Is this reading 0 or .5

[Artimusclyde1974]

Hey all I have been doing testing the past week every day cuz I can’t explain how my nitrates are at 0. I have a 170 gal and it only has 4 fish all under 2” and I feed very heavy when it cycled I saw it get to .20ppm and water changed maybe 20 total gallons since it’s been up 3months
And now I can’t seem to get the nitrate up not that I want it up I’m happy with the results some how it’s absorbing nitrates on par with how much it’s generated

 

[Ron Reefman]

What test kit are you using?
Have you verified results with a second test of the water by a friend or LFS?
Do you have a refugium or and algae growing in the tank (either decorative or nuisance)?

 

[Artimusclyde1974]

Tested water at lfs to confirm I have a refurgium that had good and bad growing in it I just didn’t think it would be enough to keep it at 0 with almost no wc
I’ll get a salifert kit soon to confirm but every thing is not only fine but great my sps is already attached and starting new branch’s and shelves they have only been in this tank about a month I thought there would have been a bone growth period as they got used to new lighting and stuff

 

[Ron Reefman]

To be perfectly honest, I almost never test for nitrate. However, I just started a new 90g tank and moved everything over from my old 40g tank after having it all in holding tanks for 6 weeks. So I tested for ammonia and nitrate. I have both API and Salifert test kits and they both give me zero nitrate. I don't do a lot of water changes and the chaeto in the fuge grows OK. And my corals (mostly zoas & RFAs... but a few lps and sps) are all doing fine. Now that I'm about 2 months into the new tank, I probably won't test for nitrate again unless I see a problem.

My old 40g before I tore it down: