause as well. But I am just guessing so any feedback would be great.

Doan

 

[loganj]

The livestock addition is a possibility. Did you notice any ammonia/nitrite spikes in the last couple of weeks? One thing that I think bears mentioning is that anemones often do not do well in younger tanks...I would watch it very closely for signs of deterioration. Especially if you do have excess nitrates in the water.

 

[Doan]

I had a small amonia spike about 2 days after I put the fish in as for the nitraite I never noticed anything but that is only a test I do about once a month. The nitrates I do weekly i was just stunned yesterday when lo and behold it came back so high.. As for the anonome yeah I know that they have a pretty bad track record in younger tanks but it was a present from my wife for our clowns (another thread a while back) but I am really doing all I can and honestly I hadnt' had any lvl changes in about 8 weeks prior to us getting one. so I thought that everything would continue to just kinda stay the course if I kept up with it. I would actually venture to say it is not only surviving it is thriving espically since my two clown fish found it.. That is why I am trying to stay on top of things so the tank continues to do well.

Thanks for the help

Doan