Well ... I'm at a loss again.
At the end of day 7 I tested NO3 on the tank and the reactor output, using Salifert.
Tank - 25ppm
Reactor - 25ppm
I'm completely puzzled by this. Did the reactor start outputting at 25ppm earlier like I thought it might have been, and it's pulled the tank down to 25ppm in the days following even though the feed is super-duper slow?
Or is it more likely that the chaeto in the tank, which has suddenly kick started a growth spurt, has sucked up some nitrate?
So .. tonight (day 9) I test the reactor effluent with my Elos test kit.
You're supposed to add the reagents, then shake for 5 minutes to wait for the colour to settle. Well within 30 seconds the colour was darker than the darkest colour on the colour chart (much like before on trial #1), which in the Elos NO3 testkit is 75ppm. So the reactor is outputting >75ppm again? Huh? What gives? Does the Elos test kit colour actually fade in the 5 minutes unlike other test kits where it gets darker the longer you wait? Or am I messing up the testing? Or is the reactor outputting a super high nitrate for real and my Salifert test kit is out of whack?
I'm completely at a loss to theorize what's going on here.
The one tool I had hoped would help clarify things, the nitrate monitor I bought on Boxing Day, is seemingly defective, and has been sent to American Marine directly to troubleshoot and repair or replace if need be. In the meantime I'm out the $300 and I'm out the unit until it gets sent back to me. (I trust the issue will get resolved satisfactorily .. I'm not knocking the service I've gotten, I'm just disappointed I can't use the unit as a yardstick for my nitrate levels because trying to make heads and tails of these test results ... simply sucks!)
Gonna try rearranging my reactor feed situation and see what I can come up with. I'm determined to see successful results dadnamitall!!