Nitrates

[Kaiden]

Unfortunately our tap water contains at least 20ppm nitrates so I am having some difficulty keeping my nitrates below 40ppm. I've already complained to our water company but they insist that their water only has 10ppm nitrates at max. They were blaming the pipes in the house and refuse to do anything.

I wanted to ask for your advice on what's the best way for me to reduce my nitrates. My usual nitrate readings at the end of the week is somewhere between 40-60ppm. Sometimes I do two water changes but that doesn't seem to help much. So far, I've tried adding golden photos on my HOB but I didn't really notice any improvement. I just recently moved them in my tank as per someone's advice. It's only been a few days but so far I haven't seen any difference. On top of that, I've added amazon sword plants in my 125g. I've also read about Aquaripure and DIY Nitrate filters but I have yet to see any conclusive results whether it made an improvement or not.

As you can probably tell, I'm getting a little desperate. I'm anticipating my nitrates will only increase as my fish all grows to their full adult size. I'd greatly appreciate if anyone has any plan/idea on what would be the best way to help lower my nitrates.

Thanks!

 

[Inglorious]

I'm in the same boat as you, unfortunately I don't have any good advice for you yet other than keep up on the water changes. I too recently added pothos but it hasn't been long enough to see any difference. An algae scrubber would be another good option if you have room to set one up.

 

[CarvinSigX]

Doesn't prime neutralize nitrates? If it does, then just adjust your test results. If it shows 20 you would be at 0, but 30 would still be 30.

Sent from my Desire HD using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[frnchjeep]

You can do a plant sump. What's in the tank for fish? Are you able to set up a drip system? Do you pat for water? If you did a heavy drip and were able to keep the nitrates steady at 25-30, I'd say you're doing pretty good.

 

[BigCountry]

do you have a sump? algae scrubber you could try

20ppm nitrates is not bad for fish only dude. don't sweat it too much yet.

 

[Kaiden]

You can do a plant sump. What's in the tank for fish? Are you able to set up a drip system? Do you pat for water? If you did a heavy drip and were able to keep the nitrates steady at 25-30, I'd say you're doing pretty good.

Well, I used to have a 55 gallon with a single 9" Red Oscar in it. My usual nitrate readings were between 40-60ppm with at least 1-2 water change in a week. I've moved him to a 125g this weekend together with 3 SDs and 1 Featherfin catfish. When I checked the nitrates yesterday, it was already on 40ppm. It has only been maybe 3-4 days since the move. I used a completely new water for it.

The only filtration I have used so far are canisters and HOBs so I'm not exactly sure how to setup a plant sump or drip system. Can you please elaborate on how they work and what I need to set up one?

do you have a sump? algae scrubber you could try

20ppm nitrates is not bad for fish only dude. don't sweat it too much yet.

Unfortunately I don't have a sump nor have I ever used one. Is it hard to make my own DIY sump?

 

[Crazyfish88]

40-60ppm by end of week isn't bad at all if your tap's nitrates come out at 20ppm. Even my city's tap water's nitrates come out at 0ppm it is impossible for me to get my nitrate levels down to 0ppm even after a massive wc and filter clean. I do 80% wc on my big heavily stocked tank and the nitrates comes down to 10ppm but by end of week it raises back up to 40+ppm. Most fish species can tolerate much higher levels of nitrate then 40ppm. I wouldn't stress over it unless your seeing levels of 100+ppm.


Sent from my iPad using MonsterAquariaNetwork app

 

[duanes]

Your water company could not change the nitrate concentration if they wanted to. They do not process most of it into the water, it comes that way from the reservoir. And to provide water to a million people, they treat 100million gallons per day, to keeps human consumption safe. Could you imagine what it would cost to remove nitrates in 100 million gallons per day?
The reason water suppliers use chloramine (which raises nitrate a bit) is to prevent water borne disease and carcinogens in treated water. Your fish, and my fish, are not a concern compared to the health of millions of people.

 

[Kaiden]

I understand that. I didn't really insist that they do anything. All I asked was whether they can send someone to our house to test the water because I couldn't believe that we have 20ppm nitrates in the tap. The legal limit 'supposedly' for nitrates in the US is 10ppm. Their response to me was just less than desirable. First they blamed my test kit then they blamed the pipes in our house. They insisted that their water has one of the lowest nitrates reading in our county and supposedly it's around 7ppm. I knew it was a losing battle so I just let it go. I bought a new test kit just to make sure that my previous reading was accurate. I was just concerned because I've always been told that you'd want to keep you nitrates down to 40ppm or below, especially with Oscars since they are prone to HITH. But now I'm relieved to know that anything below 100ppm wouldn't be that harmful.

Thank you very much for all your inputs. You guys gave me some peace of mind.

 

[duanes]

Test kits (unless very expensive) are notoriously inaccurate. And your water provider has a staff of chemists that have state of the art equipment, and if as here in Milwaukee, test for it daily. And you are right, 10 ppm nitrate is the US standard.
If they were over the MCL, they'd be getting fined 10s of thousands of dollars per day, and your local news would be telling people not to drink the tap water. And babies, would be going to the hospital daily with methymoglobanemia.