Am I right in saying that if your nitrite test comes up zero that there's no point in doing a nitrate test?
Water testing q
Am I right in saying that if your nitrite test comes up zero that there's no point in doing a nitrate test?
No... they are two distinctly different compounds... the fact that you have no nitrites... doesn't mean that you will have no nitrates...
You might not, if the plants are using them all up.... or you may actually have anything from 5 - 100 nitrates... depending on how long your system has been cycled... how many plants you have... and/or whether you're boderline in terms of filtration...
It depends on where you are in the process of cycling the system. You will see NITRITES for a while....until the next group of beneficial bacteria increase by using the NITRITE to produce NITRATE and become permanently established.
So, if your system has cycled you will not see any NITRITE because it is being used immediately by the second group of bacteria that produce NITRATE.
In my systems I always see some NITRATE but no NITRITE.
I test for NITRITE about once a month on established systems and it is always a zero.
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Thankyou gentlemen, just the answer I was looking for
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