purified vs well water???

[inspire0522]

witch would be a better choice for a fw tank? i did the normal test of the two, nitrates are a little higher in the well water. any ideas?

also beach water vs salt mix? Thanks again

 

[krap101]

well... if your talking about distilled water, ive heard it doesnt work well because the "trace elements" are filtered out. i use well water, it doesnt have chlorine anyway since i dont live in the city. plus nitrates arent bad if you have plants.

what are you going to use the salt water for?

 

[inspire0522]

i see... maybe i should give it a try... i did a gravel change to my 140g and it shot the nitrate way up.. i have done a 30% water change with distilled watter, but no luck. i will do another soon if not today then tomorrow.

the sw is for my 10g and 30g sw tanks. in the 10g i have used salt mix with no problems, the 30 is beach water ( but its still settling ) so there is no life in there as of now.

 

[Devilishturtles]

the 30 is beach water ( but its still settling ) so there is no life in there as of now.

Unless you go far far out into the ocean to get your water, using beach water ususally isn't recommended. It can contain alot of contaminants from runoff and human contamination.

i did a gravel change to my 140g and it shot the nitrate way up.. i have done a 30% water change with distilled watter, but no luck. i will do another soon if not today then tomorrow.

How long did you go before your last vaccum and did you cycle your tank? You probably vaccumed too much, leaving a deficiency of bacteria in your tank. Or, you tested too early after you vaccumed. Try testing again, see if they are still elevated.

Distilled water is simply...pure water. It's not really recommended unless you put additives in the water, because it lacks trace minerals and such that fish use to their advantage.

 

[Ariamus]

Despite my recent troubles, until it's not longer drinkable, I will continue to use the well-water that I've been using for years.

 

[inspire0522]

well i vacuumed the bed right before i changed the gravel and tested about two days later. I'm not sure where to go from here. Should i wait and test later or do another water change.

Thanks for the info on the well water. anything i should add or treat the water for?

fish only tank.

 

[Devilishturtles]

well i vacuumed the bed right before i changed the gravel

Did you change out the gravel? All of it?

This could be some of your problem there with the nitrate jump.

I use my regular well water as well. Test it straight from the tap just for your own references...but most are fine for most fish.

 

[inspire0522]

all of the gravel has been changed... i could not stand what was in there before... it was when i first started out and was the wrong move from the start. but i had the chance to fix it and so i did. but now..... this is the issue. i took out 15g while i was changing the gravel 15 the next day and another 15 the day after. added some driftwood ( was told to sock in hot water for a few hrs, and then place in ). nitrites came up a bit about .25 amm is at 0 nitrates 80+ :| thanks again