Incredibly high nitrates!? With no Ill results??

[Washburn82]

My tank is doing and looking great, absolutely no algae other then Coraline andi mean none. Not even a patch. Fish are healthy and active, eating a ton. My Zoas are all great, gsp, Torch Frogspawn, blasto are are blooming everyday to the fullest and looking healthy. Only thing that is not is my monti cap is losing Color. Recently tested my nitrates with API test kit results read around 160 ppm. Tested 4 more times between two days. All the same result. I then proceeded to test just my distilled water and then a new batch of mixed water both read 0.leading me to believe that my tank is actually that high in nitrates?! Shouldn't I see some ill results? Algae, anything? Or is there maybe another way that I'm getting a false reading. I'm doing every step perfectly. Recently checked for phosphates as well with salifert kit and nothing at all. Any help? Ideas?

 

[bjohanson1234]

Nitrates are not as toxic as ammonia and nitrites. Fish and corals can tolerate higher nitrates than ideal.

I am kind of surprised that you don't have any algae. Which leads me to believe that your test kit might be bad. Do you have access to another one? Or take a sample to the LFS to get it double checked.

It is possible that the reagents are bad and showing higher levels than are present.

 

[Washburn82]

Thanks Bj, that's what I was hoping for. Unfortunately I don't have another nitrate test kit. The closest lfs around here is a good 45 Min's away. I thought that by maybe testing a fresh batch of saltwater it might show some detection of nitrates, thereby leading me to believe it was bad reagents. Regardless I'm doing a water change today. I thought for sure I'd see some algae as well. Not even any cyano

 

[bjohanson1234]

Another thing you might want to consider is the lighting you are reading the test under. It is sometimes difficult to tell the range of colors apart.

 

[Washburn82]

Ohhh there was no mistaking this shade of red my friend. Under any light it was at least the max 160ppm.

 

[Washburn82]

Well I won't know for sure until around Wed what's going on when I go to tthe fish store. For now I did a 20% water change and am gonna feed my fish a little more accurately until then. Thanks Bj for the reassurance. I always thought corals like torches would be very sensitive to nitrates. Mine looks better than ever.