I've been wondering why mhy Nitrates are frequently above 100ppm so I tested my tap water last night and it tested between 40-80ppm. Now I'm trying to figure out the simplest most cost effective way to lower or remove the nitrates without setting up a reverse osmosis filter or drilling into my water lines. I only have a 125 and a 40 gallon. Any suggestions?
Nitrates in my tap water
- Thread starter strollo22
- Start date
I just checked the NYC water Dept web site, and in their water quality report for 2011, Nitrates were less than 1ppm. If you get their water, I have a feeling you're home test is is flawed.
Unless you are on a private well under the influence of farm runoff.
Unless you are on a private well under the influence of farm runoff.
I live on Long Island so I'm about 45 minutes from the city so I doubt I'm on there water supply. I also checked spring water and it barely registered any nitrates. I use an API master test kit.
The Nassau county water dept web site which may be yours, shows a Max detect of under 5ppm, and a low of under 1ppm.
The US EPA has set a Max Contaminant level for Nitrate of 10ppm in drinking water, if drinking water is 10ppm or over, children under 2 yrs of age could get methymoglobanemia (blue baby syndrome).
If your water was really over 10ppm, all hell would break loose in the press.
The US EPA has set a Max Contaminant level for Nitrate of 10ppm in drinking water, if drinking water is 10ppm or over, children under 2 yrs of age could get methymoglobanemia (blue baby syndrome).
If your water was really over 10ppm, all hell would break loose in the press.
I just checked the suffolk county water authority for my distribution and it said nitrate tests in 2011 had an average of 4.5ppm. Something isn't right. I'm going to have to double check again.
Eventually I would like to do that anyway, but I'd like to solve my tap water problem first. The tank isn't overstocked so my 50% WC every week should be sufficient but if I'm putting 60 PPM Nitrate tap into, it's kind of a moot point.
I worked as a chemist/microbiologist with a water supplier. We tested for ammonia and nitrate daily using the salicylate method on a spectrophotometer. This method is highly sensitive, and my guess is, that is what your water dept uses. These are professional water analysts. As an analyst, if nitrate or any other parameter were out of compliance, we would shut down production, and order a "don't drink" press release.
We daily tested known and unknown samples using DI and spiked water, our glasswear was acid washed and tested for contamination. Most aquarists don't have the equipment to do this kind of detailed testing, and often get erroneous results because of contamination, outdated reagents or just plain sloppy technique. In our lab, we would run multiple aliquots for each sample.
I can't tell you how many aquarists would call with results that didn't match ours.
I'm not trying to call out your ability, but..."each" ammonia/nitrate test we did had a cost of at least $100, and was analyzed on spectrometers that cost more than a car.
If the water quality report states a number, it is what it is, and you need to investigate somewhere else.
We daily tested known and unknown samples using DI and spiked water, our glasswear was acid washed and tested for contamination. Most aquarists don't have the equipment to do this kind of detailed testing, and often get erroneous results because of contamination, outdated reagents or just plain sloppy technique. In our lab, we would run multiple aliquots for each sample.
I can't tell you how many aquarists would call with results that didn't match ours.
I'm not trying to call out your ability, but..."each" ammonia/nitrate test we did had a cost of at least $100, and was analyzed on spectrometers that cost more than a car.
If the water quality report states a number, it is what it is, and you need to investigate somewhere else.
I appreciate the response, alot of good info. I'm trying to figure out what I can use to sterilize 1 of the vials to test again when I get home. I assume it is me at this point but I just want to make sure because I tested a few times, both tank and tap water last night and the tests were different from each source and consistent. I guess I'll update later. Any suggestions on how to "sterilize"?
We would acid wash vials, and rinse 3 times with DI water between uses. I would try seriously washing your vials, maybe in a dishwasher, and run a blank with DI water from the grocery store, and rinse 3 times with the DI in between running samples.