mosdurf
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2013
- Messages
- 21
Hi - I'm new to fishkeeping and have had my late uncle's tank in my home for almost 3 months now. My tank is a 50g tall, fairly well stocked, and it is fully cycled. I have noticed that my nitrates have been consistently high - but stable - between 60-80ppm (hard to gauge what shade of red the vial in the API test really is).
I'd researched on these forums and in other places and saw that some API nitrate tests can give false positives, so I bought a pack of test strips and a new API test - same general results.
I didn't understand this because I've been doing weekly 25% water changes, vaccuming the gravel well, and not over-feeding. And according to AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor, I have almost 200% of the filtration capacity needed for my stock.
I tested my tap water and found that the nitrates from the source are about 40ppm - which would explain the high nitrates in the tank water.
I've had a couple fish mysteriously die - and I'm willing to bet it was due to the stress of the move of the tank from PA to MD, combined with nitrate poisoning.
I have a well and have a wholehouse softener/acid neutralizer installed and had the same company come out this week to test for nitrates to confirm what I found in my tests. It was confirmed, my nitrates are about 4x what they should be.
They recommended a point-of-use RO system, that will work with my existing softener/acid neutralizer. But with my current system, my PH is 8.0 and my water is quite hard.
I'm going to get the RO system, but had a question about how it will change water chemistry and how to acclimate the fish to it. I'm worried that the RO system will cause the water to be very soft and will remove much of what the fish are used to.
Anyone have advice/experience on how to acclimate them to new water chemistry after an RO system is installed?
Thanks very much.
I'd researched on these forums and in other places and saw that some API nitrate tests can give false positives, so I bought a pack of test strips and a new API test - same general results.
I didn't understand this because I've been doing weekly 25% water changes, vaccuming the gravel well, and not over-feeding. And according to AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor, I have almost 200% of the filtration capacity needed for my stock.
I tested my tap water and found that the nitrates from the source are about 40ppm - which would explain the high nitrates in the tank water.
I've had a couple fish mysteriously die - and I'm willing to bet it was due to the stress of the move of the tank from PA to MD, combined with nitrate poisoning.
I have a well and have a wholehouse softener/acid neutralizer installed and had the same company come out this week to test for nitrates to confirm what I found in my tests. It was confirmed, my nitrates are about 4x what they should be.
They recommended a point-of-use RO system, that will work with my existing softener/acid neutralizer. But with my current system, my PH is 8.0 and my water is quite hard.
I'm going to get the RO system, but had a question about how it will change water chemistry and how to acclimate the fish to it. I'm worried that the RO system will cause the water to be very soft and will remove much of what the fish are used to.
Anyone have advice/experience on how to acclimate them to new water chemistry after an RO system is installed?
Thanks very much.