nitrates

[kason42]

why won't my nitrates go down? I just did a 50 percent water change.

 

[ken6217]

You either measured wrong before, after, or your test kit is bad.
Ken

 

[mnat]

Nitrates are caused by many many things, so list out your setup so we can get a handle on the situation. However, if you just did a 50 percent water change and nothing changed, you might want to redo the test as the above poster said.

 

[junk]

Where are you getting your water from that you are putting into your tank? I ask because I had this same problem. Then one day it occurred to me that I should check the new water I was putting in (picked up from a LFS). Much to my surprise, the water I was putting in from the LFS was already high in nitrates so the water change wasn't doing anything to help.

 

[dart]

good article on nitrates by john cunningham it tells you how water changes are not always effective on high nitrate levels.

http://www.aquaristsonline.com/blog/water-quality/nitrate-and-how-to-reduce-it/

 

[kason42]

Thanks everyone, but I figured it out. The test kit turned out to be way past its expiration date.

 

[mnat]

Thanks everyone, but I figured it out. The test kit turned out to be way past its expiration date.

Not even the best aquarist can overcome a faulty test kit.

 

[ken6217]

Maybe you have no nitrates and you wasted all of that water.
Ken

 

[kason42]

That's funny because upon taking a sample to the LFS, it turned out that my nitrates were just about 0. Ammonia almost zero, Nitrites non existent. What a relief though. It's a scary thing to see the dark red color in the test tube.