Ammonia and Nitrate in tap water...

[Claireh703]

Hello,

I've just moved to a place that has well water surrounded by farms and so the water from the tap reads 1.0ppm ammonia and 5.0ppm nitrate. What is a sustainable way of dealing with this?

I have Aqueon Water Conditioner but that only mentions getting rid of chlorine and ammonia so I presume that wouldn't work because it wont lower the nitrate? And I don't want to buy pretreated water because it'll make water changes and top ups expensive. And I'm confused by Ammo Lock because it is temporary.

TIA.

 

[Aiken Drum]

A strong cycle should bring down ammonia quite quickly. Nitrate is fairly normal in tap water, you have about the same as i do.

Nitrate is safe upto quite high concentrations, 40ppm or higher. Dont worry about nitrate.

Ammonia isnt as toxic as is commonly perceived, unless its combined with a high pH. Prime claims to detoxify Ammonia for a day or so, using that should make the water safe while your cycle gets rid of it. I would trust Prime more than the aqueon water conditioner to do this.

You arent in any different a situation to people whos water is treated with chloramine rather than chlorine and they tend to manage just fine.