Nitrate #1 Solution has Turned Orange

The ammonia in my 20 gallon is going down and I’m seeing nitrites, so I decided to test for nitrates. My nitrate test solution #1 has turned orange. Is this normal?

 

Yes I believe it is?

 

Yes I believe it is?View attachment 850528

Is your water orange instead of yellow before adding solution #2?

 

This is just solution 1 . Kind of yellow?

 

Yeah I think it looks like that. With solution #1 only, It looked like 0 ppm of Nitrate a week ago. Now it’s turned into 5.0 ppm with just solution #1.

 

Did you ever mix the lids up? That is something I try and avoid.

 

If it looks like 5 right of the bottle, toss it and buy a new one. Also, if you have nitrites present your nitrate test will not be acurate. Once nitrites test at zero you can trust the nitrate test.

 

Did you ever mix the lids up? That is something I try and avoid.

No, I try to never do that by opening and closing bottles individually.

If it looks like 5 right of the bottle, toss it and buy a new one. Also, if you have nitrites present your nitrate test will not be acurate. Once nitrites test at zero you can trust the nitrate test.

That’s what I decided to do yesterday because after adding solution #2 it just tested 0 ppm. My tap water has nitrates in it so I shouldn’t test 0 in my aquarium ( no live plants). All the other solutions are working fine thankfully.

 

FishDin Flyfisha
Update: So I bought a new nitrate test kit and the same thing happened, the nitrate #1 bottle turned orange and wouldn’t give me results after adding #2. Today I just found out that the nitrates in my cycle were so high that the test #1 solution got a result of 5.0 ppm before I could even add solution #2. Did 2 50% water changes and the Nitrate solution #1 turns the water yellow like it’s supposed to.