Nitrate readings are ridiculous

[aquabee]

I addressed all those risk factors in my OP. :)

[SunnyHouTX]

Psssshhhhh, who reads OPs anyway... LOL

This is a tough one Bee

[danielp]

Psssshhhhh, who reads OPs anyway... LOL

This is a tough one Bee

Pssssshhhhh I read them all. I understand water parameters and how best to measure, treat and react to these type problems. its a large part of how I make my living.

[danielp]

I addressed all those risk factors in my OP. :)

I know. I just like to revisit when trouble shooting pesky issues.

You mentioned that 90% water changes are routine. Do you also clean all filters at the same time?

To me it almost sounds like your tank may be thinking it's in a constant cycling mode.

I never change more than 25% water at a time and my canister filters are never cleaned within 30 days of each other.

I know you just moved this tank.

How well was it maintained before you got it back?

Was any of the aged water retained?

Were all the filters completely cleaned? Hopefully some of the old filter media seed was retained.

[aquabee]

Hey Daniel. The tank that was moved was the 125g with the fronts. That tank is fine, only 5 ppm nitrate. Upon moving it, the canister was left closed and the HOB media were just rinsed lightly in tank water. The geos tank has been established a year and a half. I clean the canister gently every 3 months. It gets a 60% WC every 10 days.

[aquabee]

So today........ Geos tank has only around 10 ppl nitrate. No interventions from me. Fronts tank a little less than 5 ppm. Weird. I just don't get it!

[SunnyHouTX]

Throw out those test kits like jughead said...

[aquabee]

Parameters are now stable and have been for the past couple days... 5 ppm in the fronts tank, 10 ppm in the geos tank. Weird. I really have no clue what happened!

[mnemenoi]

Hmm, it is quite perplexing. Perhaps something is giving false readings... I know Ammonium can alter Ammonia readings and is far safer then the latter. Mostly that issue is in soft water tanks. Did you heavily disturb the sand bed? I know PFS sand beds can trap Nitrates and act as batteries for it in tanks. Perhaps the fish disturbing it? Larger plecos disturbing the wood? Just tossing out ideas...

[aquabee]

Yeah, thanks Roy. I almost always disturb the sand beds when doing a water change... The fronts tank has very little sand (Tahitian moon sand) but the geos tank has a very thick layer of PFS cuz they're always digging and sifting. My largest pleco is 4" and I only have thin manzanita wood so I don't think that's it. But maybe something with false readings or the sand bed thing.

Despite all that though, I just don't see how my fish could be so normal with >100 ppm of nitrate. No hard breathing, no pallor, no reddening of gills, no feeding problems... That's what makes me want to believe the false positive part.

[mnemenoi]

I concur on that regard, perhaps the chloramines are giving the false readings and as they break down through the cycle are finally shifting back to 'normal' nitrates. I usually 'rough' up the substrate in the tang tank prior to the water change to pull out as much nitrates as possible and it takes awhile to settle back down afterwards. Hmm, really a mystery. I'll try and do some reading and come up with a better idea at its possible causation.

[mnemenoi]

Seems that Safe and Prime can give false positive test readings with the API test kits, never used safe so I thought I'd post the thread I found. Not certain if it helps, but I would imagine that could be a cause of highly inaccurate test readings. Here is the thread

[aquabee]

Thanks Roy. I'd seen that but I've never heard of chemicals showing super high nitrate levels when in actuality they are low. I have heard the reverse happening with both ammonia and nitrate.

[mnemenoi]

I had seen the same, but not sure it really gets to the root of the actual issue or what is occurring.... Keep up with journaling the WC progress and maybe we can figure out the cause.

[mistahoo]

Seems that Safe and Prime can give false positive test readings with the API test kits, never used safe so I thought I'd post the thread I found. Not certain if it helps, but I would imagine that could be a cause of highly inaccurate test readings. Here is the thread

Safe and Prime are both made by Seachem. I've had false Ammonia and Nitrite readings before from using Safe, but never Nitrate.