nitrates and dead fishies

As the other poster mentioned, I may have a bad test kit, but assuming it's
correct, when I add 20 ppm per day, the test reads 0ppm, always. As I write
I realize it must be my kit...... I've tried adding a few drops of my NO3
solution to the test tube, and it goes off the scale, so It is working to
some extent.

"Happy'Cam'per" wrote in message
...

You can keep the Nitrates in a range of 20ppm the entire week, don't dose
20ppm per day, this certainly will cause trouble. Lets say your plants are
consuming 5ppm per day, so it would be ok to just add 5ppm no3 per day.
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**

"Allyb" wrote in message
...
Ok, started off with pmdd, dosing drops per day, but read that you need
to
keep 5 ppm nitrates in the tank. Plants seem to be consuming tons, so
I'm
adding up to 20ppm per day (per advice in this forum), and I can't keep
the
levels up. Fish start getting sick and dying, and I realize I'm
poisoning
them. Discontinue fertilzation, water changes, everybody revives,
getting
more algae now. The question is, if I can't add enough nitrates to keep
the
levels in the tank where they belong, is adding amounts that won't hurt
fish
going to help anything at this seemingly high rate of consumption.
Also,
if
the plants were really consuming that much, what was hurting the fish?
The
high levels for a few hours til the plants took it up, or some kind of
byproduct? Thanks! Allison