discovered the water levels problem!

[laur94x]

So after doing 3 water changes a week in both of my tanks to desperately try and bring down my levels (one is 138 litre, one is 50 litre) and the levels have been this pretty much every time I test -
Ammonia - 0.25
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 40ppm (the main one I was trying to bring down)

I just tested my tap water and guess what -
Ammonia - about 0.15 (I'm using an api liquid master test kit but it was inbetween 0 and 0.25)
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate - 40ppm!

So, what next? Obviously water changes aren't going to bring my levels down because its the tap water causing the levels lol.
Does it make a difference that I took the levels without letting the water settle? Just straight in the tube from the tap and tested?

Its currently all tap water in my tanks. Am thinking of getting some RO water (my PH and GH are high too - I'm in england so apparently this is normal here? I don't know the exact figures) would this be a good idea? And what percentage RO to tap water? I want to do as little as possible due to costs but enough to make my levels much better obviously.
Any advice appreciated. Thanks, laura

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Mixing ro or bottled spring water with your tap water will lower it. You'll have to play with it and see on how much because I'm not sure. But I'd do 50% of the water you take out of ro at least.

 

[blert]

Before you go out and buy RO water test the water from a different tap, preferably an outside one closest to the main water shut off valve. In my previous house there was a huge difference in water quality if the water came from the outside tap compared to the kitchen or bathroom taps. The house was old with old pipes that seemed to contribute to funk in the water.

 

[Rivercats]

If you end up having to use RO for WC's if your tap water is indeed 40ppm nitrates then using 50% RO to 50% tap will give your WC refill water a reading of 20ppm nitrates and a barely readable ammonia.

 

[laur94x]

Thank you for the replies. Oh I will go and check my tap outside then, that'd make sense because I initially filled up the tank with the garden hose (without the fish in it, so it had time to heat etc) and my levels didn't used to be this bad! So ill test that and let you know the results.

And thanks rivercats. Would you recommend doing more R0 water then? It comes in 25 litre containers and my tank is 138 litres. I. Also have a 50 litre tank which I wantto use it for. Not sure how many containers I should get? Thanks

 

[Rivercats]

You can use more but remember if you use 75% RO to 25% tap then your nitrate readings would be 10ppm and you won't want to go lower than that. Also you want to aim for a Gh and Kh of no lower than 4. You'll need 103.5 liters of RO if you want to do a 75% RO to tap. Or 69 liters if you want to do a 50% RO to tap WC. Just be sure to monitor your GH and KH when your using RO in those amounts.

 

[laur94x]

Thank you. Ah great that means I need to get something to test my Gh and KH again because the API kit doesn't do it :/ think ill get 100 litres of R0 so I can do 75 litres in my 138 litre tank and 25 lites in my 50 litre x

 

[laur94x]

Can I just put it straight in during my next water change if I'm only doing 50%?

 

[Rivercats]

You use RO straight, no adding anything for the purpose your using it for. I use part RO water in my 220g. Just remember it will take 2 or 3 WC's for the nitrates to drop down to where you want them since WC's only take out part of the higher nitrate water.

 

[laur94x]

I'm going to edit my original post to add 2 pictures of my levels if people could have a look please

 

[laur94x]

Ah it won't let me edit it now any way I can add pictures without creating a new post?

 

[Andrew McFadden]

You have to hit post reply under the last user posters name but above quick post.

 

[laur94x]

Thank you!
Right I tested my levels again today, - HAVE NOT added any RO water yet, ill hae to get it at the weekend.

1st picture is tank water from my 138 litre.
2nd picture is my tap water! :s from the outside tap today, still the same results as inside tap
3rd picture is just my tank obviously haha, although it has 2 filters in it now.
Not sure if it looks different in the pictures but the results in both were almost identical-
Ammonia- just below 0.25 but above 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate - 40

Also, any way that I can lower my ph and water hardness without RO water? I can't remember the exact numbers now but I know its high, far too high for the rams which I want in the future thanks

 

[Rivercats]

RO is the easiest and safest way. Don't use chemicals. Some will say peat or driftwood but the effects aren't great nor do they last long enough to keep the levels constant.