why am i showing no nitrate on test kit

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naz

Junior Poster
Dec 29, 2008
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croydon
i am using dry ferts and following the james tank dosing method,some of my planted are not looking to good so i thought i would test the water,cant work out why my nitrate is coming up as 0,so i thought i would double the dose of kno3 and it still com up 0,everything else is coming up fine,my tank has only bin running for 5 weeks it is a new set up,and i only have 3 tiny fish in there at the moment ,do you think i should add nitrate on its own as well as adding potassium nitrate,to get the nitrate levels up, tell i get some more fish in there , i am new to planted tanks,as you can probably work out i am not very clued up,....could do with all the info i could get

240l tank ,co2 injected 4 bubba sec,3 x39 t5 nitrate 0..phosphate5.0..iron...0.5...ph6.6..kh80ppm...gh140ppm..use ro water1/4 tap 3/4ro...gonna keep dicuss fish,co2 30 ppm,my test kit are hagen

dosing
kn03 1/4tps 3xweek
kh2po4 3/16 3xweek
trace1/4 3xweek
mag 8ppm
sulphate of potash 10ppm

cant work out why some of the plants look ok and 20% of them look stunted and showing sign of problems:confused:...try to get some pictures on here of plants if i can work out how to put them on here.........
 
VaughnH

VaughnH

Lifetime Charter Member
Lifetime Member
Jan 24, 2005
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You have a very high light intensity, so you have to maintain high CO2 concentration in the water, with good water circulation to get that CO2 to all of the plants in the tank, and with non-limiting dosing of all fertilizers. This means that you need to get a drop checker so you can find out if you are at least close to having good CO2 concentration. Measuring the KH and pH of the tank water does not tell you how much CO2 is in the water.

The first thing I would do is decrease the light intensity, by turning off one of the 39 watt bulbs, and raising the light fixture several inches. Then, get the drop checker set up and adjust the bubble rate on the CO2 until the liquid in it turns green. From there you can slowly increase the bubble rate some more, a little bit every day, until you get good pearliing of the plants, and the fish are not showing obvious signs of distress. Your KNO3 dosage should be doubled to at least 1/2 tsp 3 times a week, and the phosphate raised to maybe 1/4 tsp. (I'm not real sure about those doses, but I do know I dosed about what you are only for a 29 gallon tank, much smaller than yours.)
 
N

naz

Junior Poster
Dec 29, 2008
21
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croydon
ferty and lighting

cheers,thanks for the reply vaughn,the lighting in my tank is an arcader lumininaire,4x39w,t5s,i have all ready turned one of the light off, i was runing 3x39w just over 2wpg1,....but your saying to just run 2 of the bulbs 2x39w if i am corect,i cant lift the hood of my tank as its mounted to the sides.i messed up the dosing method,i said i was adding 1/4 kn03but im adding 3/4 3xweek ,phosphate i was adding3/16tpsi 3xweekwill up that to what you said ,i have all ready got a drop checker and it is showing green,i was checking the kh and ph table as well just to make shore every thing was ok,i did not no that about uping co2 til you get the pearling on plants will do that,,so what your saying is that im running to much light in my tank.2.....why are people are running 2wpg and higher,how comes there not geting the problems im geting3....why are my nitrate levels showing 0 i thought you needed at least 10 ppm or you should am for that.....:confused:
 
D

Dmaaaaax

Prolific Poster
Jan 9, 2009
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Have you ever seen a nitrate reading on your kit? If not, add a pinch of powder directly to the test kit to be sure that the kit works. I had a problem with my Hagen phosphate test kit always coming up zero. I switched to Red Sea and it now shows over 2ppm.
 
N

naz

Junior Poster
Dec 29, 2008
21
0
1
46
croydon
test kit

just done the test and my test kit is working,just done a test on my water again in my tank and its showing iv got nitrate in my tank think i was doing the test wrong i was shaking the nitrate bottle number 3 for 30 sec like it say on the leaflet think that why it was saying 0 nitrate:)
 
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