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Nitrite/nitrate false positive?


fishbloke

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I have tested my aquarium water with an API master test kit.

ammonia 0

Nitrite 5ppm

Nitrate 100ppm

Tank has being going for 5 weeks and been fine up till yesterday.

But here is the funny thing. My fish are happy, healthy and breathing at a normal rate. My aquarium guy got me to take a video of my fish and he concurred that they are not stressed. He tested the water and also found that the above mentioned values are correct. Yesterday i did a 50% water change, it made no difference.

I have an Aqua One aqauvis 130 tank. 130 litres. 150 with the sump. I have 12 baby cichlids.

I have modified the filtration system it came with. I have done the following.

I have ditched the aqua one cartages and replaced them with cut up yourself filtration mat. 2 x micro mat. 1 ammonia mat and one nitrite/nitrate mat.

Then a there is also a foot long sponge.

I have also added 1 litre of bio balls to the ceramic noodles already there. The bio balls float in the sump with a air stone underneath they move around a bit like a moving bed filter.

I will do another 50% water change to day to be sure.

 

The question is: Can my filter mats cause a false positive? Would there be another reason for a false positive? The only thing that does not add up is that my fish are alive

 

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I'm not really sure what an "ammonia mat" or a "nitrate mat" are - but if they are doing some kind of chemical binding rather than removing them it will usually continue to show up on tests.
Test your tap water - water changes wont help if that's the source of any of it

Definitely check with a different brand of test kit if possible - especially if the store used API as well.
Sometimes just having a fresh set makes a big difference. I'm not sure how long those chems last but it's not forever.

Then again, it's also possible that the readings were so high that testing the water diluted by 50% wont make a visible difference until you get the values much lower.

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Advice, take it or leave it ?

Your tanks 5 weeks, except for nitrate readings, I'd expect to see that.....   Nitrate kits mate, I don't think they are as unreliable as most people suggest, but they do fail, and some people on here know their stuff, so believe many of their findings.

but determining those such slight differences in shade colors,, all the advice over the phone I've given, disputed a true reading with the vial in front of us......

test your tap water, if there's no nitrates in it, then you can't magically get nitrate from nowhere in that time, be sure your fish are moderately fed with no over feeding that can cause rocketing nitrates,, along with dead fish to.

Forget any water changes at all, your tanks only 5 weeks, I never water change anything inside of first two months,,,, get yourself a bottle of seachem prime and use as per instruction but halved, because you won't be water changing,, this will detoxify ammonia, nitrite and nitrate,,, but will remain showing up on your tests, just no longer toxic as its now non-toxic,, as the Ducksta explained.

just keep your feeding down to a minimum, and don't stress one bit at all,,,, until you see mouths gasping at surface or fish sitting on bottom,,,,,, remember to have the water surface full on churning like 40 barstards.

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7 hours ago, Link2Hell said:

this is not the first time API test kits have been question about the readings

maybe look at a test kit of a different brand like Sera

Thanks for the advise.

Sorry i meant filter pad. I'm using ammonia and nitrite/nitrate filter pad

I did test my tap water. No nitrates. I tried testing with bits of pad in the tube as well to see if there was a chemical reaction with the test kit. It was clean.

I'ii go get some prime. The reason i did not do this to begin with is that i heard that it causes false positive tests on ammonia in very high ranges long the ammonia it is not there any more.,

 

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Your waiting for your beneficial bacteria in your filters to popular and mature.

Ammonia and nitrite is the beneficial bacterias food.

Take away its food via water changes, then your constantly setting back your cycle completing,,, 

But I got a feeling that your completely fine, and just over thinking,, I possibly could read your nitrate levels on your kit and see it completely different.

If your good enough to tell your fish are stressing when there's a issue, turn simply don't worry till you see them telling you the signs.

Ammonia is not poison,, it's only poison if you don't have beneficial bacteria present,, but it's food for beneficial bacterias. ?

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if its only been a day the fish may not be showing any signs of issues.
I agree with Buccal and think the tank is still cycling. Stop the water changes and monitor the tank for a week. When did you ditch the Aqua one cartridges?

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Nitrites does take a while to get into the blood stream and start wrecking the blood. The more salt in the water the more the sodium receptors are blocked. This will slow down the nitrite entering blood through the gills, this is seen in marine aquaria. However nitrite can still enter through the digestive tract though.

 

While it may take a while to get into a fish, nitrite is very hard to get out of a fish. It is well worth diluting it below .5ppm for long term fish health. Generally I do not reccomend more than 50% water changes but its not a bad idea to try get in a huge one. Just dont temperature shock your fish.

You can simulate water changes, eg, filling a bucket with 25% aquarium water and 75% tap water. Give it a swirl and then test for nitrites. Thats the result you would have from a 3/4 water change.

The prime/nitrite thing is strange. Worth sending seachem an email. Not 100% sold on the answer I got.

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Hi,

From what you say its actually normal for your tank to be showing these high readings in this early stage of the cycle. Its sounds as though its peaking just before it drops down and becomes cycled. Now, the API kit is one of the most accurate kits on the market so try to have some faith in it. Regardless that ammonia and nitrite is harmful to your fish and really water changes at this stage are a must. Depending on the size of your tank you should be doing 20-40% water changes a day, even though they put a small bump in the cycle you cant leave your fish in those high readings no matter how good they seem to be. Seachem Prime is a fantastic product for cycling and also Seachem Stability for beneficial bacteria at this stage in your new tank. You need to keep your ammonia and nitrite under 1.0ppm during this fish in cycle for the safety of your fish and the only way to achieve this is water changes with Prime added. Remember to test the water before you feed your fish for accurate results. It might also pay to rinse out the filter in tank water in a bucket then discard as it may have built up gunk already. Good luck :)  

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Thanks for all the advise. I used the prime just in case a problem developed. So hopefully the bio filter will kick in if it is going through a cycle. But I'ii only use it in emergencies so hopefully it will not muck up my testing after a few weeks

To answer the question re' the cartridges. I removed them one at a time with a week between removing each cartridge about 4 weeks ago. The reason i did this was because the tank has different set up from most. Everything is hidden including the heater in a sump that sits behind the tank. The water flow through the sump was being reduced by the cartages and they did a poor job of water polishing and they are expensive. (9 months of micro, ammonia and nitrate/nitrite pad costs the equivalent of 2 cartages). So i got rid of them. This was precipitated by the event of low O2 when i made all my changes to the filtration system (adding bio balls, filter pad and air stones). My tank has a low water surface area as it has a sealed glass top (water cube look)

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