nitrate question

Can I use distilled water or can I fill up a bucket and leave
It over night would it be ok to use in my tank

 

First off, I apologize but I have not read this thread – sorry if my points are already covered.

I suggest you test your make up water before and after you add salt. Take your tank water to a different LFS to be tested. I would expect you to be battling some nuisance algae – are you? Alternatively, bring your water back to the LFS and also bring your test kit and have a conversation. Their kit could be expired or they might show you that the API is tricky and finicky and help you test with it.

Edit - just read your last post. Seems odd to me that you lowered your nitrates from 80 to 20 in two water changes – unless you did 50% changes it just doesn’t mathematically add up….unless you have a nuisance algae assisting in the Nitrates demise – just saying….

 

i use these and they work well 5 in 1 Aquarium Test Strips - API when im in question i get the regular drip test kit out and double check. but these strips have always gave me a good reading. and are easy to quickly check the basics

 

if your nitrates raise slowly over a period of time, your animals can acclimate and survive. Not that it is good for them. It is when you add new creatures to a tank with high nitrates that you see the greatest negative effect. This is usually the reason why some people claim that their fish are doing fine with high nitrate readings.

 

ok an update its down to 20 pppm and maintaning. did test the water in the bucket after the salt mixed and it came to 0 ppm. did hear back from the LFS and they did say that the tests they hsd been using were discintuned from the company so there is no telling there

 

never trust the fish stores testing. i have had problem because they told me my salt was off i adjusted to what they said. and than bought a refractometer after my shrimp died. well my hydrometer wasnt off... theirs was! and i did what they said and my cleaner shrimp died, since they cant live in low salt. this same fish store just told a friend of mine his salt was off.... i told him....OH NO you didnt change to what they said did you? he said not yet. i said dont! their hydrometer is wrong. this is 8 months after my problem with them. so how many others had problems because of their faulty hydrometer. bottom line ... do the testing yourself.

 

agreed!!!!! lesson learned also a new pro-skimmer for the tank helped with 90% of my problems ;D

 

glad to hear your 90 % of your problems are gone , a good skimmer is a blessing. im still always amazed at how nasty the stuff smells when i empty the cup. yuk! to think if the skimmer wasn't there, what the fish would be living in

 

yea it smells like jujst rotten crap. Its the skimmer for my 75 gallon out it can hang on the back of the tank so i figured why not LOL