Nitrate questions

[cardiocentric]

I did as told... large water change, swished around filter media in some tank water during the change... and vac'ed the gravel really well. My nitrates are down again. Thank you so much everyone!!! I went to Petsmart today and got my water tested. I also found out today that my test kit runs WAY higher than their tests, which is kind of strange. Not to discredit their tests, but I think my vials may need a thorough cleansing.

[dmagerl]

I assume its the API test kit. If you dont shake bottle #2 enough, as it gets used up, it starts reading higher and higher.

When shaking, there are little particles of zinc that must be brought back into suspension. They settle to the bottom of the bottle when on the shelf. If not shaken enough, the particles stay in a glob on the bottom and gradually increase in concentration with each subsequent test. Thus the reason for the high reading.

So in the future, shake the !@#$ out of it, pound it on a hard surface, wack it around. But make sure you get those particles back in suspension. I cant emphasize the importance of shaking enough.

Its time to buy a new test kit and throw this one away. There's nothing you can do to fix the existing test kit.

[bethyMT]

Doing gravel vacs cannot be emphasized enough. Doing those was enough to help a whole lot when I was doing daily water changes. Even though you can't see all the stuff in the gravel, it is there.

Glad that you got things stabilized. I had a similar situation a while ago where I lost fish due to some less than good maintenance on my tank and resulting nitrate build up/pH drop.