Tap water have high nitrate

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Hainguyen
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:55 pm

Tap water have high nitrate

Post by Hainguyen » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:52 am

I finally find out the problem why i have high nitrate. Last year i checked it was 0ppm on tap water. I check it today and it was 40ppm. Then i tested my drinking water it was 0. So i know it's not my test kit. Maybe in summer the tap water have high nitrate?

I'm thinking about during 100% full ro water. But i heard i need to add mineral and stuff in it which is a lot of stuff for me to do. I like to make it simple. When i first start this hobby i kill a lot of fish with tap water in 75g tank, so i used 100% ro water and they live. My LFS also use 100% Ro water for freshwater. My only concern is 240 gallons with Ro water is a lot of waste water, and also maintaining the ro system.

Anyone have high nitrate in your tap? how do you keep clown loach in high nitrate when you change water and the nitrate start at 40ppm. Last year when i test my aquarium water at 20ppm i change the water right away. I will never let it pass over 20.

Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Re: Tap water have high nitrate

Post by Diana » Sat Sep 05, 2015 8:14 pm

Live plants can remove a lot of the nitrogen from the water, in any of several forms.
You can use plants in any of several ways:
1) Set up a planted tank with no fish. Run the tap water into that, until the plants have removed most of the NO3. Then use this water for the fish.
2) Plant the main tank. What other fish are in there?
3) Add a sump or refugium, and grow emersed plants in that. House plants or aquatic plants that grow with their leaves out of the water and just the roots in the water. You can also grow house plants out of the main tank.

There are nitrate removing inserts for the filter. Prep the water ahead of time, perhaps running it into a garbage can (I use Rubbermaid Brute 44 gallons). Run a small filter on the garbage can with the nitrate removing media, and perhaps some activated carbon. You could then blend this water with some RO to further reduce the NO3, if needed.

Straight RO does not have the minerals the fish or plants need, and can kill them. Adding the minerals to the water is easy.
The wasted water is another issue. You could use it in the garden- the plants would like the NO3.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

Hainguyen
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:55 pm

Re: Tap water have high nitrate

Post by Hainguyen » Sat Sep 05, 2015 9:56 pm

Plants will never work with my clown loach. They will kill it all.

I just ordered SpectraPure® MaxCap RO/DI System w/ Automatic Flush from marine depot. Next week i will do 50% water change with just RO water. Then a week after that i will do 98% water change with RO water. I'm not going to add any mineral or anything. I thought the food i feed them will give them all the minerals they need. Lets hope my clown loach will be ok

Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Re: Tap water have high nitrate

Post by Diana » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:27 pm

It is not only the minerals for nutrition.

Fish live in balance with the minerals and salts in the water. (TDS is Total Dissolved Solids, and refers to all the salts etc. in the water)
Their cells maintain just the right levels of each element they need.
When the fish are in water that has less salt and minerals than their cells they need to keep pumping water out of their system. Their metabolism gets set at a certain level of TDS.
When the TDS of the water changes they need time to adapt to the new levels. They cannot tolerate too extreme a change such as the very large water changes you are planning.

To do this properly:
Measure the TDS, GH and KH of the water they are in.
Make a blend of tap + RO so that in any one change the TDS, GH and KH do not drop more than 10%.
It may take several weeks or a month to get them adapted to softer water, but it is safer.

If they are already in soft water, and the only reason for using RO is because of the NO3, then add minerals to the RO to match the water they are in. Then you can do as large a water change as you want.
Seachem Equilibrium is good for GH.
Baking soda or potassium bicarbonate is good for KH.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

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mikev
Posts: 3103
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: NY

Re: Tap water have high nitrate

Post by mikev » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:31 pm

Uggh..... I'm afraid you are not approaching this right.

Firstly, I'm all pro-R/O, my 200 tanks are running on an R/O system. But: you need to choose a right system, and Marineland --- assume this one is not an optimal choice. 90 GPD is very low, and DI is not needed for your application, the cost of replacing DI resin will be noticeable.
You would have been much better off with a dual R/O system and it would cost less too.

But the idea of using straight R/O water is not a good one. Minerals must be present in the water for fish' osmoregulation to work and while clowns like soft water, no living organism likes 0-hardness water. You will have problems. First, your 50% w/c with R/O will drop the hardness by a factor of two and may lead to osmotic shock (same effect as when beginners fail to acclimate fish). Second, additional water changes will keep on lowering hardness until such moment as the fish dies.

Remineralize.

And best learn about using R/O before using it!

Hainguyen
Posts: 31
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 11:55 pm

Re: Tap water have high nitrate

Post by Hainguyen » Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:58 pm

But how do i keep my other fish like arowana for a year with 100% ro water (I bought the water at LFS)? When i first start this hobby I never do water change. I never test my water back then either. All i do is top the water with RO water when the water is evaporated. I think my fish stay alive because of Anacharis plants. That plants floating on top of the tank and cover it completely. It's taking over the tank.

I will add minerals to my water when i switch to ro water change for safety. Will adding minerals affect my ph swing? and lets say when my ro water come out with 6.0 ph will it swing around when it go in my tank?

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mikev
Posts: 3103
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2006 6:06 pm
Location: NY

Re: Tap water have high nitrate

Post by mikev » Sun Sep 06, 2015 1:38 am

If I understand you correctly you never remove water from the arowana tank, only top it with R/O?

Then the mineral contents of the tank remains nearly constant... evaporation increases TDS (more mineral concentration), topping with R/O almost restores the previous hardness. This setup is still not good, waste accumulates and real water changes are needed once in a while even in a planted setup... but this is not as bad as changes with unmineralized R/O.

.....

On what to do now: most importantly please do not use R/O machine until you fully understand what you are doing !

.....

I suggest buy a TDS meter, very cheap now, just go to eBay and search for TDS-3 (this is a good model). Check tap and your tanks, this gives you a basepoint.
Will adding minerals affect my ph swing? and lets say when my ro water come out with 6.0 ph will it swing around when it go in my tank?
R/O is remineralized with either Kent's R/O Right (this is what I use) or Seachem's product. They are nearly the same thing. In both cases they create neutral water (pH=7.0) with almost no buffering .. this means that the pH may drop on its own and this is especially likely when you have large fish (waste producers).

Thus, one must also add an alkaline buffer ... this will result in alkaline but stable water. If acidic stable water is required it is a bit more complicated, read the instructions on R/O right if you want to get into this. With clown loaches alkaline water is fine, so I would not bother with this part.

as for the R/O machine you ordered: look here, specifically "$265.00 - OCEAN REEF MISER SIX STAGE RO/DI 150 GPD". A way better deal. And if you don't buy DI (which you don't need!) it is even cheaper. I use these models for about 9 years now...

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