# Nitrates off the chart!!



## steel1212 (Feb 21, 2006)

I just tested all 3 of my tanks and my nitrates are in the red which is above 100ppm according to my test kit. Should I not does with the KNO3 and just keep dosing with the KH2PO4, traces and use some potassium liquid I have from seachem? The fish in all the tanks seem to be doing fine. 

I do have hair algae on my althernaria(sp) and my limnophilia in the 92 and green spot algae on my glass in my 30.


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## acbaldwin (Nov 3, 2005)

My master FW test kit also gave me these readings in my big tank. Fish/pplants/algae were fine, so I tried Jungle QuickDip test strips (ph, kh, gh, NO3, NO2) and have actually gotten pretty good results. They are excellen for just getting a general idea of the levels, my fish tell me the rest.

No, I'm not crazy, why?


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## steel1212 (Feb 21, 2006)

How much where the readings off on the 2 kits? I would just hate to stop dosing with the nitrates and then end up needing it. I would love to get rid of the hair algae on those 2 plants and the spot algae in my 30.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Not to but in to the SWOAPE forum, but I'd seriously recommend verifying your readings before making any changes. I found huge discrepancies between my 'other' kit and readings from a Lamotte kit.

Either make a standard solution to compare against or get another test kit to check your readings against. Just my $0.05....


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## acbaldwin (Nov 3, 2005)

In my well planted 55 gallon (running an Emperor 400, aka "overkill") the nitrates were reading around 120ppm. The month before that I was reading 30ppm on the exact same kit. I got the test strips (which I only got because they did gh/kh) and my NO3 was reading around 35ppm, which is about where I expected. They were only about 8 bucks for a bottle of them.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

steel1212 said:


> I just tested all 3 of my tanks and my nitrates are in the red which is above 100ppm according to my test kit. Should I not does with the KNO3 and just keep dosing with the KH2PO4, traces and use some potassium liquid I have from seachem? The fish in all the tanks seem to be doing fine.
> 
> I do have hair algae on my althernaria(sp) and my limnophilia in the 92 and green spot algae on my glass in my 30.


I really hate to advise anyone not to dose on the basis of a hobbyist test kit. Those kits have gotten more people (including myself) into trouble! If you are having any algae issues the first things to look into is low CO2 levels. Hair algae, along with most other types of algae, is indicative of Low CO2, then low NO3 then low PO4. Green Spot is caused by low CO2 or low PO4. Being you have both types, I would assume your CO2 or PO4 is a bit on the low side.

Have you been adding any PO4 to your tank and if so how much per dose and for how long?


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