Nitrate Test Kits ?

[TheDuude]

Hoping this is the right area...

I have a relatively young reef tank. It is coming up on 6 months old. It was started using drying rock, dry sand, and bottled bacteria.

The tank has been doing great so far. Transferred fish and corals are looking healthy, happy, and growing well. I have one lingering issue which is Cyanobacteria. The Cyano is slowly fading away and at this rate, in another few weeks, it should be completely gone.

I have once concern and that is since the cycle I cannot get any Nitrate readings all at. I am using an API nitrate test. Is this my problem? Are the API kits that bad?

If so what kits does everyone recommend? And if I am still testing zero with a new kit should I be worried?

 

[SPR1968]

You don’t say how big the tank is and how many fish, so for example if it’s under stocked it’s very possible that you could have zero nitrate which you don’t really want. A good target for me is around 5-10ppm

My new system which is 530g with 30 fish added on day one, and now probably 60+ only had nitrate showing after about 3 months despite me heavily feeding to get it raised quickly simply because of the volume of water.

I can recommend the NYOS nitrate kit if you can get it, very simple to use and read, if you like yellow.

 

[lazlodawg]

Good post above. Also like the Salifert nitrate kit a lot.

 

[Pntbll687]

Hoping this is the right area...

I have a relatively young reef tank. It is coming up on 6 months old. It was started using drying rock, dry sand, and bottled bacteria.

The tank has been doing great so far. Transferred fish and corals are looking healthy, happy, and growing well. I have one lingering issue which is Cyanobacteria. The Cyano is slowly fading away and at this rate, in another few weeks, it should be completely gone.

I have once concern and that is since the cycle I cannot get any Nitrate readings all at. I am using an API nitrate test. Is this my problem? Are the API kits that bad?

If so what kits does everyone recommend? And if I am still testing zero with a new kit should I be worried?

API test kits are good for a ballpark idea of where you are. That 0 on the test would probably be somewhere between 0-10ppm.

Salifert, Nyos, and redsea make good nitrate test kits.

Personally I haven't tested nitrates in years, well maybe once a year or so but I can't remember the last time I did.

Don't get hung up on and start chasing numbers, such as "I have to be at 10ppm nitrate because wwc runs their systems there". Just feed normally and if everything is going well keep it steady, if you get some dinos then you should up the feeding a little bit to get some nutrients back in the tank, cyano probably cut back slightly on feeding and siphon out what you can.

Things will get easier as the tank matures.

 

[t5Nitro]

I don't think the API is a reliable nitrate kit at all. I have 2 kits, one will remain 0 ppm yellow despite dosing upwards of 15mL daily of a solution that will raise my tank 1ppm per mL. The other kit tested back to back will read 20ppm and also not change despite dosing or stop dosing.

I'm looking for a new one myself. Looking at either NYOS since it seems people like this one the best, otherwise a La Motte kit seems to be the nicer quality kit at a higher price tag. The problem it seems is there is so many models of the LaMotte nitrate kits I'm not sure which to buy for aquarium purpose.

 

[Fred2482]

+1

Salifert, Nyos, and redsea make good nitrate test kits.

 

[WiscoFishNut]

+1 for Salifert. I think you'll find over time that your arsenal of test kits will be spread across a handful of vendors lol. I use Salfiert for pH & nitrate, Hanna checkers for Alk & PO4, Aquaforest for Ca, and RedSea for Mg.

 

[TheDuude]

I think I will pick up the Nyos kit this weekend.

My tank is a reefer 250 so roughly 65 gallons. I have 7 fish so I would consider a light bioload. I am also running a refugium which I am considering taking offline or at least decreasing photoperiod while the tank matures and I get at least an indication that nitrates are present.

The Cyano is fading every day so I am definitely headed in the right direction. I am Ok with a bit a cyano here and there since it is so easy to remove. I am much more worried about Dinos as I had them in a previous tank which eventually resulted in tearing it down.

Thanks for the feedback !!!

 

[WilliamBowman]

I was getting red reading with api kits over and over and thinking I had a runaway nitrate problem and spent waaaay too much time and money on trying to figure it out. Turns out the api kit was just inaccurate. Salifert is better.