Nitrate Test Kit

pdiehm · Nov 27, 2017

I have been using Red Sea Pro for a while now and perhaps the most frustrating part is interpreting the colors. My shade of pink tonight was darker than the card, but after I did the high range, the vial was clear. So, to me that means my nitrates are 4 right?

But the weird thing is, the color was darker than the 4 shade, probably by a shade or 2.

I really really hate interpreting colors. Why can’t they have a digital tester? Get me a reagent and take the interpretation out of my hands.

Brew12 · Nov 28, 2017

pdiehm said:
I have been using Red Sea Pro for a while now and perhaps the most frustrating part is interpreting the colors. My shade of pink tonight was darker than the card, but after I did the high range, the vial was clear. So, to me that means my nitrates are 4 right?

But the weird thing is, the color was darker than the 4 shade, probably by a shade or 2.

I really really hate interpreting colors. Why can’t they have a digital tester? Get me a reagent and take the interpretation out of my hands.

You can get a digital tester but they come at a high price premium. There are some challenges with the way nitrite/nitrate testing is done that makes digital testing difficult.

pdiehm · Nov 28, 2017

I guess I will keep doing 2 tests. If the high range is clear, then I know my NO3 is under 4.

That said, it’s probably higher because some of it is being used.

BlueCursor · Nov 28, 2017

I bought Hanna's digital tester. I can't stand comparing colors so I spent the $350+. The test only goes down to 0.4 ppm of nitrate, but that's good enough for me. The really nice thing about this test is it doesn't use the cadmium reduction method! Cadmium is toxic. So if you use those tests that do use it, wear gloves.

roberthu526 · Nov 29, 2017

I think you can assume it's 4. The truth is it's probably 4.5 or 5 but it doesn't really matter if it's off by 1 in my opinion. I test for nitrate just to make sure it's not close to or over 10 ppm. As long as it's within a range I don't worry about it.

pdiehm · Nov 29, 2017

roberthu526 said:
I think you can assume it's 4. The truth is it's probably 4.5 or 5 but it doesn't really matter if it's off by 1 in my opinion. I test for nitrate just to make sure it's not close to or over 10 ppm. As long as it's within a range I don't worry about it.

Yep, I definitely think it's over 5. I think it's being used up and the 5 is what I'm testing at. Regardless, If I can do 15g water changes every few days, I would think that I can get it under control, though it'll suck going through salt like that.