Help me find my Nitrates?

[SilkySifaka]

I've got zero nitrates in my tank, and zero phosphate for that matter too. At first I thought it was cool, but now I'm worried it will limit my addition of new corals.

15 gallon cube up for 3 months but seeded with rock from previous tank
1x Tailspot Blenny
1x Osc Clown
3x Cerith Snails
1x Large Candy Cane Colony
1x Toadstool Leather
1x Monti Digitata

Using Fiji Pink Arag-Alive if that matters. I also run a very small amount of carbon. Otherwise no dosing. I use reef crystals for salt. I test with API Master Reef Kit (and I do shake the hell out of the nitrate bottles). I feed 1-3x per day, spirulina flakes, mysis, and frozen reef frenzy. Everyone is happy except for the monti (it's my first SPS), which has lost quite a bit of color and has poor PE.

So yeah, I have no idea where the hell my nitrates and phosphate are. I was guessing that it might be the toadstool leather soaking them up, but I'm not really sure. Any guesses?

 

[dadnjesse]

Probably testing API is not the best.

 

[SilkySifaka]

Really? Any reccomendation for testing brand?

 

[SilkySifaka]

Sorry for bumping this old thread, but I still can't seem to get my nitrates up despite increased feeding. I'm wondering whether I should begin dosing..

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

do you have algae growing in the tank

 

[ShakeyGizzard]

If you do, they are soaking it up

 

[Spare time]

API nitrate is fine but hard to read if you have between 0 and 5. API Phosphate is useless as it can't read fine enough for our uses.

 

[randomfishdude]

I dumped a bunch of food In the tank when I had dinos. Wouldn't recommend it.

It worked though.

 

[SilkySifaka]

Well now I'm a little nervous and suspecting I might have dinos. I don't seem to have the the traditional stingy, bubbly brown slime, but I do have som brown on my sand bed and bubbles beneath the sand. With my zeroed out no3 and po4 I'm started to put the puzzle together....

 

[Spare time]

Well now I'm a little nervous and suspecting I might have dinos. I don't seem to have the the traditional stingy, bubbly brown slime, but I do have som brown on my sand bed and bubbles beneath the sand. With my zeroed out no3 and po4 I'm started to put the puzzle together....

With the API test, you can't distinguish 0 from 0.25. So you may not have 0 at all.

 

[jabberwock]

Full tank shot might help?