Nitrate problem in tap water - questions about a reverse osmosis point-of-use system

[mosdurf]

Hi - I'm new to fishkeeping and have had my late uncle's tank in my home for almost 3 months now. My tank is a 50g tall, fairly well stocked, and it is fully cycled. I have noticed that my nitrates have been consistently high - but stable - between 60-80ppm (hard to gauge what shade of red the vial in the API test really is).

I'd researched on these forums and in other places and saw that some API nitrate tests can give false positives, so I bought a pack of test strips and a new API test - same general results.

I didn't understand this because I've been doing weekly 25% water changes, vaccuming the gravel well, and not over-feeding. And according to AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor, I have almost 200% of the filtration capacity needed for my stock.

I tested my tap water and found that the nitrates from the source are about 40ppm - which would explain the high nitrates in the tank water.

I've had a couple fish mysteriously die - and I'm willing to bet it was due to the stress of the move of the tank from PA to MD, combined with nitrate poisoning.

I have a well and have a wholehouse softener/acid neutralizer installed and had the same company come out this week to test for nitrates to confirm what I found in my tests. It was confirmed, my nitrates are about 4x what they should be.

They recommended a point-of-use RO system, that will work with my existing softener/acid neutralizer. But with my current system, my PH is 8.0 and my water is quite hard.

I'm going to get the RO system, but had a question about how it will change water chemistry and how to acclimate the fish to it. I'm worried that the RO system will cause the water to be very soft and will remove much of what the fish are used to.

Anyone have advice/experience on how to acclimate them to new water chemistry after an RO system is installed?

Thanks very much.

 

[flitabout]

I have the same issue with my water and I have city water. If you are going to use RO water which I use and recommend for you is that you use a remineralizing product. I have planted tanks and I use Equilibrium, Kent marine makes one called RO right and seachem also make another one and I for the life of me can't remember what it's called. I would do your 50% water change and just use the remineralized RO water. Every week you will naturally have less and less of the old tap in your water. . Again that is what I did. My fish never seemed to be stressed or have any issues. It took about a month and now my nitrates stay at around to 10ppm on water change day.

 

[mosdurf]

Thanks for the advice.

It looks like RO Right is suggested to be used in conjunction with a pH buffer as well (Kent makes one). I've never had experience with Kent products, only used Seachem (Prime and Livebearer Salt). Is RO Right OK to use in freshwater tanks or only salt?

It looks like Seachem makes 3 different products that appear to be related.

> Alkaline Regulator - adjusts to a pH of 7.1 - 7.5
> Neutral Regulator - adjust to a neutral pH of 7.0
> Seachem Trace - appears to be similar to RO Right in what it contains

Based on Seachem's website, you'd use both the Alkaline Regulator & Neutral Regulator together to achieve a particular target pH. It doesn't explicitly say it, but I would also think I would need to use Seachem Trace to restore some of the trace elements?

Or do the regulators take care of that for me? I can't find details on what elements are actually in the regulators.

 

[flitabout]

Try looking at the seachem replenish it took me a minute to find it. If you have a fish only system this one should work for you.

 

[mosdurf]

Thanks. I will do some reading on Replenish, but just from a couple scans - it looks like it is exactly what I'd need.

I also found the thread where you had the same issue!

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f24/re-mineralizing-ro-water-286750.html

I would have never known my water was this bad unless I'd gotten into this hobby either. And my wife and I are trying to have kids - high nitrates can cause all kinds of issues with that.

This is my late uncle's tank and I would probably have never gotten into fish-keeping if he was still here. If I hadn't gotten into fish-keeping, we would never have known about our water. If we hadn't known about our water, we may have had all kinds of problems conceiving.

Maybe TMI, but I'm convinced that fish-keeping for me may have been pre-ordained or something.

 

[flitabout]

I feel the same way!!!! It was really scary to find out what was in my water. I am not a big one for giving my 4 kids juice or pop just milk and water. Water straight out of the tap and lots of it. When I looked up the EPA standards I was horrified at what was in my water. I feel like this hobby had been such a blessing for my kids.

 

[mosdurf]

I got the RO filter and it solved my nitrate problem, but have a question about water changes. The RO filter is running cold water through it, so the temp of the water for changes has been much colder than the tank temp and I'm worried about stressing the fish out with these water changes.

Anyone have any advice on bringing the water to a better temp before I do the change? They seem OK, but they do dart around the tank a lot after a change.

Should I let it sit in buckets to get to room temp?

Also - my filter has an optional filter stage that is an Alkaline filter that restores minerals back into the water to bring it to a higher PH. Anyone have any experience with these? Worthwhile alternative to dosing with Seachem?

I'm thinking about it for the drinking water anyway, but want to see if I should bypass for the water changes.

Sorry for all the questions!

P.S. A temporary solution to the nitrate problem that worked for me was Purigen. It brought the nitrates in the tank down to 20ppm - pretty amazing because they were so high from the tap and even higher in the tank. I think I'm going to run this stuff full-time because it also keeps the water sparkling.

 

[flitabout]

One way to do it is to put the water for the change in a trash can and tossing a heater in it for a while to warm it up. Then pump it in to your tank from there. I know lots of people that do that. I don't have my own unit yet so I still have the jugs, I just stick mine in front of the vents and turn the heat up in the house for about 30 minutes. Which is usually enough to get the water close enough.