Multiple Mega Doses of Easy green- Still no nitrate levels!! Advice?

[Bigjwig]

I have added 4 mega doses of Easy Green today in an effort to get any kind of reading for Nitrate (4 doses of 15 squirts for a 55 gallon tank ! ) I wait a couple of hours between doses and check with Coop test strips..... That is after a 15 squirt day yesterday after my 50% water change.... As of now...it barely reads any color at all. What is up with this? Is the Speedy Green just water?? Any Advice..... Please

[Mmiller2001]

Verify 0ppm with a different test.

[Torrey]

On 4/2/2022 at 2:11 PM, Bigjwig said:

I have added 4 mega doses of Easy Green today in an effort to get any kind of reading for Nitrate (4 doses of 15 squirts for a 55 gallon tank ! ) I wait a couple of hours between doses and check with Coop test strips..... That is after a 15 squirt day yesterday after my 50% water change.... As of now...it barely reads any color at all. What is up with this? Is the Speedy Green just water?? Any Advice..... Please

Photo of tank?

How densely planted?

My tanks stay at 0/0/0 ppm ammonia/nitrites/nitrates because they are so densely planted, except for the turtle pond and the grow out tank... which require water changes to keep between 20 & 40 ppm nitrates (everything else is zero).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bigjwig]

GReat suggestion Mmiller !! I did the API test with a fresh kit and it is 160 plus !! How could Cory's strips be that far off. They were hardly even showing a hint of pink !! I am doing a 50 % water change now....

[Seattle_Aquarist]

On 4/2/2022 at 6:35 PM, Bigjwig said:

GReat suggestion Mmiller !! I did the API test with a fresh kit and it is 160 plus !! How could Cory's strips be that far off. They were hardly even showing a hint of pink !! I am doing a 50 % water change now....

Hi @BigjwigTest strips are convenient but iffy at best.  They can be very 'hit and miss' depending upon their age and how they were stored.  Age, damp storage environments and light can cause major strip inaccuracies as you have seen yourself. 

I've used several over the years and although some may say the API nitrate test kits aren't very good however I have personally tested mine against calibrated solutions at 100 ppm, 50 ppm, 10 ppm, and 5 ppm and found the API test kit I have to be very accurate.  I always try to test a new kit when I get it against calibration solutions to determine their accuracy.  It has saved me time and frustration on several occasions. -Roy

[Cory]

I'm not sure why you'd be getting a 0 reading. I find most people don't wait the 60 seconds, 60 seconds is a long time when you're just sitting there without a timer.

Here is a video I made when another user was having a problem. Testing against known solution and a digital meter.

Here is a video before that one that used another different pH solution for testing. We've actually tested several for the different parameters and they test true for us.

I believe that variance that people are seeing is either something in their water, or a difference in testing method.

I also wanted to add, that I use the test strips to test easy green levels in my tanks, specifically in my pond that i put bottles of easy green into, that auto dose all the other tanks in the fish room.

[PineSong]

On 4/3/2022 at 2:13 AM, Cory said:

I'm not sure why you'd be getting a 0 reading. I find most people don't wait the 60 seconds, 60 seconds is a long time when you're just sitting there without a timer

 

I can vouch for this! Part of my job involves measuring peoples’ perception of time for short tasks and when you ask people to say “stop” when they think 60 seconds or two minutes have passed they are almost all wildly short. I often get feedback that a certain three minute process doesn’t work and when I have the person demonstrate how they are doing it they are doing it for 15-30 seconds. Yup, not gonna work. 

[Bigjwig]

No, I test in the kitchen....60 seconds on the microwave timer.....I think that is probably correct......   no "perception of time" here...just a bell at 1 minute......as far as age of the package.....I just ordered these a couple of weeks ago.....only about a week old......I guess I can use them for the other tests..but I will pull out the API for nitrate......it's down between 20 and 40 this morning....after a late night 50% water change last night.  The Tetra were much more accurate for me for this test....but more expensive too.