high nitrate

[star_fire]

Test the tap water regularly as it can fluctuate, I have heard that in times of heavy rain you get more "run off" from farmers fields that can add nitrates to the water, also at times of low water table they can alter the supply.

One point with the nitrate resin filters is not to try and flow too much water through as they can leak and blow out the seals, it needs to be a slow and steady flow.

When I run mine on the sump I just use a fluvial 4 to pump the water the through and that is about the max flow I would ever use.

its ground water movement actually that is the real problem from farmer's fields. theis movement moves more chemicals and pesticieds into the water table than most people care to know. or on a more scary level, the ground water can take animal feces with e. coli batceria presnt into the water table and into our water facilities. that can cause the outbreak of e. coli problems.

i remember one time i was asked as an intern by the water treatment facility to go out and watch a co-worker who had to investigate an e.coli outbreak in a home with 2 people who had contrated the problems. we tested all the faucets and pipes, registered e. coli only on the kitchen sink facuet nozzle. then we learned that she had been washing her baby in the sink where they wash disheds and clean vegetables nad such. bingo. the babies' feces had been carried over to the people via the water that had maybe splashed onto the faucet handle of the sink.

 

[kdrun76]

ok, there's so much chemistry math that is bull in this thread i don't know where to start. you do not take 40 ppm times the amount of water you think you changes and get a new number with the number taken from tap you think you filled.. you must take the readings before yes as ppm units but then adding them together by by percents is not correct. you taske a readings from the system after the two have mixed thoroughly.

And once they have mixed thoroughly, the reading will be exacty what the math predicted..... at least until the fish produce more waste that is converted into more nitrate.

My "chemistry math" is exactly right. We all understand where the nitrate is coming from, that isn't being disputed.

Can you run a spell check and grammar check through your post please? It's difficult to understand.

 

[star_fire]

no the ppm are actually the following units; grams of solute / mass of sample in grams times 10^6. when doing a dilution, which is what you are describing the formula is M1 * V1 = M2*V2 where M is the molarity of the solution of one sample times the volume of that sample equals the molarity of the second sample times the volume of that second sample. the molarity is moles/ liter, not parts per million (ppm). you need to convert them first, equate the two and then do the math.

you can get moles by using the density of nitrate (for argument's sake, its totally more complicated since there is more than just nitrate in that water so the density will be higher.) you also need liters, not grams of substance from the ppm. so the ppm must change, the volume must change too. also, gallons need to be translated into liters.

sorry about the spell checker thing by the way, i forget to proof read my posts.

 

[scalesandfins]

def get some plants in there
do you have a sump? if you do i would do a fresh water fuge. if you dont have one that might be somthin to look into. mine works great with water hiacynths for removing nitrates

 

[Just Toby]

Whilst that you are right that plants will consume the nitrate you are never going to do it with rays in the same tank as they turf up everything.

Moss balls will consume some nitrate and yes, in your average guppy tank nitrates will possibly be controlled, you are never going to do it unless you plumb in a massive extra plant tank to consume the vast amount of nitrate produced.


I have a sump which is 5x2.5x2.5 and I added watercress which is known for removing nitrates, it grew rapidly but did very little to keep up with the rays, the nitrate continued to grow.

IMO, water changes, ion exchange resins and if you are feeling rich then a nitrate reactor and measure it with a redox probe to maintain -170mv and feed by peri pump using vodka (look at the deltec site, it is very good)

 

[star_fire]

Whilst that you are right that plants will consume the nitrate you are never going to do it with rays in the same tank as they turf up everything.

Moss balls will consume some nitrate and yes, in your average guppy tank nitrates will possibly be controlled, you are never going to do it unless you plumb in a massive extra plant tank to consume the vast amount of nitrate produced.


I have a sump which is 5x2.5x2.5 and I added watercress which is known for removing nitrates, it grew rapidly but did very little to keep up with the rays, the nitrate continued to grow.

IMO, water changes, ion exchange resins and if you are feeling rich then a nitrate reactor and measure it with a redox probe to maintain -170mv and feed by peri pump using vodka (look at the deltec site, it is very good)

funny i guess. i have never had nitrate problems in my fish tanks. i have always kept live plants which i try to give proper lighting to so they will grow and look nice. i use amazon swords and anubias barteri. they seem to manage the nitrates really well. one huge amazon sword i had never even had any of that cloud stuff picked up the gravel vac near it. literally the roots consumed everything near them.

water cress is good. it tastes peppery and is edible (the rootswithout the flowers). and it is know to metabolize nitrates so what happened to you toby is odd. maybe because the watercress is from cold ponds and streams it does its job but in a wam system like yours maybe the plant' metabolism slows down (i am not a biologist!). duckweed is good i hear too.

 

[kdrun76]

no the ppm are actually the following units; grams of solute / mass of sample in grams times 10^6.

While you have skills at reading your text book, you lack the skill of interpreting your text book. Parts per million is NOT a specified unit. It can be mg/ Kg, or it can be ml/Kl.

In the case of nitrate the ppm is simply a measure of its concentration. There is no need to convert anything to anything else. It really is quite simple.

By multiplying the concentration for each percentage by what percentage of the volume has that concentration and adding the totals you will arrive at the concentration of the whole. That would be true if you measured in molarity, molality, or smurfs.

 

[star_fire]

it is dimensionless as many branches use ppm. thats in wikipedia... but in our present context, ppm is chemistry related. the equation you use is again is not correct as what is beoing described is the dilution of two substances together. you must take into account that they equate each other as you are mxing two volumes of water. that involves multiplation and division not just addint the two and saying thats it. i mean, lol, what part about that is so hard for you to comprehend.

i do this equation in the laboratory in a fish tank when figuring the concentrations of calcium, magnesium, etc. we don't add and just get answers lol. i may as well kiss myself out of the department if i said that!!!

 

[kdrun76]

If I needed to know how much nitrogen was in the water, then yes you would be correct. To measure concentration you don't need to anything more than what I am stating.

If I wanted to mix a solution with a specific concentration, again you would be correct. I am not doing that. There is no dissolving of one substance into another. I am simply mixing two solutions of known concentrations together and predicting what the final concentration will be. Dalton wrote laws about this that are even taught in High school chemistry class. His laws were specific to gases, but they apply here as well.

you must take into account that they equate each other as you are mxing two volumes of water.

I can't even guess what that means.

 

[star_fire]

dalton's law is an expresiion of the old geometrical axiom that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts. what i am trying to tell you is that it is not that simple. if one cuts up an appple right, we have pieces but still they came from one apple. but here we have apple and orange pieces that are not the same. thats why we use the dilution formula for mixng two different solutions together. yours would work if you took water from the sem tank, measured it and placed it back into the known quantity. but that is not the case.

that's all i am trying to say and yes, i am not a spell check fan and i do not proof read my posts. i am guilty there. and i do not explain things well, among my many faults.