I recently dosed my tank to 10ppm nitrate (had phosphates at 0.33ppm and nitrates at zero) by doing the math and using sodium nitrate in solution, in order to alleviate my nitrate bottleneck and get my chaeto to consume more phosphate. Although nitrates rose as expected, so did readings for nitrites (previously zero on weekly testing), tested a day after adding the sodium nitrate. Now API tests indicate around 0.25ppm nitrite. Could this be a false positive, or is my sodium nitrate contaminated, or something else? It has also caused some brown algae to grow, but I expected this.
I have a 5gal refugium with chaeto (has been growing).
Tank params:
SG: 1.026
Temp: 80.0 deg F
Ammonia: 0.01ppm
Nitrite: ~0.25ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: 0.28ppm
I have a 5gal refugium with chaeto (has been growing).
Tank params:
SG: 1.026
Temp: 80.0 deg F
Ammonia: 0.01ppm
Nitrite: ~0.25ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Phosphate: 0.28ppm