Red Sea Nitrate and Nitrite Test Kit

[rbarr110]

I am in the middle of cycling my first reef tank and have been testing Nitrite and Nitrate with the Red Sea kit. I started the cycle and went out of town for 5 days, so missed the early ammonia spike. When I got home I started testing. Ammonia was at 0.8 ppm, then 0.5, then around 0.1 to 0.2. Pulled the shrimp and manually dosed 2 ppm ammonia and hit ZERO in 36 hours. Nitrite has been at 0.5 with no changes.

Out of curiosity more than anything, I have been testing Nitrate. Using their card, its off the chart 50 range. In the manual for the test kit, it states that if you get a 50 range, take 1 ml of the solution and add 4 ml rodi water to that then use the chart and multiply by 5 for true values.

I did this and ended up with 2 ppm x 5 = 10 ppm. What I don't get, if this is a true value, why isn't it reading 10-12 ppm initially on the color card?

 

[rbarr110]

Was hoping this forum would get me assistance with the test kit because email customer support can be hit and miss. Decided to email customer support and Red Sea got back to me in about 10 minutes. Well finally got an answer on how to properly use the test if the initial test is reading 50. I need to run a fresh second test with 1 mL salt water and dilute with 4 mL or RO water and run the test again. The instructions read take 1 mL of solution and mix with 4 mL or RO water. In my head "solution" was the initial test mix not a new/fresh 1 mL salt water sample.

 

[Sierra_Bravo]

Glad you got a response from Red Sea. Thanks for posting the updated information.

Sometimes new posts are posted to the board so fast the one you did falls off too quickly and is missed. Usually folks answer questions right away.