Microbe-Lift Night-Out 2 & CRS Shrimp
 

Has anybody tried this product to lower nitrates in a tank with crystal reds in it?

It's not something you should use with sensitive shrimp.

If you need to lower nitrates, add floating plants or something that will consume them and do water changes.

I would tend to agree. Caridinas are just too intolerant of toxins no matter the recommended dosages.

Thanks for responding.
I pretty much figured that would be the answer. I've had high nitrates (deep dark red) according to the API test kit for the last week and minor staghorn algae has appeared. I have since added floating plants, increased my EI dosage, raised my lights a tad and have been changing 30% water twice a week. Today I noticed one of my crs are berried. So, needless to say I will not be using the Night Out. How long do you guys think it takes to see a lower change in nitrates if I keep these changes up?

Thanks

I am surprised they are doing well with such high nitrates. With plants and amazon frogbit my shrimp tanks stay at 1-2 ppm nitrate with minimal water changes.

I'm surprised too. I wonder if it's the API test kit. I'll be testing the test!

If you ate changing out 30% twice a week, the nitrates ought to be significantly lower already. If I were concerned with keeping my shrimp berried and carrying those eggs to term, I would stop with the ei dosing , especially the micros and nitrogen so diminish the need for water change. If the shrimp aren't a priority, at the very lease see to the source of the nitrate elevation. Perhaps the soil is leeching it?

I guess it's posible the soil is leeching. I originally planted the tank 8/21/12 and filled it 11/22/12. I tested the water for the first 5 weeks for amonia and nitrates and it had always tested 0 ppm. I attached a few pics of my most recent nitrate test. The red color looks high to me. What do you guys think?
Also, I have about 15 fish in this tank as well. 6 of them are chili rasboras. They are small. I know they are a contributing factor to some nitrates as well. They are fed once a day very sparingly.

Be sure you're shaking those API Nitrate bottles vigorously. I like to shake them for a solid minute.

I would calibrate your API test kit. I did that with mine and my colors were way different than what the color indication chart said it should be. You can make standards using distilled water and KNO3 I believe. You had a certain X amount of KNO3 to X amount of water to get a certain ppm. Then you keep cutting the mixture down by 1/2 to get each amount that is on the color chart. After doing this, I got a 20ppm color for a 5ppm standard, 10 for 40, 25 for 80, and 50 for 160. Hoppy wrote up a good thread on this, if you search for, "Calibrating Test Kits - for non-Chemists" within the TPT forum, you will find it. Hope this helps!