Tap water Nitrates

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loneranger

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
Messages
43
Finally took delivery of the test charts for my API Nitrate kit yesterday, so tested the water of my tank. I was shocked that it had a nitrate reading of 20!!! Stocking is low, 5 leopard danios and 3 guppies in around 60L, with weekly 20% water changes.

So I thought I'd test our tap water...20 (ppm i think). Is this normal/unusual?

I know most of you guys are in the states, but what sort of test results does your tap water produce?

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I live in right on the edge of a tiny town. Stourport-on-severn, worcs (for those with acess to google earth) Wondering if the nitrates could be due to run off from surrounding agricultural land?
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I get 10-15ppm from my tap, constantly. I have never seen it less than 10ppm in over 3 years. I too was quite shocked when I tested my tap. I live in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, about 15 mins from the city.
 
i had a nitrite of 5 ppm, once. it wiped out half my tank. nitrates are very dangerous. do a 90 pwc and then a bunch of 50 pwc every day until the nitrites are gone.
 
i had a nitrite of 5 ppm, once. it wiped out half my tank. nitrates are very dangerous. do a 90 pwc and then a bunch of 50 pwc every day until the nitrites are gone.
He is talking about Nitrate. Nitrate is safe up to 40ppm but I like to try to stay below 20ppm.
You are correct about Nitrite and how dangerous it is. Ideally you want 0 Nitrite but certainly under 1ppm at the most.
 
I live in right on the edge of a tiny town. Stourport-on-severn, worcs (for those with acess to google earth) Wondering if the nitrates could be due to run off from surrounding agricultural land?
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yeah that's probably your problem. i have well water and i live next to a farm. my nitrates are at least 40 ppm
 
Do not be at all shocked by 20 ppm nitrate in your aquarium. You are good to go. Keep on like you've been.

I'd only be concerned about nitrate if I was dosing for plants or during a cycle. I don't even test for it otherwise - if you do relatively frequent PWCs it should not be a concern.
 
Thanks guys, good to know it's nothing alarming...just glad I dont use tap water in my reef:D

Have done two more tests, and levels average at around 15ppm. Have decided to up the size of water changes to 40-50% to prevent the tank levels getting too high.

Would I ever be able to keep some of the more sensitive fish, rams for example, with nitrates at this level, without resorting to RO?

Also, I have seen a product called NITRATE MINUS (tetra iirc) at my LFS, has anyone tried it? While I'm not a fan of using chem's to reduce maintenance, I wonder if it may help with my tap water?
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I think you could definitely keep delicate species. You would need to acclimate them very slowly to your tank, but honestly these levels are not outrageous at all, and are quite typical.

I think if you start "chasing the dragon" with chemicals to influence this or that water parameters you'll be constantly testing and battling swings (you may be forced into this kind of maintenance schedule with your reef). You should not have to bother with it. I'd mix RO long before I'd add a nitrate removing substance - since what is the byproduct of the reaction that reduces nitrate? Then you might have another issue to deal with.
 
Thanks again. Thats just what I needed to hear.

Regarding the reef, I like to keep that as simple as possible. 10% water changes weekly, low stocking and easy corals (minimal stony corals).

Thanks again to everyone for their input,
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Regarding the reef, I like to keep that as simple as possible. 10% water changes weekly, low stocking and easy corals (minimal stony corals).

See there - as someone who has been timid about going "over to the dark side" I thought you all were fussing and dosing and fretting every minute of every day! I guess there are people who do....:eek:

I got my 150 from a guy who had a SW setup that was connected to a computer, and it sends him emails every day at work so he knows if something is going wrong with pH, temperature, whatever, so he can rush home and fix it. Maybe it does not have to be like that, huh? :rolleyes:
 
The only product I have used to reduce nitrate, and only when it got rediculously high, was Amquel Plus.
I have measured 8ppm reduction in nitrate using it without a water change and of course more with one.
The bad side of it is because of the way it works, by breaking the oxygen bond of the nitrate molecule, it also will lower the oxygen level in the water column so make sure to have good aeration if you use a product like this.
The other effect is lowering the PH but I am not sure if the Amquel Plus was responsible for that or the high nitrate levels.
 
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