High Nitrate levels

[jsoong]

BTW - I just thought of another reasonable & cheap method to get good water ... collect rain water. If you have a place where you can collect rain water, and your city is not too polluted (acid rain, smog, other pollutants), then rain water is a viable source for the tank. You will have to add the buffer salts (& other ions for your plants/inverts), but sure beats lugging expensive water home from the lfs!

 

[Bluestman]

For various reasons rainwater is not a viable method for me. I have been looking at Nitrate removal sponges but as they seem to remove nitrite as well, will this kill my cycle by starving the nitrite eating bacteria?

 

[jsoong]

Possibly the sponges will interfere with the cycle. You might want to try them in a storage bucket, however. If you can remove the nitrate in a storage bucket, then you would have clean water for your pwc.

 

[Bluestman]

I received this today for the LFS where I have been getting water :

Hi
Thank you for your e-mail. Although I would never garrantee that our water is zero Nitrate, I would have expected it to be lower than you tested it. I have tested it today ( after my return from a short break) and it seems that there is Nitrate getting passed the R/O mambranes. I will , offcourse get these changed, ( I have been away for 2 weeks on business in Germany) and If you like to send me your telephone number, as soon as we are ready, we will call you to replace the water that you have had. To be honest this is still better than the 40 ppm that I have just tested in the tap wap water, so if you want to use it , its still safer. But I understand your frustration when you are battling with Nitrate in your aquarium.
Kind Regards
Gary B

So when I get the call I'll run up there and sort it out and see where we go from there. I was under the same impression with regards to the nitrate filter pads I think they would starve the cycle so pretty pointless all told when in the tank but for water changes it may be worth a try. It really depends how long it takes to get the nitrate out. I haven't got room to keep masses of water sitting around while the nitrate soaks out.

 

[Bluestman]

Still waiting on the RO water from LFS. I have found some water and looking at the data it should work fine.

Typical Values TYPICAL ANALYSIS mg/l

Calcium 55
Magnesium 19
Potassium 1
Sodium 24
Bicarbonate 248
Chloride 37
Sulphate 13
Nitrate <0.1
Iron 0
Aluminium 0
Dry Residue at 180°C 280
pH at Source 7.4


I have tested everything I can and the GH and KH match what my tap water is at the moment. Ph is 7.4 which is .1 lower than what I get out of the tap. The only difference I can see is the level of nitrates. I also read a government report on water quality that says that this supplier is one of the few that don't massively exaggerate or underexaggerate the levels of minerals in their water. Price wise it is slightly cheaper than RO water as I will be mixing it with tap water and I can get it delivered very easily.

Would I be right in saying that if I did water changes using 75% of this water and 25% tap water my nitrate level for water changes would reduce by 75%? So from 40ppm to around 10ppm?

Can anyone see any obvious problems with using this water? And also would I need to add water conditioner to it?

 

[jsoong]

That water does look reasonable. It has reasonable bicarbonate levels, so you won't need any buffering salts. It should decrease the nitrate levels to reasonable with what you are planning.

Depending on how the water is treated (disinfected) as to need for conditioner. You might want to check with the water co as to what was used for that.OTOH, Prime is cheap & is a good insurance against presence of heavy metals, etc.

 

[Crepe]

I always keep my tank at 20 nitrates, but that's just because I have plants that soak up nitrates non stop. If I don't dose ferts for 2 days it goes to 0.

 

[Bluestman]

@ Jsoong : With regards to chemicals, this stuff isn't treated with any chemicals, it is natural spring water and chemicals aren't allowed near it. But as you said the water conditioner is a good insurance.

@ Crepe : I'm not looking for 0 Nitrates, I just want a lot less than the 40ppm that comes out of my tap. If I could get my water in the tanks down to 20ppm I would be happy.

 

[Crepe]

@ Jsoong : With regards to chemicals, this stuff isn't treated with any chemicals, it is natural spring water and chemicals aren't allowed near it. But as you said the water conditioner is a good insurance.

@ Crepe : I'm not looking for 0 Nitrates, I just want a lot less than the 40ppm that comes out of my tap. If I could get my water in the tanks down to 20ppm I would be happy.

Plants, then, should be your cheapest route of this. The next cheapest is an RO water maker which would not only be good for the health of your fish but also your health. (I have an RO system I don't use anymore I bet i could sell to you cheaply.) Although they aren't TOO expensive in themselves, 150-300 dollars depending on the model.

EDIT: nvm, you're a UK-er. You can buy a good RO unit off of amazon for about 180 including shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Reverse-Osmosis-Storage-Removes-Fluoride/dp/B002LHDL7E

 

[Bluestman]

Just to update on this, I hate unresolved threads where you read from the start and never get a solution!!

I started changing 10% a day from my 20 litre tank and replacing with spring water described in previous post. After around 10 days of this nitrates dropped to <10 ppm. Even though I tried to stagger the drop in Nitrates, over the first couple of days I did have a few cherry shrimp die on me. Either they were already affected by the Nitrate in the tank or it was the shock of the water change that killed them. Most of the shrimp were unaffected though. Now I use 25% treated tapwater and 75% spring water to keep the nitrates at around the same level.
I am starting the same process in my 30 gal (uk) to achieve the same level of Nitrates. A much bigger job obviously but I'm sure it will be worth it. I am currently fighting fin rot in this tank probably due to the nitrates along with an awful fish delivery. I bought around 50 plants (a bulk mix) dumped all the floating ones and planted the rest. I have been removing dead leaves everyday and have dumped whole bunches of plants that weren't doing too well. No point adding to the Nitrate problem. Also bought an Eheim 2213 which although it won't help the nitrate levels does give me a new toy to play with