Nitrates in tap water whats actually clean?

[bonesb66]

Hi

i have been battling nitrates for what seems forever, i usually come up to 40 - 50 ppm before water change but when adding fresh water from the tap it already has 30ppm so i can never actually get it down to 10 - 20 ppm like id want it to, i have looked at HMA units and RO units but i cant seem to find clear cut infomation of what i need to add to make it safe for my cichla, my tank is 210 gallon 7 x 2 x 2 i do 2 water changes per week at about 30% Can anyone help me? what do all you do about this i cant be the only one with nitrates in the tap water?

 

[lipadj46]

Yeah that is a problem for many. Some people use the rechargeable nitrate adsorbing media or you could go big and try to make one of those deep sand bed reactors and try to let bacteria denitrify the water. A RO unit may be cheaper in the long run not sure.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

You should call up your water company. My tap water nitrate level is only about 5ppm.
30ppm sounds too much to me and something is definitely fishy.

Get an RO Unit. Oxygenate the RO water produced for at least 1 day to ensure that oxygen from the atmosphere is diffused into the water, it also helps in stabilising pH.

Then add Seachem Equlibrium and dissolve it until you get your ideal hardness.

 

[bonesb66]

You should call up your water company. My tap water nitrate level is only about 5ppm.
30ppm sounds too much to me and something is definitely fishy.

Get an RO Unit. Oxygenate the RO water produced for at least 1 day to ensure that oxygen from the atmosphere is diffused into the water, it also helps in stabilising pH.

Then add Seachem Equlibrium and dissolve it until you get your ideal hardness.

So is that all i would need to add Seachem Equlibrium ? what is this what does it put in the RO water? i also read that buffers can wear away easily and then you can have big PH swings is this product something that will last in the water?

 

[bonesb66]

i couldnt take all the worry of the nitrates so i decided to fill a bottle and head to the LFS to get them to test it, he brough me my results back and nitrate was 20ppm :S this is nowhere near what the reading i had at home so there must be something wrong with my kit. its a nutrifin mini master kit, anyone else had bad experience with it? he said their kit is replaced every few weeks and my water has sat for a good 10 - 12 minutes so the results will be very accurate. im just happy there is nothing wrong with my water but i cant keep going to the lfs to have it tested but if my own kit isnt reliable what am i ment to do?