Nitrite question

[Travis32]

My tank is fully cycled, however, my tap water contains nitrites (I called the city as I know tapwater shouldn't have that, but got nowhere with that). Obviously there's nothing I can change about that, but my question is on a fully cycled tank, when I do water changes and put the tap water that contains nitrites into the aquarium, how long roughly would you say it would take for them to filter out to get back to 0 ppm. FYI, running two filters, Emperor 400 and Penguin 350 on a 75 gallon freshwater tank. Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

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[PNWaquarist]

I'd cut the tap water with reverse-osmosis water and use a double- or triple-dose of Prime when doing water changes. I'd also call the EPA.

 

[jarrod0987]

I'd cut the tap water with reverse-osmosis water and use a double- or triple-dose of Prime when doing water changes. I'd also call the EPA.

I wouldn't cut it with RO unless I knew what my GH and KH was. You can shock the fish that way. I agree with using prime to block it from harming your fish. It should not take real long to go away. I suspect this is a temporary issue at your water treatment plant. I would not be in a hurry to do water changes for a few days. Just see if it goes away.

 

[Caliban07]

My tank is fully cycled, however, my tap water contains nitrites (I called the city as I know tapwater shouldn't have that, but got nowhere with that). Obviously there's nothing I can change about that, but my question is on a fully cycled tank, when I do water changes and put the tap water that contains nitrites into the aquarium, how long roughly would you say it would take for them to filter out to get back to 0 ppm. FYI, running two filters, Emperor 400 and Penguin 350 on a 75 gallon freshwater tank. Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

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What level nitrite are we talking here? Prime is probably your best bet but also check your tap water concentration of chloride as this can have a great effect on reducing the toxicity of nitrite. Nitrite toxicity takes time to accumulate in the blood and the bacteria will most likely have dealt with it by then anyway.


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[jarrod0987]

What level nitrite are we talking here? Prime is probably your best bet but also check your tap water concentration of chloride as this can have a great effect on reducing the toxicity of nitrite. Nitrite toxicity takes time to accumulate in the blood and the bacteria will most likely have dealt with it by then anyway.


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Good catch. I always forget about the salt option.

 

[Mebbid]

How about you just run a sponge filter in a container of water you use for water changes. Bacteria would take care of the nitrites so its a non issue.

 

[Travis32]

Well, because I have very few fish currently in cycled aquarium (5 danios) I decided to go ahead and do a 20 percent water change using my tap water with Prime. Immediately after doing the water change my nitrites went up to 1 ppm! However within an hour my nitrite level has fallen to 0.25 ppm. This was very late last night around midnight, and when I woke up this morning and tested the water it was at 0. So everything is good now. Thanks everyone

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[jarrod0987]

Sounds like your tap is defiantly high in nitrites. I would hold off on further water changes for now or just do really small ones. You could run the filter in the bucket but that would take a while. 24 hours without a water change won't hurt anything. If the nitrites keep coming in at the tap I would actually call the EPA. They are not allowed to have that. It can hurt people.

 

[Fel]

Keep in mind that if your tap water contains chloramine it also contains ammonia. Using a water conditioner can break the bonds between the two thus freeing the chlorine for removal and detoxify ammonia for use in the nitrogen cycle.

It's not uncommon for some nitrite to be in drinking water, and once treated with some kind of tap water conditioner results for various water tests can be effected.

The EPA sets the threshold at 1 ppm in tap water. http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/basicinformation/nitrite.cfm

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[Mebbid]

Do you have a well kr is it city water?

 

[Travis32]

City water

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[Travis32]

Here is a picture of the nitrite level taken directly from my faucet in my house, as you can see it is extremely dark purple, even deeper color than my chart shows. This is not a one-time occurrence, this is the way my water reads all the time as well as my neighbors.

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[Mebbid]

Yep, thats definitely too high for health. I wouldnt drink that water if i were you. Follow that by a repeat call to the water company... try to talk to a manager. After that definitely call the epa.

Its not unheard of for aquarists to catch problems with city water before the city does.

 

[jarrod0987]

Yes.. If calling the EPA doesn't work call the Media. That will get attention.

 

[LayzorBeams]

Call the cops too.

Don't do that. That was a joke. But seriously, call some people!


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