tap water has nitrates?

[swk]

i have two tanks. ill pick the one with the most problem of nitrates
80 gals of water
2- eheim 2217
one 7" turtle
running one filter for 2 yrs the other 9 months
fed out of tank
change 50 gals every two weeks.
tank parameters. everything zero except nitrates. they go up to 80 ppm in two weeks

Yep...turtles are pretty messy. Don't know much about them but I know they crap alot. You could try changing say, 75% once a week. I don't really know if 80ppm nitrates are gonna adversely affect your turtle though. Maybe someone with more experience in that area will chime in. I'd kinda be pulling advice outta my ass for turtle care!

 

[sevenoaks]

thanks. but as water goes (for fish , turtles etc) are you saying that some nitrates in my tap water is normal?
what do you all do when changing water if you have nitrates in the tap/. i feel like im not even improving the water with a change

 

[zennzzo]

12PpM of NitrAtes are going to the best you can get, with a 100% w/c, seeings how you have a tap of 12PpM NitrAte

20-40 PpM is what I shoot for or actually anything <40 PpM.

You are zeroed on the other two parameters and that is what we want to see.

For as long as I remember <40PpM NitrAtes are not going to cause any adverse problems for your fish/turtles.

You can lower them (NitrAtes) on average, by doing more frequent w/c's.
Try weekly 33%, thats what I do and it's working to get <40 PpM

Plants will also remove NitrAtes as mentioned above...

 

[T1KARMANN]

big fuss over nothing

nitrates of 80 after 2 weeks is nothing and wont harm most fish

if you are concerned about it do 1 water change per week

if the water you are taking out has nitrates of 80 and the water you are putting in only 12 then you do the math which is better 80 or 12

if you are trying to get nitrates of 0 it will never happen with a turtle

 

[sevenoaks]

thanks as i am new to all this water parameter stuff and let me tell you ive been going crazy. i hear all about the toxic water and dead animals because of it and i panic as i cant make any mistakes. when you are new, you dont know any better. i guess ill keep adding my tap water with 'prime' to kill any chlorine and be done with it. i hate to break out the old R/O unit because it takes forever to get any water out.

 

[sevenoaks]

do i really need to add prime with chlorine at .1? i really dont want to add any chemicals to the water. ive read some keepers dont even worry about chlorine killing their beneficial bac in the filter and rinse with media with tap water. if so, then why would i add prime to my water?

 

[tcarswell]

welcome to the club My source water has 20-30 ppm nitrates. Its a PITA but oh well I just do bigger and more frequent water changes.

 

[T1KARMANN]

prime is a good safe measure

i just dose the whole tank with prime then fill the tank directly from the tap

 

[Ade]

By doing more frequent wc's, u won't allow the nitrates to accumulate to 80 ppm in the 2 week period.. Simple.

 

[TinyD]

The EPA maximum allowable contaminant (MCL) level for nitrate in drinking water is 40ppm. That means municipal water could have up to 40 ppm of nitrate and still be considered in compliance. Most municipalities are well under that limit. Private wells could be higher. Areas near major agricultural lands could be influenced by nitrate based fertilizers which eventually leach down into the water supplies.