Do certain water conditioners kill nitrates permanently???

According to the manufacturer, Amquel is only effective against ammonia, while Amquel Plus significantly detoxifies nitrites and nitrates as well. Both products work by binding the nitrogen compound into a larger, inert compound that is still available to the denitrifying bacteria, but is not toxic to fish.

If you're curious, Amquel is sodium hydroxymethanesulfonate. I could not find the formula for Amquel Plus on Kordon's site (it says that information is not being revealed until the patent process is complete, but that it is a similar compound to Amquel). Seachem's Prime works the same way as Amquel Plus; its composition according to the MSDS is a "proprietary aqueous solution of complexed hydrosulfite salts".

It eliminates them permanently if your tank has a established denitrifying bacteria or healthy plants to take up the bound nitrogen compounds. I don't know if the effect is permanent in a tank that doesn't have those features.

I may be wrong on this, so feel free to correct... but it is also my understanding that even the "bound up" ammonia and nitrogen products will register on test kits. So if you read ammonia in tap and treat with Amquel, it will no longer be "toxic" but will still register on your test kit.

Again, feel free to correct me if I am wrong!

where in Sac do you live? and do you know which water treatment plant supplies your neighborhood?

You should not be getting readings for ammonia or nitrate in any water originating in sacramento.

tcarswell;2680092; said:

Thanks for asking ! I live in winters. We get our water from lake Berryessa I am told. Any thoughts ? Thanks again

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Well I dont have any first hand experience with Berryessa, (unless camping there once counts), but it still seems odd that you would get readings for ammonia or nitrates from a mountain lake.
you should never get readings for either unless you are downstream from a wastewater treatment plant. Like i said, i am not that familiar with berryessa, but i dont think there are any such facilities at the lake.

if you are sure your tests are accurate, you may consider calling your local DWR branch or other authority and have them check it out.

Now that i think about it;
I was driving home from the bay a few weeks ago, stopped at the chevron off of I-80 at the pedrick rd exit and there were signs that the water there had recently been found to have high levels of nitrates and was unfit for human consumption. TheFishWrestler can back me up on this as he was with me that day.
if the water source is the same than you have a bigger problem than which water conditioner to use.