Nitrate testing

[GoldeneyeRet]

I have always used salifert but I cannot read the colors on their chart. Salifert showed somewhere around 25. It is not expired, but near the end of the reagents.

I bought a Nyos, easy to use and much easier for me to read. Test showed nitrates right at 12.

That same day I sent a sample off to ATI for the fun of it. Results came back at 83!

So, how can a get somewhat accurate picture of my nitrate?

 

[PatW]

The best way would be to make a standard. You make a standard solution of nitrate at 100 ppm. The you dilute to make other standard for the range you are interested at testing like 20 ppm, 10 ppm, 5 ppm, and 1 ppm. You can then run your test for each of those. Then you can compare your test result to a known result.

A problem is that you hope that each test kit you get is pretty close to others that you buy.

What I do is run Red Sea Pro. I know that in my system, I was between .5 and 5 ppm nitrates from the test results. To me, it really does not matter if the nitrate levels are really 2 to 8 ppm. If my tank likes it, I like it.

Just run your Nyos test kit and use it to find the range that works for your system.