GUys..I have a nice test kit - the one with the drops but I am doubting it lately because my 46 gallon tank (four little fantails) is showing no nitrates. I have my amonia (per my kit) and nitrites at 0ppm - the ph is about 7.4 - I was in the disease/diagnosis section because one little fantail has a case of swimbladder and someone pointed out that my nitrates should not be at 0 - any advice? I do my water change and gravel vacuum once a week - about 35% water change - what should I do?

swim bladder problems can often be due to low calcium and the fish eats gravel thus causing this solution add diet higher in calcium and use larger pebbled gravel

My cycled tanks also have NitrAtes at 0. My ammonia and nitrItes are also 0. I have no idea what to do about it!!

Do you have many plants in your tank? Or an ammonia removing medium in your filter?

Nitrate doesn't just disappear on it's own, so unless there's something in the tank absorbing either the ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate, I'd have to surmise that your tests aren't working or you're misreading them.

I use the really good test kit... Freshwater Pharmacuticals (sp). It definitely says 0, its yellow. I dont understand why its like that but its that way for 2 of my tanks that are nicely established. No plants or ammonia removing media in the filters. Im at a loss!!

How long has your tank been up and running?How often and how much water are you changing out? Have you cleaned your filter's during this time,and if you did,how did you do it? Have you ever seen Nitrates at all?.Cycling always goes Ammonias,to Nitrites,to Nitrates.By the time your tank is done,all of your readings should have had some number's at one time or another, that now read 0,and at the very end,some small amount of Nitrate should still be seen.

With the AP nitrAte test kits it is EXTREMELY important to follow the directions EXACTLY. When the directions say to shake bottle #2 for 30 seconds, they mean 30 seconds not 20 or 25 seconds. The chemicals inside that bottle settle out when the test kit has not been used and getting them mixed again is very important. If you haven't been following the directions, then the mix of chemicals in bottle #2 is likely messed up resulting in inaccurate readings from the test kit.

I will try this. Didnt realize this step was so important!!

One tank has been running for 3 months and the other for 2. I take out 30% of the water one time a week. I rinsed the sponge in a bucket of tank water a couple of times. Replaced the sponge on the 30 gallon not too long ago but the nitrAtes were 0 before that. Yes, I was overrun with nitrAtes right before I thought it was cycled. Had a huge amount of them.

I will try again with the shaking of the bottles better and see if it comes up different!!
Thanks guys!

Ok! I did what Bak2it said and it worked!! Said the nitrAtes are at 10ppm. Thanks!!

I am glad glitter that you got that figured out. ALL the directions are very important.

Newfishmom, what are your other levels at and have you seen any nitrates as Devs said?

Guess I should have read the directions a little better, my fault!!

Sorry for "stealing" the thread!!

It's me! I am right there with glitterfish! I did not follow the instructions "exactly" as required by my kit (duh) - I did not shake it enough - I was at about 15 second or so, saw the yellow and figured 0 was good for Nitrates and stopped shaking - I tested it today and I have 10ppm too! Everything else tests great! My ammonia and Nitrites are at 0 ppm and my PH is at 7.4 - - I was very careful to follow the instructions this time, and I did see a difference! Thanks everyone!!!

Shake, Shake, Shake your test kit, shake your test kit bottle

If you had been using the test kit for a while without mixing (shaking) the contents of the second nitrate bottle, I would be skeptical of the viability of the kit now. You had been using the liquid, and not the solids. Now, you have more solids, less liquid: the wrong proportions. Go get a Nitrate refill kit, they are inexpensive.

Now, if someone would just come out with one digital monitor for ALL the aquarium water parameters...

If you're willing to fork out $1,900.00 plus the cost of the reagents you can get a digital photometric test station that will test virtually every water parameter you can think of.

Check it out here.

http://www.palintestusa.com/photo8.html