OwenF
Seedling
I thought i'd convey my results following an evening of measuring small amounts of liquid and dripping tiny bottles.
I decided to 'calibrate' my NO3 test kit for two reasons:
1. I have a mistrust in things that are 'cheap' i.e. not £100's
2. I must be colour blind because I can't tell if I have 10ppm or 100ppm in my tank
I am using a Nutrafin Multi Test Kit (liquid)
So, using the method for creating NO3 reference solutions posted on the barrreport forum I made a series of solutions with DI water (from halfords) and KNO3 powder. Unfortunately I only have 3 test tubes so my comparision was limited. Firstly then, i'll note what my eye read the standard solutions as:
20ppm standard reads approx. 2ppm (i.e. < 5ppm)
30ppm standard reads approx. 20ppm
40ppm standard reads approx. 50-60ppm (cant tell) - i think my eyes must have gone funny at this point
50ppm standard reads approx. 30ppm
100ppm standard reads approx. 60-70ppm (again cant really tell)
Then tested my tank water (on chart and in comparision to some of the above standards)
1st time it read from chart 50-100ppm
2nd time it read from chart 30-40ppm - this shows how bad my eyes are with different shades of purple!!
Also tried it in comparison to 50ppm std and 100ppm std, it was inbetween the two lying closer to 50ppm standard.
Thus, my conclusions.
- This kit appears to read 10-20ppm lower than actual value (ignoring one anomaly -sp?)
- My tank water would appear to be about 60ppm based on comparison and by applying 20 in addition to read value of 30-40
- I can only see purple now!!
Problems:
- Firstly does this even matter? A lot of people do not use test kits and rely on water changes regularly to reduce NO3. I tested my tap water a while ago and it was the same colour purple as the tested tank water, so im concerned my 50% weekly is doing nothing to help reduce NO3.
- How are my fish not dead if NO3 is 60ppm? Is there not a limit as such? Is it harmful in the long run at, especially with the plan to add some Pterophyllum scalare soon.
- I was initially dosing KNO3 as part of EI routine, stopped for a while then carried on so as not to cause K deficiency (only using KH2PO4 otherwise), but consequently increasing already high NO3. Do i perhaps need to change KNO3 to KSO4 for my K?
Hopefully someone may be able to give me a little guidance on this issue and may encourage others to give 'test kit calibration' a go.
To be completely honest, test kits are probably going straight in the bin when the drop checker arrives because if im not getting an accurate result I might aswell not know the result!
Thanks for reading, sorry it was long. Cheers,
Owen
I decided to 'calibrate' my NO3 test kit for two reasons:
1. I have a mistrust in things that are 'cheap' i.e. not £100's
2. I must be colour blind because I can't tell if I have 10ppm or 100ppm in my tank
I am using a Nutrafin Multi Test Kit (liquid)
So, using the method for creating NO3 reference solutions posted on the barrreport forum I made a series of solutions with DI water (from halfords) and KNO3 powder. Unfortunately I only have 3 test tubes so my comparision was limited. Firstly then, i'll note what my eye read the standard solutions as:
20ppm standard reads approx. 2ppm (i.e. < 5ppm)
30ppm standard reads approx. 20ppm
40ppm standard reads approx. 50-60ppm (cant tell) - i think my eyes must have gone funny at this point
50ppm standard reads approx. 30ppm
100ppm standard reads approx. 60-70ppm (again cant really tell)
Then tested my tank water (on chart and in comparision to some of the above standards)
1st time it read from chart 50-100ppm
2nd time it read from chart 30-40ppm - this shows how bad my eyes are with different shades of purple!!
Also tried it in comparison to 50ppm std and 100ppm std, it was inbetween the two lying closer to 50ppm standard.
Thus, my conclusions.
- This kit appears to read 10-20ppm lower than actual value (ignoring one anomaly -sp?)
- My tank water would appear to be about 60ppm based on comparison and by applying 20 in addition to read value of 30-40
- I can only see purple now!!
Problems:
- Firstly does this even matter? A lot of people do not use test kits and rely on water changes regularly to reduce NO3. I tested my tap water a while ago and it was the same colour purple as the tested tank water, so im concerned my 50% weekly is doing nothing to help reduce NO3.
- How are my fish not dead if NO3 is 60ppm? Is there not a limit as such? Is it harmful in the long run at, especially with the plan to add some Pterophyllum scalare soon.
- I was initially dosing KNO3 as part of EI routine, stopped for a while then carried on so as not to cause K deficiency (only using KH2PO4 otherwise), but consequently increasing already high NO3. Do i perhaps need to change KNO3 to KSO4 for my K?
Hopefully someone may be able to give me a little guidance on this issue and may encourage others to give 'test kit calibration' a go.
To be completely honest, test kits are probably going straight in the bin when the drop checker arrives because if im not getting an accurate result I might aswell not know the result!
Thanks for reading, sorry it was long. Cheers,
Owen