JasonMoyer Posted January 22, 2022 Share Posted January 22, 2022 I set up a new tank about 3 weeks ago. Its planted with a clay based substrate, a bunch of bladder snails and a handful of ramshorn snails from another established tank. I added root tabs and liquid fertilizer for the plants so I'm detecting nitrates. Ammonia came down to zero this week. My aquarium co-op test strips are detecting high levels of Nitrite but my API test keeps coming back as zero. I used a test strip in my established tank and it showed zero nitrites. The API test showed zero nitrites in the established tank as well. Any idea why the test strip and the API nitrite results are different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted January 22, 2022 Share Posted January 22, 2022 (edited) Welcome to the forum. Test again with api. Err on the side of caution and do a water change then retest with both. I tend to take no chances. Edited January 22, 2022 by Guppysnail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quikv6 Posted January 22, 2022 Share Posted January 22, 2022 Has the API liquid test kit expired? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonMoyer Posted January 22, 2022 Author Share Posted January 22, 2022 On 1/21/2022 at 7:55 PM, quikv6 said: Has the API liquid test kit expired? Nope. Good till 3/2024. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torrey Posted January 23, 2022 Share Posted January 23, 2022 On 1/21/2022 at 6:05 PM, JasonMoyer said: Nope. Good till 3/2024. The bottles will have an expiration date for how long the reagents are guaranteed active in an unopened bottle. Once the bottle is opened, it can get contaminated/ reagents can break down/ oxygen exposure/ temperature extremes... lots of things can impact the reagents. If your test strips have a different reading in one tank from the other, and the API doesn't show a difference, I am inclined to suspect that the reagent has been open too long/ contaminated, *or* the reagent wasn't held perfectly upright and that compromised the integrity/ consistency. At 3 weeks, I would still expect to see some nitrites. The bacteria that breaks down nitrites into nitrates is notoriously slower than the bacteria that break ammonia down to nitrites. Sounds like you are almost cycled! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonMoyer Posted January 24, 2022 Author Share Posted January 24, 2022 That would explain what is going on. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Torrey Posted January 24, 2022 Share Posted January 24, 2022 You are welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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