Water sources. Advice please.

[blert]

Was planning on doing a water change tonight as yesterday I replaced my filter media because it was clogging up everyday for the past week and falling apart. I tested the water when I got home from work and then made up 16 gallons of water and tested it too just for grins. Stats as follows...

Tank:
- Temp 80f
- PH 6.4
- Ammonia .0
- Nitrites .25
- Nitrates 10 or 20 (honestly,I can't tell the difference between the colors on the card)

Tap, after Prime and about an hour sitting:
- Temp 80f
- PH 8.0
- Ammonia .25
- Nitrites .25
- Nitrates >5 but <10 (let's call it 10)

Not sure the water out of my tap is worth using considering it will do nothing to lower the nitrites. I know I'm not supposed to use RO/DI water so what other options do I have? In this instance should I grab a bottle of mineral additives and use RO/DI? Should I mix 50/50 RO/DI and tap? Mix tap and spring water? Should I just dose the tank with Prime and allow nature to take it's course and use the tap water to bring nitrates down tomorrow?

 

[mudraker]

What kind of test kit are you using?

Your tap water readings are not the best there.

 

[blert]

API Master Test Kit.

 

[librarygirl]

How long has the tank been established? I'm assuming there are fish in it? If you tossed all of your filter media you're going to go into a mini-cycle (or not so mini-cycle). What were your tank parameters before you changed the media? Nitrites are showing rather quickly. What water do you normally use for pwc?

What dechlorinator are you using? If you can get Prime, it'll help detoxify the ammonia and nitrite until the cycle catches up and then those will be converted by the bacteria rather quickly. Just be ready to test the water daily and do water changes as needed; with nitrite at .25 and nitrate at 20 if there are fish in the tank they are going to need a pwc very soon.

 

[blert]

How long has the tank been established? I'm assuming there are fish in it? If you tossed all of your filter media you're going to go into a mini-cycle (or not so mini-cycle). What were your tank parameters before you changed the media? Nitrites are showing rather quickly. What water do you normally use for pwc?

What dechlorinator are you using? If you can get Prime, it'll help detoxify the ammonia and nitrite until the cycle catches up and then those will be converted by the bacteria rather quickly. Just be ready to test the water daily and do water changes as needed; with nitrite at .25 and nitrate at 20 if there are fish in the tank they are going to need a pwc very soon.

Tank has been established for a Few weeks now.
Yes, there are fish (see profile for list).
Did not toss all filter media, just the carbon media. Using a Penguin 200, it has an extra slot where I keep a filter pad plus it has the bio-wheel thing.
Parameters were at 6.6,0,0,10-20 before media change.
Have always just used my tap water for changes.
Using Prime.
I've been adding fish over the past couple of weeks so I've been testing my water every day anyway.

Edit:
It getting late so I'll just dose with prime for tonight, let the new water sit open in the garage and retest tomorrow after work to see if things are looking up.

 

[librarygirl]

Hm. established for a few weeks? Did you cycle the tank first or did you set up the tank and add fish? The tank may not be fully cycled yet and the nitrite reading above confirms this. Water changes with Prime should help combat anything in your tap water until the cycle establishes enough to get rid of those ammonia and nitrites on its own. You could do half spring water and half tap water (not distilled, spring; make sure it's pure spring water with minerals; Nestle Pure Life, Poland Spring, Deer Park, are all good). If you do this though you'll want to switch it over slowly so as not to shock the fish. I'd ask around a bit more to make sure this is needed first though.

 

[Rplacke]

water sources

I actually suggest not using spring water. I don't know what fish you have or plan to have in the tank but the minerals in the spring water can be considered harmful to delicate fish. What I recomend doing is just taking two gallon jugs and cleaning them out with water really well. They can be old milk or emptied spring water jugs. Just fill them up and let them sit for two days to let the chlorine and such evaporate out. The water will be perfectly fine to be put into your tank after the two days. I got this tip from my girlfriends father who owns a very successful fish store and I have never had any issues with water quality.

 

[Rplacke]

Double post from phone lag. :/

 

[librarygirl]

^^ Probably a better idea than the spring water. And Prime should help detoxify any ammonium/nitrite in your tap water until the cycle can take care of it on its own.

 

[blert]

Cycled tank (fish in unfortunantly) with copious amounts of seeded material from old ten gallon (all gravel, decor and filter media). Daily water tests were all looking real good for the past couple weeks, after a few weeks of daily PWCs. I've no problem tending to a mini-cycle (or re-establish as the case may be) as I've been testing daily anyway just to keep an eye on it. I'll talk to my LFS guy today after I run another round of tests on the tank after work. He'll probably want to sell me some RO/DI water though. If I recall correctly he adds minerals back into the water when he sells it though.

 

[blert]

Ok. Tank is now:
Temp 80f
PH 6.4
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 10-20

Just needed a day to catch back up. Still not sure about using my tap water as it's not going to lower the nitrates by too much. I'm going to check my new water that has been sitting for almost a day after I put my little girl down for a nap.

 

[eco23]

IMO, the tap water is perfectly acceptable to use. Any trace amounts of ammonia and no2 should be converted very quickly by your bio-filter, and although ideally you like 0 nitAtes in the tap...5-10ppm isn't remotely close to being a dangerous level. I wouldn't hesitate to use it.

 

[Rplacke]

Yeah you should be fine. Just make sure you let it sit so no chlorine is left in the tap water but evaporated out.

 

[eco23]

There's really no need to let water sit out. That's a method from back in the day when the municipalities used chlorine instead of chloramine (which does not evaporate out of water). Just use a quality dechlorinator and you can add water immediately to the tank. Since you do have a small degree of ammonia and nitrIte...using a dechlorinator which also detoxifies ammo and no2 like Seachem Prime or Amquel would also be a smart move.

 

[blert]

Ok. Thanks folks. The tank bounced back nicely so I'll just continue to use my tap water. Gonna be a long time before I change any filter media again anyway.

 

[blert]

Ok, just for the heck of it I tested the water I prepped yesterday to see if sitting for 24 hours would have an effect on it. Well, it did. Not in a good way though. Somehow the nitrites have doubled to over .5 (not quite 1) while everything else stayed the same. No clue as to why something like this would happen. So this batch is going down the drain as I'm not dumping that much nitrite onto my fish. I guess the moral of this story is the old school way of prepping water is not such a good idea. I will never let my change water sit for more than a couple hours to get to temp.

 

[eco23]

As long as you have a fully cycled tank and are using a quality water conditioner like Seachem Prime which temporarily detoxifies ammonia and nitrIte...it's a non issue. I have ~.5ppm of ammonia in my tap water and if I do a large pwc I can see small traces of ammonia from the fresh tap water. Within a couple hours it is totally gone as the bacteria converts it quickly. Using Prime will make it even more of a moot point since for that small window that ammo and no2 are in the tank it is non-toxic anyway.

 

[Rplacke]

Hmm that's odd. My nitrates are always at an acceptable number after sitting. But yes, Eco is 100% right.

 

[blert]

Yup, I understand that. Still, I'm a stickler for perfection. I would love to find a cheap water supply at 0,0,0 but wouldn't we all. Still, this batch is going down the drain and since my tank has rebounded nicely from the media change I'm going to wait until tomorrow to make a fresh batch and get on a weekly WC schedule on my day off.