Nitrates...

[cyberchef]

I bought an "Aquarium Pharmacuticals" test kit today to use for comparison, LFS owner said they were the most accurate he's seen next to Lamotte. He's also Med tech at a local hospital and said that he tested them against test he ran at work and they were very close. Are these really any good?

My Red Sea kit has been reading the nitrates at 10 ppm every time I've tested since I got it. I tested with the AQ Pharm test and it showed my nitrates at approx 80 ppm. I then tested with my Red Sea test kit and it's showing the Nitrates at 10 ppm.

WTF is going on here, I'm about ready to throw in the towel and quit testing all together. Except for the Montipora having white spots all of my fish and corals seem fine, seems if my Nitrates were that high something would be either dieing or showing signs of illness at least.

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm planning on getting salifert kits but it's going to be a couple of weeks till I can work it in.

[beach bum]

seems if my Nitrates were that high something would be either dieing or showing signs of illness at least

you'd probably have an excess of algae growth too.

Don't sweat it man, attention to detail goes a long way and you've got that in spades.

The only salifert test I own is the nitrAte test. It is more accurate but not perfect. When they say level scoop do they mean a packed scoop or a loose scoop? who knows, I really don't. The other test kits I just use to measure for "the presence of", like ammonia and nitrIte.

Take Ph for example, the test kit I use doesn't really match any of the colors EXACTLY. So I test saltwater from the LFS, I test just mixed water, I test the water from my other tanks. This gives me a feel for when Ph is off and should be buffered, not because the colors don't match.

Just my take, ymmv

[cyberchef]

That's just it, I recently had a major break out iof Cyano that I can't seem to get under control. I think my refugiums are the culprit behind the breakout. While they are doing great they are probably still cycling since they are only a few weeks old.