Hi Nitrates in my tap water.

[angiemike6]

I have been keeping fish for 30 years, and probably because they never get diseased or die (apart from normal life span) I have become lazy in testing my water. I have a Juwel Vision 180 tank and use the standard in tank filter. I recently did a test of my water and found the following Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 80 ppm, PH 7.6, GH 16 and KH 5. This high nitrate value concerned me. I then did test on the tap water - Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 40 ppm, PH 7.6, GH 16 and KH 9. The nitrates in my tap water is quite high and using tap water I am putting in to my tank nitrates at 40 ppm. Unlike the USA where the legal limit for water companies is I believe 10 ppm, the legal limit in the UK is 50 ppm. I only feed my fish 3 times a week.

I have spoken with my local aquatic centre who have suggested getting a RO kit so that I can use RO water and also put in minerals. However this is expensive.

I then went to another aquatic store who did not seem that keen on RO water, and suggested I use RP Nitrate Remover which is a resin you put in your filter.

It would be appreciated for any advice on this matter as to how to reduce my nitrates. I am keen on Seamchem products and use Prime, Stability and Pristine. Does anyone have any experience of Seachem Matrix which could be used in the filter instead of the RP Nitrate Remover.

 

[Mikeyboy123]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of using chemical filtration media in the tank filter. However, you could pre-filter your water-change water overnight before doing a water change. Appreciate that you are probably changing 60 litres or so, but you could get something like this https/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265798876255?hash=item3de2d8fc5f:g:Ly4AAOSwrf9i4QDI&amdata=enc:AQAIAAAA4BwA+/1mfggSzPnVv9w9+ZAe0d173YPKJ9o3EZlPjctcwHiXB3Mk9VW9jQslRw/TTCdNN/4sg89r5KtWJz8IqcO8PG9o+igDqryAVV2zOpnSLRBdPUD5Wa51Bt09WKEqvLNdj4Upat6I5ynlJB5ujMEuUyMdGoXcAZyxy16bfxQt7W7fR37SEbkPb0oCYuY0MfC7pgtcSGukEOemgWlysbF8m2S6j3jWKabdfpjMC3OFdEO6p0TwxNqbIc8TK9YA7hxVkK2f/Cn/Gm76PDYZYbnSVy6ijbm0XFOAvoHKBq9t|tkp:BFBMhrKd3bFi

Then just get a cheap and cheerful internal filter filled with a nitrate removing media to pre-filter the water in the bucket overnight.

 

[Byron]

Member @AbbeysDad fought very high nitrates in his source water and solved it. I am tagging him here for his input. He also has articles on this topic on his blog, here:

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Nitrates are detrimental to fish, they take longer and it depends upon the level and the species and the exposure time, but they do slowly weaken fish making other issues possible because of it. They should never be above 20ppm, and preferably as close to zero as possible. You are wise to be concerned.

 

[Essjay]

Unlike the USA where the legal limit for water companies is I believe 10 ppm, the legal limit in the UK is 50 ppm.

Just so we know about this comparison, the UK, like our test kits, measure nitrate as nitrate-NO3. US water providers measure nitrate as nitrate-N which is a different scale (like dH and ppm for hardness). That US 10 ppm nitrate-N upper limit converts to approx 45 ppm on the nitrate-NO3 scale, which is almost the same upper limit as the UK.

 

[angiemike6]

Just so we know about this comparison, the UK, like our test kits, measure nitrate as nitrate-NO3. US water providers measure nitrate as nitrate-N which is a different scale (like dH and ppm for hardness). That US 10 ppm nitrate-N upper limit converts to approx 45 ppm on the nitrate-NO3 scale, which is almost the same upper limit as the UK.

Thank you Essjay. I have learnt something new today. Either way I do have a nitrate problem with my tap water.

 

[Essjay]

Yes, 40 ppm in tap water is indeed too high for fish

 

[Wills]

I've previously had 40ppm in my tap and lived in ignorance but in our new house it sits around 25ppm out of the tap, in my small tanks (30-100 litres) I use terrestrial plants and Seachem Purigen to take the nitrates out of the water, in one tank I've achieved 0ppm after approx 24 hours of a water change but thats a 25% water change (hard to gauge because of amount of decor) so each time I do a water change in this tank I get 75% of the water at 0ppm and I (weirdly) add 25% at 25ppm which gives a rough level of 6-7ppm. In my other tank I've got higher nitrates but it is coming down, I've just added some more stems of lucky bamboo (Ikea sell rooted stems) so keeping an eye on that. One indicator I do use is duck weed - in the 0ppm tank the roots are long and irregular, before I started dealing with it in the other tank they were short and uniform, after a few months with more terrestrial plants and purigen in my filter I'm seeing more irregular growth in the duckweed roots and suspect the levels are coming down now.

One thing to note is that aquatic plants wont take up nitrate over what is produced in the tank, this is because when they get going they take up the ammonia in the nitrogen cycle not the nitrate so when people say aquatic plants help with nitrates this is the nitrates the nitrogen cycle would create where as if the plants feed on the ammonia, no nitrate is produced. Aquatic floating plants are a bit of a different story but not as effective as terrestrial plants like Pothos, Monsterra or Lucky Bamboo (there are many others too).

@Essjay really interesting on the US measurements! I always despair that the UK's tap water is so bad!

Wills

 

[Essjay]

Not all UK water is bad. Northumbrian Water gives my nitrate level as 2.544 mean with upper and lower readings as 3.92 and 1.68. That's on the nitrate-NO3 scale. My tester shows the colour as between 0 and 5 ppm And my hardness as 110.69 ppm/6.29 dH, with a KH of 50.85 ppm/2.8 dH.

I'm lucky

 

[Wills]

Not all UK water is bad. Northumbrian Water gives my nitrate level as 2.544 mean with upper and lower readings as 3.92 and 1.68. That's on the nitrate-NO3 scale. My tester shows the colour as between 0 and 5 ppm And my hardness as 110.69 ppm/6.29 dH, with a KH of 50.85 ppm/2.8 dH.

I'm lucky

I always find it interesting when certain areas have a lot of aquarium stores - often with some specialists like aquascaping, marine, cichlids etc vs other areas that have very few and no specialists. My guess is that the ones with lots of stores have water like yours and ones with very few are like mine because if you have good water and low to moderate hardness your average customer will have more success easier.

Wills

 

[seangee]

Then just get a cheap and cheerful internal filter filled with a nitrate removing media to pre-filter the water in the bucket overnight.

It doesn't work out that cheap as the media gets exhausted very quickly. Because of the way it works (ion exchange) you get no warning or gradual decline. One bucket will be 0ppm and the next will be straight back up to 40. Like @Wills I lived in ignorance for years. my tap water is 50ppm - right at the legal limit, and I tried most ways of reducing this before switching to RO. FWIW Matrix will do nothing to reduce it.

However it is worth noting that a 75% water change will immediately drop the nitrate in your tank to 50ppm - far from ideal but a lot better than 80ppm. Even with RO water I still change 75% every week. Now it is true that aquatic plants will not reduce nitrates, but they do stop them from being created. This is because if you have enough plants they will consume the ammonia produced by the fish before the bacteria can get to them so your nitrogen cycle simply does not happen (very simplified version ). In the tank in my signature I do not see detectable nitrate after a week (it also happens to be 180L). I also have nothing in my filter but sponge because I don't need it. So you could get your nitrate level to 40ppm and keep it there.

The fact that your KH has dropped from 9 to 5 (I'm assuming that's dKH) suggests that you are not currently changing enough water. This number should really stay stable over time. Not going to explain the chemistry but KH is the buffer that stops your tank from turning acidic. Biological processes would turn your tank acidic without this buffer, and that is why KH is reducing. At some point it could reach zero which would lead to a catastrophic pH crash.

probably because they never get diseased or die (apart from normal life span)

That's what I thought. Once I switched to RO normal lifespan moved from 18-24 months to 6-8 years on average. Do be aware that your water is on the hard side. If you have fish that need this you would need to re-mineralise if you switched to RO water. Others will have to advise here, I am a fishkeeper, not a chemist so not a fan of Seachem - and never add anything to my water besides minimal fertiliser and fish food.

 

[AlexT]

Not all UK water is bad. Northumbrian Water gives my nitrate level as 2.544 mean with upper and lower readings as 3.92 and 1.68. That's on the nitrate-NO3 scale. My tester shows the colour as between 0 and 5 ppm And my hardness as 110.69 ppm/6.29 dH, with a KH of 50.85 ppm/2.8 dH.

I'm lucky

How much is property in your area?

 

[Essjay]

A lot cheaper than down south