My Tap Water Is Terrible!!!!Help!!!!!

[bud29]

OK, I did a test of my tap water and I got:
ammonia .25 ppm
nitrIte 2.0 ppm
nitrAte 40 ppm
pH 8.0

This is terrible. Is there any chemical or something that would help this? Readings like this make you wonder how much good you're actually doing by doing a PWC. Really, if I did a PWC to lower nitrAtes, the levels in the tank would have to be above 40 ppm or it wouldn't do anything!!!

 

[Bbush]

The only thing I see that is alarming is the nitrites. That is strange. Do u live in the country or city?

 

[ML42]

yep there are solutions

ok so you have nasty tap water many ways to got about this.
1. get prime or h2o conditioner to help tap water become fish safe, I say use prime by seachem because it also helps reduce ammonia and nitrates from tap H2O

2. beat all of this and just buy RO/Distilled H2o honestly this is my personal choice I use it for my reef tank, SW, and FW tanks they all do great and it is the best way to go you do not have to worry about anything just buy and put in.

3. if you have money to blown buy your own RO machine and it will convert you nasty H2O into drinkable/usable perfect h2O, i would suggest this as the tab is about 300-400 for the machine, and you h2o ratio is like 27g or nasty H2O for 1G of perfect H2O

but there you have it many ways to go you choose the way, IMO as a SW and FW caretaker I would suggest distilled or reversed osmosis H2O is just much simpler and it take the whole hassle of chems that go into the tank before you even cycle, and another point is if you use that H2O you have to lower all of that before you put any fish in.


shoot me a message to my inbox if you need help or have questions been doing this for about 10years.

 

[Phranque]

Yeah, 2ppm nitrites does sound pretty high. Did you test right out of the tap?? If so, try again after running some into a container & let it sit out overnight.

My water isn't that bad, but I do blend 75% RO to 25% tap because it's pretty hard.

 

[Importcrew]

My levels are as followed:

Ammonia: .5ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm (It was kind of in between)
PH: 8.4

The only thing I do when I do a water change is that I add Prime and ReptiSafe (water conditioner). I know the Prime does well, but I add that as well. After a water change, I sometimes get a high reading of some things here and there, but after a couple days, it goes back down to the safe side.

 

[jlk]

Is this well or city water? I would question drinking it. If its well, you should have it professionally tested (which you should be doing regularly anyway). If its city, you need to contact your water authority because this is beyond allowable limits set by the EPA (if your in the US). If your in another country, you will have to check to see what the permissible limits are for drinking water.

 

[Importcrew]

Mine is actually city water. I used the API Master Test Kit, waited the 5 minutes to let everything settle, and checked. Needless to say, I don't actually drink the tap water. But I do shower in it.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

My levels are as followed:

Ammonia: .5ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm (It was kind of in between)
PH: 8.4

The only thing I do when I do a water change is that I add Prime and ReptiSafe (water conditioner). I know the Prime does well, but I add that as well. After a water change, I sometimes get a high reading of some things here and there, but after a couple days, it goes back down to the safe side.

So this is the readings you get after a day or two after a water change?

If yes leave a cup of water out and drop an air line hose in it to keep the water moving. Test it after 24hours if it tests good then what you should do is fill buckets or a clean trash can with water 24 hours before a water change.

 

[Importcrew]

So this is the readings you get after a day or two after a water change?

If yes leave a cup of water out and drop an air line hose in it to keep the water moving. Test it after 24hours if it tests good then what you should do is fill buckets or a clean trash can with water 24 hours before a water change.

Those results are straight from the tap. After I do a water change, it gradually goes down. I do use Seacham Prime, which I believe helps, but also, after it goes down, my reading is on average as follows:

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
PH 7.2-7.4

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Those results are straight from the tap. After I do a water change, it gradually goes down. I do use Seacham Prime, which I believe helps, but also, after it goes down, my reading is on average as follows:

Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 40ppm
PH 7.2-7.4

Well imo its going down because of the bacteria buildup in your tank and filters. The only way your going to change these perimeters are to buy an ro/Di unit, use gallon spring water from your grocery store and/or some fish stores sell RO water. But whatever you do those trates need to come down.

This place sells ro/Di units
http://www.purewaterclub.com/catalog/index.php?language=en

 

[librarygirl]

What's your water change schedule? Instead of doing one large one weekly, you could do 2-3 smaller ones during the week and use Prime. That way you're not adding as much nitrite and nitrate in the tank and the bacteria will be able to process the nitrite and in the meantime the Prime will detoxify it. Prime is only temporary though so just adding Prime isn't going to do much after it wears off.

As others mentioned, you could cut it with some spring or RO water. (say 30-40% tap and the rest RO or spring, but that can get expensive fast unless you get your own RO unit). If you replace the water totally with RO though you'll need to add back minerals with something like Kent's RO Rite or Seachem Replenish.

 

[bud29]

Alright, I'll let the water sit overnight and check the readings. (it's city water) If I get the same thing I'll call. That's just bad.

 

[DavidAl]

You can also set up a heavily plant-only tank and use that water for your water changes.

David

 

[jlk]

If your in the US, here's the EPAs safe drinking water hotline 800-426-4791. You can also look online for your municipality's water reports.

 

[bud29]

hmmm......the nitrates in my water are supposedly 4.9 ppm.......the pH is 8.4. All I can find about nitrites is that my state doesn't allow more than 1 ppm in their water.....

 

[RussellC]

Mixing purchased spring or RO water is certainly a good short-term solution to the high nitrates from your tap.

In the long-term, your own RO unit is one way to go.

Another is to heavily plant your tank. Plants consume nitrates. I'm not an expert on them, but if you head over to the 'planted tanks' board I'm sure they can give you great advice if that's the way you want to go.

Good luck!

 

[bud29]

I tested the water that sat overnight for nitrites and it came up as 1 ppm. So that puts my readings at
Ammonia .25 ppm
NitrIte 1 ppm
NitrAte 5 ppm (4.9)
pH 8.4

Better. Much better. Though I still don't like the pH. Is there anything that could permanently lower it? Or is it fine as long as it's stable? I know stuff like pH down just works for a couple hours.....

 

[RussellC]

I tested the water that sat overnight for nitrites and it came up as 1 ppm. So that puts my readings at
Ammonia .25 ppm
NitrIte 1 ppm
NitrAte 5 ppm (4.9)
pH 8.4

Better. Much better. Though I still don't like the pH. Is there anything that could permanently lower it? Or is it fine as long as it's stable? I know stuff like pH down just works for a couple hours.....

The nitrates do look much better, and out of the danger zone. An established biofilter shouldn't have too much trouble clearing those levels of ammonia and nitrite either -- and a conditioner like Prime will help detoxify them while the biofilter is clearing them.

Generally speaking, pH isn't that big of an issue, even at 8.4, so long as it is stable. Stability is more important than the number. That said, it depends on what you are planning on keeping. Goldfish could readily handle that pH without issue, assuming it's stable. Discus, maybe not so much.

Best!

 

[bud29]

I'm planning on keeping zebra danios, platys, guppies, and corys or ghost shrimp.