Ok, I'm a newbie

[fishtankfish]

I just tested my water. My nitrites are at about zero, my nitrates are almost too much (40+) and my water is slightly hard. This seems to be constant for my water. What do i use to fix it?

 

[QTOFFER]

This is your tapwater you're talking about, right? The only solution I've seen for this kind of problem is mixing RO water with your tap water to dilute out the nitrates.

Where does your wter come from - well or municipal supply? I know municipal suppliers have to meet strict EPA requirements in regards to nitrates, but I'm not sure if anyone polices the quality of well-water.

 

[smilla4]

How well would plants work to consume the excess nitrates? Or is that way too hight?

 

[loganj]

Plants will use some nitrate, but I'm thinking not enough to make up for bad water to start with. If you cut the tap with 50% RO, you'll drop the nitrates to around 20 which is bearable for a FW tank although not optimal. The hardness will come down a good bit too. If you're not going to be using much water (I don't know what size tank you have), you might be better off to use straight RO water and remineralize it with a product like RO Right.

 

[patryuji]

You could try a filtering media such as Purigen. It will remove nitrates and must simply be cleaned in bleach every other month or so to regain the cleaning power of it.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I have a hard water problem as well, but I live in the middle of nowhere and get my water from a well.

I use a RO/DI unit, and just mix in some of it with my tap water to bring the hardness, which without it, measures off the scale. This brings it down enough as to where fish can actually live in it Haha

 

[Christmasfish]

You also might want to start researching which fish you like in the harder water dept..... that way a slight mistake on a single day doesn't remove your entire community from this plane then you only have to worry about nitrate control.
Guess it all depends on how much effort you wanna put forth

 

[Menagerie]

A lot will depend on the fish you want to keep and the size of your tank.