0 Phosphates?

So what else do you do on a saturday night at 1:30? Isn't that when everyone tests their water?

So testing the parameters, everything is coming out where i expected, cal good, mag good, alk low, nitrate 0, phosphate 0.

I got to thinking i have never seen anything but 0 on my nitrate (API) and Phosphates (Salifert).

So I decided i am going to check my well water just so i can see a different shade of yellow on nitrate and and see some blue on phosphates.

Results; 0 and 0.

?

So my question after all of that is should i be seeing at least one of these register on my water?

My well water I tested was after my softner, not sure if that makes a difference or not.

If any other info is needed, I am glad to provide it.

 

Not necessarily- not all wells have nutrients.

We didn't have tap water filtration at all back in the early days, and there were many successful SW aquariums. What all water systems do have are dissolved minerals; in abundance, they can alter your chemistry, and in some cases, they're not consistent which creates a level of instability. This can still be fine to some degree for a fish only tank, but time has proven that corals and inverts are sensitive to the change. We use RO/DI filtration to strip the minerals, then add back what's needed to replicate sea water, and that also removes nutrients and other contaminants where they do exist.

 

what he said ^^^+1 I have no idea in terms of your question but I did want to say - you are one wild and crazy guy - I can't think of anything more entertaining at 1:30 on a Saturday evening than testing not only the tank water - BUT also testing your well water - WHOA! you are out of control

 

So it is not necessarily true that there is something wrong with my test kits? It does seem unlikely that 2 different brands of test kit would be bad. I do use ro/di water and was basically testing my source water to test my test kit, but i am guessing that won't work and I just have to trust the kits.

 

That would be correct. While I can't say it's impossible to get a false zero, IMOPE, when reagents go bad, you usually get a false high reading. False zeros normally happen when testing an algae-infested tank, where the zero is not really false; the algae is absorbing the nutrients.

 

That is what i figure i am getting from my tank especially with the fuge where i am trying to have them pulled out. Both test kits are less than 2 months old and have a long time to expire. I was more just trying to ease my mind about whether or not my test kits are accurate.

 

LOL. I work until 12:00 am so when I come home I usually test my water at that time so I get consistency. I just thought it seemed strange when I was posting my water parameters when some people are out partying and others at home in bed.

 

Hell you sound like a party animal yourself. Testing waters and stuff. You're probably the life of a party.