LFS Water has me confused.....

[thejuice24]

So I bought a beautiful RBTA from a LFS tonight and a digitata. So just for hahah's I tested the LFS water.

Nitrate 160 ppm
ALK 10
PH 8.6

I'm scratching my head on the Nitrates.... how is everything not dead. .? By the way I ve only been in the hobby six months, so please excuse me for a newbie question. Just trying to educate myself....

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

So I bought a beautiful RBTA from a LFS tonight and a digitata. So just for hahah's I tested the LFS water.

Nitrate 160 ppm
ALK 10
PH 8.6

I'm scratching my head on the Nitrates.... how is everything not dead. .? By the way I ve only been in the hobby six months, so please excuse me for a newbie question. Just trying to educate myself....

test again
then consider, everything you may have heard, and what most people believe.... is wrong.

 

[Oscar47f]

i agree with the above, and would like to add some people actually don't keep their tanks at 0ppm of nitrates they aim for like <5 ppm chemically its not as dangerous as ammonia is... 160 may be too high but I've seen things live at 80ppm before

 

[Elementalj]

Re test, and get another kit to try it AGAIN. If the store sold me water with nitrates that high, I'd surely say something.

 

[Flippers4pups]

If the sample was taken from the bag of water the RBTA was in, then it could be from it expelling waste/water, retracting from being upset. Thus the higher nitrate in the bag. But if the bag with the digitata, a sample was taken and it read the same.......

Bad test kit or the water there is really that high! Smh.

 

[Elementalj]

If the sample was taken from the bag of water the RBTA was in, then it could be from it expelling waste/water, retracting from being upset. Thus the higher nitrate in the bag. But if the bag with the digitata, a sample was taken and it read the same.......

Bad test kit or the water there is really that high! Smh.

I understand the anemone expulsion, but if it's from the store? Just WOW! I'm seeing some scrawny kid pulling the garden hose in the back door and ALL!

 

[thejuice24]

Yes it was a mixture of the two bags. Both species where on the same tank, so I wasn't mixing tank A with tank b water, thay i took before starting the drip Good point on expelling...

 

[Lowell Lemon]

Nitrate is not toxic at that level. It may not be the elusive target for a UNLS system but it is the tail end of the nitrification cycle. There are some people on this forum that don't use protien skimmers and if memory serves they seem to have won the coral grow out challenge recently. If I remember some of their nitrates were high for some of the skimmer people but they grew corals faster and with better color. Prehaps we need to rethink a few things about nutirents in the aquarium. Not a bad idea to check the test again...this time from the tank not the shipping water.

 

[thejuice24]

Nitrate is not toxic at that level. It may not be the elusive target for a UNLS system but it is the tail end of the nitrification cycle. There are some people on this forum that don't use protien skimmers and if memory serves they seem to have won the coral grow out challenge recently. If I remember some of their nitrates were high for some of the skimmer people but they grew corals faster and with better color. Prehaps we need to rethink a few things about nutirents in the aquarium. Not a bad idea to check the test again...this time from the tank not the shipping water.

Intresting.... I did not watch the grow out challenge. At what levels does it actually become toxic, I don't beleive it's the test kit, I tested my tank this morning with the same kit and it came out to 20 ppm. I was concerned about that however tommorow is my water change and vac day. But I was just tooken back when testing the LFS water. Being in IT profession, I find myself being a number chaser buy nature. But this is certainly making me rethink things.