High nitrates from tap

[markstrimaran]

I have the same issue with my water. for those of you who use R.O. how do you re-mineralize your water again with out with useing seachem trace/replenish, keeping the cost down. would crushed corral do the trick if it sits in the water for a week between water changes?

Our tap water is diluted with R O water at the county. I add one TBS of baking stuff, arm and hammer. Per 55 gallons, to buffer the PH.

I use nitrates to indicate, water changes, but if my tap water was 100 ppm, I would simply keep it between 110 ppm and 140ppm with regular water changes.

My tap water is about 12ppm. My nitrates are between 15ppm and 30ppm.

The easiest way is to dilute the sample with distilled water to a level. That keeps your test results in the orange, as it able to be interpreted.

At 40 ppm the test is red, at 60 ppm the test is red. If you add 50% distilled water to the 5ml test bottle. It will bring the color back into the orange, just x2 the results.

 

[Coryloach]

The nitrate levels in tanks are generally used as a water quality indicator because they are one of the few things we test for. Nitrates are the result of heavy nitrification, meaning ammonia to nitrite to nitrate conversion. There are a lot of microorganisms that take part in this process and the resultant outcome is not just nitrates but a lot of other toxins and organic build up, and extreme amounts of oxygen used up. These are the real issues. For example oxygen levels are absolutely vital to a fish tank but oxygen is extremely non-soluble in tanks and is the number one drive for all live in aquaria. A badly run, overstocked tank, high in nitrates is definitely oxygen deficient, huge problem for the fish leading to diseases and death.

Problem is, we can only test for nitrates and a couple of other things, in a tank hence we go by the nitrate test reading for the most part as an indicator of how things are going on . If nitrates are rising too fast, bioload is too much, we get alerted...Though the actual level of nitrate is not the actual issue......

Nitrates on their own, as per a lot of scientific research, need to be in the thousands to affect fish, if not a result of heavy nitrification in the tank itself.

So nitrate coming from tap water, has little effect on your fish's health. I'd just do water changes as usual and not worry about nitrates. Get a TDS meter and worry about TDS rise instead, keep it in line with tap water. It is the change in readings thats detrimental, not the source reading of nitrates of your tap water. But one can't reliably test of change in nitrates, where a TDS meter will give quite a reliable guidance as it measures conductivity. Any rise in any minerals, including nitrates will be detected by a TDS meter.

And to add to the above, many of you will disagree with what I am saying. High nitrates not being an issue is too much of an old tale for some folks to dismiss lightly. But if you think outside the box, why is it that we worry about high nitrates? Have you ever thought about the amount of ammonia that was processed in that same tank, and is being processed 24/7, in order to get high reading for nitrates? There is ammonia in a tank all the time......The level of ammonia being processed in a tank is what leads to high nitrates. One is only lucky if they battle high nitrates and levels of ammonia don't spike. Even if they spike, how is one to detect unless they test every hour every day? Then go blame high nitrates for your fish's diseases. All those processes use precious oxygen and release harmful toxins, including hydrogen sulphate, methane, organics, etc...Majority of organisms in a fish tank, and fish oxygen reliant. None release oxygen, apart from plants and surface agitation.

 

[markstrimaran]

Nitrate in a saltwater reef tank is deadly to invertebrates at 4ppm. So I think having low nitrates stem from that.

Theirs is hole in head syndrome in Oscars. "From high nitrates". But then 1500 ppm is probably due to only adding more water, due to evaporation.

 

[Rocksor]

If I understand your question properly, then I think it's basically that some people use the atomic mass for nitrates (as a molecule) to measure ppm, while others use just the atomic mass (nitrate-nitrogen) of just the nitrogen component of nitrate.

10 ppm of nitrate-nitrogen is basically the same as 45 ppm of nitrates since nitrogen is 22.6% of the mass of nitrates.

Thanks, i knew i read it somewhere that there was a difference but wasn't sure. This would explain why the EU has their nitrate limit set to 50 ppm.

 

[Coryloach]

Theirs is hole in head syndrome in Oscars. "From high nitrates". But then 1500 ppm is probably due to only adding more water, due to evaporation.

The issue here, as you already mentioned with different words, pollution from waste created in the aquarium itself.

 

[markstrimaran]

Here this might change things.

View attachment Screenshot_20180105-211724.png

 

[fishblahblah]

Just to update....
I became pretty suspicious of the api test results after collecting water samples from my Mom’s house in a different part of the city and from a Burger King fountain soda machine in a completely different county. I got them home, tested, and they each matched each other and the other samples from my tap and fish tanks.
I had already decided to not stress over the results anyway and continue my water change schedule as long as my fish seemed happy and healthy. Curiosity got the best of me and i ordered an Azoo brand nitrate kit and a Seachem to compare results. I again tested tap, each fish tank, and the control sample that came with the Seachem kit. With both kits my results were the same. Tap is 10 ppm, heavily planted shrimp tank (10 gallon) is under 10ppm(I’m assuming the plants are using up the nitrates in the tap water), 75 gallon is 10ppm, and 180 is 20ppm.
I can’t return the api kit so I’ve started having some fun using the other tests that are included.

 

[squint]

Twenty ppm is nothing to worry about unless you have salmon/trout eggs/fry. There was a study done recently that found that 30 days at 2,200 mg/L had no effect on tilapia and no fatalities occurred until twice that.

 

[fishblahblah]

Yea I’m fine with those results and they make more sense than the readings I was getting from the api test. I’m playing around with the idea of a new breeding project so I wanted to make sure I had my water change schedule and readings where they should be.