Water Quality

[tarheel96]

I have an ion exchange nitrate filter hooked up to the house never knew they were made smaller or that the resin coukd be used on a smaller scale.

There's a company that makes them for aquariums:

http://activesystemsmalta.com/portfolio/aquarium-nitrate-ion-exchange/

Of course, I'd rather make it myself. Those prices are high. The resin needs to be a 'nitrate-selective anion exchange resin' like the one below.

Purolite A520E Nitrate Select Resin 1/2 cubic foot - $209
Purolite A520E is a strong base anion exchange resin supplied in the chloride form as moist, tough, uniform spherical beads. It is especially useful in nitrate removal applications due to its ability to remove nitrates preferentially in the presence of sulfates and other divalent ions. The use of Purolite A4050 eliminates nitrate dumping and retains a greater degree of its operating capacity in the presence of high levels of sulfates. (3-4 GPM SFR per cu/ft)
https://www.ohiopurewater.com/product-detail/?products_id=22370

This site explains the difference between nitrate-selective anion exchange and regular anion exchange resins.
http://www.watertechonline.com/removing-nitrates-with-ion-exchange/

 

[jaws7777]

There's a company that makes them for aquariums:

http://activesystemsmalta.com/portfolio/aquarium-nitrate-ion-exchange/

Of course, I'd rather make it myself. Those prices are high. The resin needs to be a 'nitrate-selective anion exchange resin' like the one below.

Purolite A520E Nitrate Select Resin 1/2 cubic foot - $209
Purolite A520E is a strong base anion exchange resin supplied in the chloride form as moist, tough, uniform spherical beads. It is especially useful in nitrate removal applications due to its ability to remove nitrates preferentially in the presence of sulfates and other divalent ions. The use of Purolite A4050 eliminates nitrate dumping and retains a greater degree of its operating capacity in the presence of high levels of sulfates. (3-4 GPM SFR per cu/ft)
https://www.ohiopurewater.com/product-detail/?products_id=22370

This site explains the difference between nitrate-selective anion exchange and regular anion exchange resins.
http://www.watertechonline.com/removing-nitrates-with-ion-exchange/

Thx mike im gonna look into this option

 

[jaws7777]

justarn put this together. I thought it was worth sharing with the crew. Shows how effective large fin level type water changes are.


Nitrate creep:
Weekly nitrates are estimated at 10ppm with 5ppm tap water.
At 50% pw
Week 1 - 15ppm
Week 2 - minus 50%water leaving 7.5ppm +10ppm + (50% volume at 5ppm is) 2.5ppm end of week= 20ppm
Week 3 as above 10ppm + 12.5ppm(Inc fresh water ppm)
= 22.5ppm
Week 4 - 23.75ppm
Week 5 - 24ishppm
Starts leveling out.

If you were heavily at 40ppm pw it's scary if you miss a few weeks
Not including tap nitrates.
Week1 40ppm
Week2 60ppm
Week3 70ppm
Week4 75ppm
Week5 77ppm
Leveling out mmm... 80ppm permanent a good idea? Then miss weeks as we all do occasionally...
Miss 1 week wc 117ppm
Week 7 97ppm
Miss 2 week 177ppm
Week 9 130ppm
Week 10 105ppm
Week 12 92ppm
Very slow to come down to creep level

At 75%
Week1 40ppm
2 - 50ppm
3 - 52.5ppm
4 - 53 ppm
Leveling just +27% above weekly ppm...
Miss a week 93ppm
6 - 63 ppm
7 - 56 pmm
Comes back in check much quicker when a week is missed.

All this without accounting for dirtysubstrate and filters!!!
Fw tanks need 75% pw of preferably fin level if you plan on missing one occasionally.

 

[Slayer2533]

justarn put this together. I thought it was worth sharing with the crew. Shows how effective large fin level type water changes are.


Nitrate creep:
Weekly nitrates are estimated at 10ppm with 5ppm tap water.
At 50% pw
Week 1 - 15ppm
Week 2 - minus 50%water leaving 7.5ppm +10ppm + (50% volume at 5ppm is) 2.5ppm end of week= 20ppm
Week 3 as above 10ppm + 12.5ppm(Inc fresh water ppm)
= 22.5ppm
Week 4 - 23.75ppm
Week 5 - 24ishppm
Starts leveling out.

If you were heavily at 40ppm pw it's scary if you miss a few weeks
Not including tap nitrates.
Week1 40ppm
Week2 60ppm
Week3 70ppm
Week4 75ppm
Week5 77ppm
Leveling out mmm... 80ppm permanent a good idea? Then miss weeks as we all do occasionally...
Miss 1 week wc 117ppm
Week 7 97ppm
Miss 2 week 177ppm
Week 9 130ppm
Week 10 105ppm
Week 12 92ppm
Very slow to come down to creep level

At 75%
Week1 40ppm
2 - 50ppm
3 - 52.5ppm
4 - 53 ppm
Leveling just +27% above weekly ppm...
Miss a week 93ppm
6 - 63 ppm
7 - 56 pmm
Comes back in check much quicker when a week is missed.

All this without accounting for dirtysubstrate and filters!!!
Fw tanks need 75% pw of preferably fin level if you plan on missing one occasionally.

Interesting stuff! I am hoping my current schedule of two fin level water changes per week is sufficient on my 600 litre tank. So far seems to be ok but I will need to monitor the levels when my stock grows as I am definitely overstocked once my cichlids put on some size.

 

[jaws7777]

Interesting stuff! I am hoping my current schedule of two fin level water changes per week is sufficient on my 600 litre tank. So far seems to be ok but I will need to monitor the levels when my stock grows as I am definitely overstocked once my cichlids put on some size.

Just regularly test the water and adjust. Im doing the same 2x finlevel per week...ugh not fun lol

 

[twentyleagues]

So right now I have a few pothos in my 75. It's overstocked and the pothos started really bushing out recently. I've been doing 1 almost fin level water change a week a little more then half volume. My nitrates on tuesday wc day have been 40ppm might be closer to 20 but I'm calling it 40. That's before wc. After its about 10 ppm. Before the pothos really bushed out and i was doing 2 smaller wc 20% it was 80ish. I think the pothos has helped alot. Not sure the ratio of pothos plants to water volume but I have 5 plants in my sump. I'd guess 90 ish gallons all together.

 

[Slayer2533]

Just regularly test the water and adjust. Im doing the same 2x finlevel per week...ugh not fun lol

True its definitely not fun but utilizing hoses definitely makes the job alot easier. Also I kinda like it after its done I feel good about helping keep my buddies happy and healthy. Except in Winter which it is now here in Australia and 12 inch Black Ghost Knife fish really can't handle the drastic temperature changes for a fin level WC. I usually have to remove him to another tank until his warms back up lol. Poly's and Cichlid's seem to give no ****s about the temp changes. Also I don't have a sump just two fat canister filters. Those Fluval FX6 canisters really are awesome. May replace my Nautilus 2700 with a second Fluval at some point.

 

[jaws7777]

Troy1015

 

[jaws7777]

Quick update on this little project. Tho im not ready to say mine has been a success we do know that kno4te has success with his filter. This week i was just about ready to scrap the filter as i've seen no reduction in nitrates. But then something happened.

My goal was to reduce water changes to 1 per week from 2 per week. Inbetween wc my nitrates hit 40 to 60 ppm. This past Wednesday i was due for a wc and as per the nites ive been keeping since i started this godforsaken project nitrares should have been in the "red" as of today they are still in the orange where in previous weeks by now they woukd easily be between 80 and 160ppm.

If you look at the pics (hard to tell with the colors being so close) nitrates may wven be rising and falling which may correspond to feeding days.



Grinch and others posted a wealth of info here.

https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/anaerobic-bacteria.691210/

Zilch at this point im almost ready to say plausible.

 

[Zilch]

Thanks for keeping up this thread, I've been lurking looking at progress here and in your thread in the general forums Very interesting stuff!