Dealing with nitrates?

[Miyavp]

My well water has about 30ppms of nitrate in it. How would you guys suggest handling it? I'm having a tough time with it. I'm frequenting my friends house getting well water feeding smaller amounts and using seachem prime also. Its a 37gal tank with a crappy charcol filter. I hope to upgrade my tank sometime to a 75gal but not anytime soon so I need to find a way to handle the nitrates for now. Should I invest in a larger filter? A nitrates filter? Some more plants maybe? My three goldfish keep eating them tho. Any suggestions would be great. I dont have alot of money.

 

[Clynnking]

You can do it!
I have the same problem with our well water. You are doing the right thing with the Prime. I have 2-125 gallon tanks and a 46 bowfront and I manage the nitrates with large weekly or biweekly water changes. Plants will help but they have to be fast growing plants and alot of them. My fish eat plants too so I have been using slower growing plants like the java ferns but they don't help my nitrate problem. It becomes a maintenance issue but your fish will adjust to the higher levels but weekly (at least) water changes are a must.
Good Luck!

 

[creic38]

You can do it!
I have the same problem with our well water. You are doing the right thing with the Prime. I have 2-125 gallon tanks and a 46 bowfront and I manage the nitrates with large weekly or biweekly water changes. Plants will help but they have to be fast growing plants and alot of them. My fish eat plants too so I have been using slower growing plants like the java ferns but they don't help my nitrate problem. It becomes a maintenance issue but your fish will adjust to the higher levels but weekly (at least) water changes are a must.
Good Luck!

Absolutely! For plants, get yourself some hornwort and anacharis and you'll be golden. They are nitrate eating beasts!

 

[Miyavp]

You can do it!
I have the same problem with our well water. You are doing the right thing with the Prime. I have 2-125 gallon tanks and a 46 bowfront and I manage the nitrates with large weekly or biweekly water changes. Plants will help but they have to be fast growing plants and alot of them. My fish eat plants too so I have been using slower growing plants like the java ferns but they don't help my nitrate problem. It becomes a maintenance issue but your fish will adjust to the higher levels but weekly (at least) water changes are a must.
Good Luck!

I think one of my ryukins has been nitrate poisoned in the past before I got her because she starts bottom sitting if the nitrates get around 25ppms. Will she adjust too?

 

[BBradbury]

Nitrates

My well water has about 30ppms of nitrate in it. How would you guys suggest handling it? I'm having a tough time with it. I'm frequenting my friends house getting well water feeding smaller amounts and using seachem prime also. Its a 37gal tank with a crappy charcol filter. I hope to upgrade my tank sometime to a 75gal but not anytime soon so I need to find a way to handle the nitrates for now. Should I invest in a larger filter? A nitrates filter? Some more plants maybe? My three goldfish keep eating them tho. Any suggestions would be great. I dont have alot of money.

Hello Mi...

Nitrates at 30 ppm aren't bad at all. Public water supplies allow up to 40 ppm. The majority of aquarium fish adapt well to the majority of municipal tap water.

Just replace a large amount of your tank water every week or so and your fish will be fine.

You can reduce the nitrates naturally by adding stem plants. I float a lot of Anacharis and Pennywort in my tanks. These two are efficient users of added nutrients in the water, like nitrates.

Goldfish are tough on plants. You could use some tougher plants like Java fern, Onion and Amazon sword. Anubias is also a good one.

B

 

[Miyavp]

Hello Mi...

Nitrates at 30 ppm aren't bad at all. Public water supplies allow up to 40 ppm. The majority of aquarium fish adapt well to the majority of municipal tap water.

Just replace a large amount of your tank water every week or so and your fish will be fine.

You can reduce the nitrates naturally by adding stem plants. I float a lot of Anacharis and Pennywort in my tanks. These two are efficient users of added nutrients in the water, like nitrates.

Goldfish are tough on plants. You could use some tougher plants like Java fern, Onion and Amazon sword. Anubias is also a good one.

B

But I always catch one of my female ryukins bottom sitting. Isnt that due to nitrates?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

It could be she's having a hard time. I do agree with the others that 30ppm isn't high but if she's been through a lot and isn't as healthy as she could have been then they could be causing an issue. Have you looked into her food? What do you feed her?
When it comes to fast growing plants in goldfish tanks I've had a fair bit of success with elodea. Goldies find it mighty tasty but it grows so fast that they usually can't keep up. I'd like to suggest you do some research on riparium style setups. A riparium is a tank with marginal plants (plants that grow in boggy environments) growing out of the top. The plants hang in planters with their roots in the water. All the benefits of a planted tank with the plants being out of reach of the fish.

 

[Miyavp]

I've been feeding her hikari gold pelets with some peas and some occasional brine shrimp. I only started feeding them the pellets recenly tho about a month ago i'd been feeding them flake food and they got sick and I cut it out of there diet. By sick I just mean sluggish and unhealthy looking. For the last two weeks i'd been feeding them peas brine shrimp and some hikari algae waffers. I started feeding them the pellets a fee days ago.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

For a few days I'd cut out all pellets and wafers and stick to just greens like deshelled peas, spinach and broccoli. She might be a bit constipated. Are they sinking pellets or floating?

 

[Miyavp]

Sinking but i'm soaking them first and feeding daily veggis. I did that for about a week and a half before i introduced the algae wafers and it didnt seem to do anything. Would you suggest i try it again?

 

[Miyavp]

Whoops I meant floating

 

[jlk]

Hello Mi...

Nitrates at 30 ppm aren't bad at all. Public water supplies allow up to 40 ppm. The majority of aquarium fish adapt well to the majority of municipal tap water.

B

Actually, in the US, the EPA has strict mandates limiting public water supplies to a maximum of 10ppm of nitrates. Any public drinking water supply (not well) with nitrates higher than this are in violation of federal law. Anything higher than this also poses a signifigant health risk, particularly to infants, pregnant women, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. I dont know what the regulations are in respect to drinking water supplies in other countries, so I dont know if this applies in this case.

 

[Miyavp]

Actually, in the US, the EPA has strict mandates limiting public water supplies to a maximum of 10ppm of nitrates. Any public drinking water supply (not well) with nitrates higher than this are in violation of federal law. Anything higher than this also poses a signifigant health risk, particularly to infants, pregnant women, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. I dont know what the regulations are in respect to drinking water supplies in other countries, so I dont know if this applies in this case.

Weird. I'd read 40ppms also but your right its 10ppms.