Nitrates question

[Sombunya]

In the past my tanks have run between 5-10 ppm on Nitrates. Other bad stuff, zero. 25% water changes every week.

Because I feed my fish somewhat heavily I checked Nitrates. Maybe around 40 ppm. Other bad stuff zero.

So I checked my tap water; between 10-20 ppm (ground water, no Chloramines, just free Chlorine at about .8ppm).

Then I checked some bottled water (ozonated, R.O. treated) it showed about 5ppm.

I'm using an A.P.I. Pro kit. Closely following the directions.

Anyone else tested their tap water (or bottled water) for Nitrates and hit a positive?

 

[Zagz]

Tap water yes, bottled water no. How old are your test kits is the first thing I would ask.

 

[Purrbox]

Bottled spring water is pretty much just someone else's tap water. Not surprising that you'd find Nitrates in some of them. Nitrates in my tap water is a constant state of being.

 

[Sombunya]

Well, the responses from Zagz and Purrbox are not what I'd call good news but I'm not as worried as before.

The kit is not that old. Maybe 6-8 months. Thanks for the replies.

 

[mgamer20o0]

nitrate in the water isnt going to hurt anything. for the most part people use the nitrate levels as a way to measure TDS. 40 ppm not going to kill anything. what i would do is look into getting some floaters to suck up some of those extra nitrates.

 

[DSenn]

My tap has nitrates, 10 ppm. What are floaters?

 

[aqua man]

my tap also around 10ppm

 

[bs6749]

My tap has nitrates, 10 ppm. What are floaters?

Floating plants.

 

[Johnny Tuttle]

Most LFSs don't sell floaters. Would you folks order those online?

 

[OldMan]

Most do sell floaters in the form of hornwort, cabomba, and lots of other stem type plants. They bundle them up with a lead weight but if you take the lead weight off, voila, you have a floater. Something that is almost always free when you buy a plant is some duckweed. It is a floater that many people don't like but a partial cover over your tank surface can eat lots of pollutatnts and is a good hidinbg place for fry that prefer the water surface area.