Nitrate Issues

[Barakis]

i'm guessing you guys have had this question so much, but i need acurate info i cant find :|

current nitrate is roughly 40ppm (possibly a little more) and i know my main issue is the sailfin plec messing up the place, soon i will be getting a clown instead so my waste will drop.

my problem is, tapwater here is about 45ppm, very hard and very high ph, so PWC are useless to tackle trates.

i thought about using bottled drinking water, or RO water, but would i have to buffer the PH GH and KH massively to use it for a PWC without crashing my tank?

I dont like prime, did try it but since i cant see visible results, i'm not really fixing the problems.


any products or methods would be great, but what i really want to know is how i can use bottled water to battle it.

 

[blert]

Do you have access to a well?

To use RO water you would need to add 'Replenish', 'RO Rite' or something similar.

Prime won't remove nitrate.

 

[Barakis]

i live in the UK, well water is not so accessible here. but I will look into "replenish" thanks. any other ideas to drop nitrate or is water changes really the only answer?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Water changes to bring it down in the tank. You can add fast growing stem plants to help too. You can cut your tap water with RO water (50/50) without having to add any replenish.

 

[blert]

There are nitrate reactors but are very expensive to buy AND maintain.
There are a number of "absorbers" available but no clue as to what extent they truly work.
Heavy planting with fast growing stem plants can also work.
A deep sand bed can work but for that you would need a sump.
50/50 cut your tap with RO. Would not have to add the minerals and would leave you with ~20ppm.

 

[Barakis]

thanks guys, good to know i can bring it down without replenish

Looking into that stuff anyway as i think i need to do some heavy WC to bring it down properly, didn't know it existed.

 

[blert]

...
but what i really want to know is how i can use bottled water to battle it.

Bottled spring water is ok to use straight up, as would bottled drinking water so long as it says on the bottle "minerals added". Bottled distilled water is not ok to use straight up, you would need to re-mineralize it just like RO. The least costly route, if you are going bottled water, would be to buy your own RO/DI unit. In the long run it would save you a fortune, just don't drink RO/DI water yourself, it's not good for you.

 

[Barakis]

cheers guys, pay day this week so gonna try some stuff this weekend