My tank nearly crashed and lost majority of my prized sps colonies due to salifert Nitrate test kit.
I have noticed 3 weeks back that some sps colonies started to stn. All my parameters are in check and have not changed any equipment to trigger a stress on my tank. Supplementing and feeding the tank same as usual so I was puzzled.
I had a hunch that my nitrates may have been depleted but my test with this kit always shows 5-10ppm so I trusted it. A week ago the tank started to slowly showing signs that it is on it’s way to crash since I have started to lose colonies. And still the test shows 5-10ppm. Test kit’s expiration is 2022. I have now entered the panic mode and trusted my guts and sent an ICP test to find out what is out of whack. I have an old but not expired red sea nitrate pro test kit and tested with it at the same time as the salifert and still salifert is showing 5ppm while the red sea showed 0ppm.
That’s when I started to feed a bit extra and started dosing nitrate and behold after a few days the stn stopped!!!!
My ICP test results just finished yesterday and my nitrates are 0!!!!!!
I’ll never use salifert test kits ever again.
I have noticed 3 weeks back that some sps colonies started to stn. All my parameters are in check and have not changed any equipment to trigger a stress on my tank. Supplementing and feeding the tank same as usual so I was puzzled.
I had a hunch that my nitrates may have been depleted but my test with this kit always shows 5-10ppm so I trusted it. A week ago the tank started to slowly showing signs that it is on it’s way to crash since I have started to lose colonies. And still the test shows 5-10ppm. Test kit’s expiration is 2022. I have now entered the panic mode and trusted my guts and sent an ICP test to find out what is out of whack. I have an old but not expired red sea nitrate pro test kit and tested with it at the same time as the salifert and still salifert is showing 5ppm while the red sea showed 0ppm.
That’s when I started to feed a bit extra and started dosing nitrate and behold after a few days the stn stopped!!!!
My ICP test results just finished yesterday and my nitrates are 0!!!!!!
I’ll never use salifert test kits ever again.
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