SPS question....

I went to the LFS today to pickup a couple of great conlonies for cheap i had on hold, the first a 5-7" blue voodoo ORA acropora second a little larger wicked green hydnophora. I did my tests, everything was good (nitrates at 10ish which is higher than theyll be in a week lol) but when I tested today at the LFS they told me it was over 110!!!!!!!!
I took the coral off hold until i solved the 'problem' came home, and ran three test on my Seachem tests nor nitrate/nirite. it says 3-5 minutes in between reagents so I ran 3 seperate test at 3 minutes 4, and five and all three of my tests are identical.... 10 or less.. Thier tests were hagen and the guy misread calcium the first time for one, and none of the other numbers matched mine.

My question is, is 10ppm 'TOO HIGH' for the acro? I heard Hynos are way easy to keep so im not worried (though i would at 100) My poor over dipped frogspawn is ok, my rare zoa and palys are great, i mean, should i take the LFS seriously? Im off to the hardware store to get stuff for my new ingenious fuge design.

 

how old are your tests? if yours are new and your other corals and fish are doing okay then i doubt they are 110...

Also 10 is not bad at all for corals.

 

thanks dingo, my test are brand new, just started this whole 'testing thing' havent done a test on my 46 bowfront in 6 years, but i heard acros are really touchy to nitrate and phosphate. I'm running a brs reactor with gfo so im not really worried about the po4 levels but is 10 nitrate gonna piss off this acro in a tank thats 3.5 months old?

 

check the manufactures stamp on the test kit, just because you just baught it doesn't mean it's not expired.

 

where does a noob go to check lot numbers? this test is lot number 45503 and 45322

 

there are a bunch of threads on it. try this search "decoding test kit lot numbers"

 

10 ppm nitrate is on the high end for SPS corals, aim to be below 5.

 

I am not an expert by any means... but i have read publications from Dana Riddle that suggests that having some nitrate (between 5 and 10) is healthy for sps. They may not have the perfect colors of levels between 0 and 5 but their photosynthesis is more efficient. Levels at or above 40 are where you run into issues.

 

ok, im pretty sure the guy at the LFS did the test wrong, while searching for decoding lot numbers i found a thread about Hagen tests vs the master briefcase. I guess some of the tests in the briefcase are typos vs those in the instruction booklet. Also, I KNOW i dont have high nitrates because I didnt kill anything in my tanks and have done a couple water changes already.