 Testing Nitrates Wrong
Quote:
Originally Posted by iapetus  Yeah. To be explicit: - add 10 drops from bottle #1 to pipette
- shake bottle #2 for 30 seconds
- add 10 drops from bottle #2 to pipette
- shake pipette for one minute
- read the color of the water in the pipette off the supplied chart
People may bag on the dip strips, but at least they're simple to use (my fiancée doesn't understand why I bother with the API tests). | oh my gosh....I too went and retested my water the correct way and I could tell I had nitrates right away. Thanks so much for sharing. Your error shared with other newbies like myself will save me so much time and frustration. I have only been testing for nitrates for a week and I too showed 0 because I was shaking the test tube for 30 sec not the bottle. My reading is 10. thanks again. 
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36G: 1/29/08 Set up, just 2 days short of 9 weeks and we're cycled 3/30/08
8-zebra danios
5-ghost glass catfish
2-angelfish 1-black marble 1-albino
1-new pleco "not named for fear i might kill him too"
1-White Mollie (was agressive until my other two mollies died) Mollies added last and two died.
1 deceased pleco, named "Frank"  "Frank" was my selfish impatient act to add a fish I should not have added during the cycling process. Sorry fishy friends.  |