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Over the years I've never really gotten into testing my water ammonia, nitrite or nitrate levels and I've for the most part kept all fish I've attempted successfully and without disease or fish losses. I've always done regular water changes and watched over my fish fairly carefully.

However, since joining this site, and reading and participating in numerous posts, I decided that well maybe I should begin testing my water quality on a regular basis. Now I'm not sure what to do with the results. My ammonia and nitrite levels are always at 0.0 ppm, however my nitrates were running high typically well above 40 ppm even after meticulous water changes, etc.

Well, I decided to test my water source and it is coming from the tap with nitrates at 20 ppm.

So my question is what to do to control this? Do I make more frequent and larger water changes? Should I attempt to get water from another source (this would be a big pain)? Is there something I can place in the filters to help? Or do I not worry about it, as my fish seem to be doing fine?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Wile yes most of us like to keep the nitrAtes levels below 20 ppm I don't think that a little over 40 is anything to be worried about. Even more so since you know what your doing and are on top of things with tank maintenance.

I believe that wanting to keep them low is good because in the even that we laps or mess something up. Our fish are not going to die on us. Fish can tolerate pretty high ppm of nitrates without ill effects.

Suggestions for you. Number one would be to get some hornwort to suck up the nitrAtes. Then the second suggestion would be to remove anything in the tank that can hold excess nutrients such as Under Gravel Filters.

I know you keep them and have done so with much success. I'm not coming down on them. If properly maintained they do a great job. But they do allow places that you just can not get to for (lack of a better word) crap to compile over time.

Really with todays modern HOB filters and canister filters. There really isn't any need for them.

The hornwort will help immensely.

i have tried many things to reduce nitrates in my tanks ,eg resins ,sponges that all supposedly reduce nitrate as at one time my nitrates were off the scale of the test strip 160ppm.The only surefire way is planting and water changes IMO as i have spent a fair bit of money on the other nitrate reducers and found they aren't that good.

Gibson SG you know you want one!!

i am having the same problem with my tap water, even after quite heavy planting. I thought long and hard about this and eventually gave in to buying RO water. This i use to mix with my tap supply which dilutes the amount of nitrates/phosphates that are present. I live in quite a rural area and am having problems with excess phosphate as a direct result of phosphate based fertilisers being used on the land which has ended up in the water table ]:| Don't know if this helps as you said an alternative water supply would be a pain

SW Pics: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dave_slade@btinternet.com/
Saltwater tank 125G-30G sump with caulerpa refugium.
yellow tang, atlantic anemone, 11 turbo snails, 4 nassarius snails, 12 various hermits, 3 cleaner shrimp, 2 occelaris clown, yellow

Ditto on going with plants. It often depends on which plants are in the tank.

Lower substrate level would mean less chance of a nitrAte buildup, but means less options when it comes to plants, as most prefer a few inches of substrate to root about in. In addition to floating hornwort, go with water wisteria. Two plants I've had cause trouble by reducing my nitrAtes too much.
If you cant have plants in the tank go with running a 10 or 20 as a holdign tank set up with plants for water for your waterchange. The plants would remove the tap waters nitrAtes and keep it @temp for waterchanges.

^_^

[hr width='40%'] "Ah, yes," said the toad. "You've got Nac Mac Feegles!

Thanks for the pointers all. I think I'll try the plant suggesions first and then if that doesn't work maybe I'll see about purchasing an RO unit - a little expensive, but probably worth it in the long run.


Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Hi,
Actually any of the floating plants absorb their
nutrients from the water column, and will lower your
nitrate readings. The beauty of the floating plants
is that they sit right on the surface and will exist
with as little as 1 watt/gallon lighting. However,
they do best in the 2+watt/gallon lighting.

If you have an open top tank, one of the absolute best
is the Hyacinth and it produces some really striking
flowers.

One of the drawbacks with the RO systems is expense.
The things cost alot to purchase.

Another is "waste." It takes many gallons of water that
run in one side and out the other and down the sewer
to produce one gallon of RO water.

Another expense, is the membrane. These are the heart
of the system. They come in different sizes (holes
measured in microns) and must be replaced at
regular intervals, even though you can back flush
them to clean them, they wear out regularly.

The plants, and good housekeeping, should do the trick
quite nicely, w/o the expense of an RO unit.

Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 04-Apr-2005 01:53

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