Nitrate removal machines- ray safe/effective?

[JD7.62]

Whats your tap like?

As long as it has a good buffering capacity and you use a good de-chlor (Prime) that is all you need.

Like Colin said, the more fancy stuff you try to do the greater the chance of something happening. I thought of using R/O once but its NOT worth the risk for what little if any benefit it has.

 

[DB junkie]

As a wise man (DW) once said, most of these contraptions are designed to separate the hobbyist from his/her money.

Colin

That's funny stuff right there......

 

[abortedsoul]

Absolutely.. Nitrifying bacteria consumes the minerals and nutrients that make up your alkalinity.. over the long-term you will run into a crash. If your alkalinity is low, your pH will crash, and nitrifying bacteria dies when the pH gets too low..

Water changes are your best friend..

If you use things like R/O water you should find a good stabilizing supplement like "R/O Right" by Kent Marine ... hell I wouldnt hesitate to even put an african rift lake buffer in R/O water to supply some sort of nutrients. Also those vitamin/nutrient blocks they sell at the chain stores would probably help also.. better then using straight R/O water that is 'stripped' of its nutrient value

I have no intention of reducing the water changes I perform. I simply want to keep a more gentle environment for the rays, and nutrient supplements will probably help a ton with this! I will be checking this stuff out miles. As always, thanks a ton.

 

[abortedsoul]

I cannot stress this enough......when it comes to rays, stick to the basics.

Have a good filtration system, feed them a variety of good foods and do lots of water changes. If you try to get fancy, the odds of a screwup increase dramatically.

As a wise man (DW) once said, most of these contraptions are designed to separate the hobbyist from his/her money.

Colin

Thank you for your advice and information, Colin. I'm more a DIY type of guy at heart, anyways. It seems that it wouldn't provide much benefit (since the water changes would remove the nitrate anyways).

Thank you everyone for your help! I would say we are all very lucky that MFK is here; I absolutely love the stingray section!

 

[abortedsoul]

Whats your tap like?

I've found detectable traces of just about everything imaginable coming out of the faucet; Nitrates (~5 ppm), trace ammonia, chlorine, lead, copper, and the water is RIDICULOUSLY hard. Running 2 water softening pillows for my tank, constantly recharging them, I wasn't able to bring it down enough to where I was comfortable with it. Not to mention the TDS in my water is 400+, which just makes me nervous. I don't have a way to test for something like mercury or more exotic poisons like that, but I'd rather just do RO and be able to sleep at night knowing I'm not poisoning my family or my water column.

The worst part is that I used to drink that crap; I go for my aquarium's supply of RO water now. Miles did recommend some supplements, however. Is there any other dangers to RO water that supplements can't fix?

 

[DB junkie]

Ask a simple question to everyone on this site with Rays........

HOW many people use RO water with additives for rays?

You're reading too deep into this man...... Just take the advice you asked for.

 

[csx4236]

Ask a simple question to everyone on this site with Rays........

HOW many people use RO water with additives for rays?

You're reading too deep into this man...... Just take the advice you asked for.

None

 

[DB junkie]

None

Heard it there first. If anyone knows it's this guy.

No RO. No Nitrate reducers. Just waterchanges with tap water.......

Just make sure you have adequate filtration and O2. Keep up on the waterchanges (Or Drip) and you'll have no troubles. I would say it's not rocket science...... Just dedication.

 

[skynoch]

I've found detectable traces of just about everything imaginable coming out of the faucet; Nitrates (~5 ppm), trace ammonia, chlorine, lead, copper, and the water is RIDICULOUSLY hard. Running 2 water softening pillows for my tank, constantly recharging them, I wasn't able to bring it down enough to where I was comfortable with it. Not to mention the TDS in my water is 400+, which just makes me nervous. I don't have a way to test for something like mercury or more exotic poisons like that, but I'd rather just do RO and be able to sleep at night knowing I'm not poisoning my family or my water column.

The worst part is that I used to drink that crap; I go for my aquarium's supply of RO water now. Miles did recommend some supplements, however. Is there any other dangers to RO water that supplements can't fix?

Don't worry about the hardness of the water my tds readings are double what yours are and my ph is about 8.6. I'm keeping flowers,tigers,leos,pearls,henlie and motoros and no problem with any of them.
If your worried about everything else in your water you could mix your water with r/o at about 50/50 and not worry about any addatives. The problem is once your rays get larger you will have to change out your water alot and that means a really good r/o system and some big containers for premixing.

 

[Marius]

I cannot stress this enough......when it comes to rays, stick to the basics.

Have a good filtration system, feed them a variety of good foods and do lots of water changes. If you try to get fancy, the odds of a screwup increase dramatically.

As a wise man (DW) once said, most of these contraptions are designed to separate the hobbyist from his/her money.

Colin

So true, with most of the freshwater inhabitants, as long as the parameters are constant and there are no dangerous fluctuations ...everything's fine.

Heard it there first. If anyone knows it's this guy.

No RO. No Nitrate reducers. Just waterchanges with tap water.......

Just make sure you have adequate filtration and O2. Keep up on the waterchanges (Or Drip) and you'll have no troubles. I would say it's not rocket science...... Just dedication.

...what's the old saying "Wet t-shirt contest"?!? And to my knowledge, that doesn't come from reading the water parameters, or relying on gadgets

Water changes are the most important for overall health and growth.