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View Full Version : Not sure my salifert nitrate kit is working...


holdyourlight
03/29/2011, 07:04 PM
Since day one it has read zero for my tank. I never thought it was odd because i've never had a nitrate problem. Corals have been bleaching lately and trying to find the culprit. So i tested some tap water with my nitrate kit. still zero. is there anyway to use a checker liquid of any sort to make it turn pink?

njjetfan
03/29/2011, 08:14 PM
Sure dissolve a small amount of common plant fertilizer in water. Should have tons of nitrate in it.

Mike321
03/29/2011, 08:17 PM
Same here, brand new kit and it reads zero every time, which I thought was odd cause my corals are browned out.

I've tried feeding a ton to increase nitrates (to the point where I now have algae growing everywhere) and the kit still shows nitrates are undetectable.

Habib
03/30/2011, 07:26 AM
On each reagent there is a batch number. Please pm me those numbers. Will run then a test on archived samples on how they are performing currently. Before deciding on sending a check solution or kit.

Please mention nitrate kit in the pm's subject line. :)

holdyourlight
03/30/2011, 08:54 AM
i dissolved fertilizer in water. still came up zero

Habib-sending pm...

Habib
03/30/2011, 09:40 AM
i dissolved fertilizer in water. still came up zero

Habib-sending pm...

A fertilizer might or might not be a good choice. For example it can have a strongly deviating pH in which the test would not work properly or a very high concentration of other minerals which could interefere.


Got your pm and did a quick test using a 30 ppm Nitrate solution.
Your kit is approaching the expiry date and the batches did perform very well.

The picture does not give the color good enough (in it it looks stronger) but with the eye it is inbetween 25 and 50 ppm, closer to the 25 ppm.


What you are seeing is therefore not batch related.

Just to be sure. Do you swirl for 30 seconds and let it stand after that for 3 minutes?

If you do so then please pm me your address so we can solve your problem.

bertoni
03/30/2011, 03:03 PM
People do report bleaching problems with zero nitrate, so I wouldn't assume that the kit is wrong. There are nitrate standards available that might be useful, I think, but I'd probably look elsewhere for the source of the problem.