Filtration

[LuckyLoach]

I have a 55 gallon Mbuna tank. I have 20 fish right now. It's pretty heavily stocked, but the "overcrowding" has kept aggression to a minimum. The tank is planted with Amazon Swords and Java Ferns. Many hinding places so the territorial fish have there own area. I'm running an Emperor 400 Power Filter (400 gph), and a Fluval 304 Canister Filter (260 gph). I have had the tank for 6 months now, the fish are thieving, and I have never had a bit of trouble with ammonia or nitrites.

Here is the problem I am having. In our area, tap water will KILL fish no matter what you put in it to remove chlorine. Even the LFS around here tell you to use spring water. The spring water seems to be high in nitrates to begin with. Plus with the tanking being well stocked, the nitrates rise up fast. I haven’t lost any fish, and they don’t seem to be effected, but it’s still a volatile situation. Then there are weeks like this week (I live in East Texas) where I could not find spring water anywhere thanks to the hurricane. I had about 4 bottles at the house, so I changed out 4 gallons, and fish are fine.

I know regular water changes are the best thing, but considering that the spring water is high to begin with, is there any sort of additional filtration that I could be doing. If I were to add another filter, what would be the best to go with?

Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions.

 

[freddyk]

There are filter medias sold that will absorb nitrates, though usually a large volume filter like a canister is recommended to use it with. This might be your only solution.

Do you treat with minerals and salts or is the bottled water really suitable for the fish?

 

[LuckyLoach]

Thanks for the reply Freddy K. I do have to treat the water for PH. I use Seachem Malawi Buffer, and it does the job nicely. Otherwise the PH would be under 7.0 (6.4-6.8). The bottle water would not be what I would consider diserable or really suitable, but it's the only choice I have with the way the area tap water is. The local pet shops don't even know what is the fatal agent is in the tap water, but we all know its there. I've been researching the Eheim Pro II canister filters. I'm thinking I may add one of those along with some of the nitrate absorbing media.

Like I mentioned before, it hasn't had a negative effect on the fish yet, but I don't like the fact that I don't have any "buffer" room. It's something that could get out of hand quickly.

 

[dutoits]

Get one of these new filters for drinking water to remove the heavy metals from your tap water.

Fill up some bukkets, if you let the water stand for +-1 hour all the chlorine will evaporate.

Nitrates is the result of the nitrite being broken down by the bacteria if you do 20% water change / week you should not have any algae problem.

I never check for nitrates because you will have it if your system is working

If you get a nitrite spike add 1/2 oz of salt to your tank / gl and change 20% of the water.

if your PH drops you can add bicarbsoda 1 teaspoon for every gl of water.

 

[jfrancho]

Do you know what it is about the tap water that is so deadly?

 

[LuckyLoach]

No one has been able to put their finger on it yet. I tried to set up a tank twice, about 10 years ago, used the Jungle Labs water treatment along with several other brands, and could not keep a fish alive for anything.

We've got two guys that work the aquarium section at Wal-Mart in our town, who both keep fish. They've both said that they have to do the same thing.

When setting up my first tank recently, I asked the fish guy at Petsmart. He gave me the same advice and told me that's what he recommends to all of his customers.

And believe me, if I could find anyway to use the tap water, I sure would. You should see the looks I get when I'm pushing a cart with 24 gallons of bottled water out of the Grocery!! All I know is I'm really attached to the fish now, and don't want to experiment with the tap water now that they're all doing so well. I would just feel a lot better if I could get the nitrates down.

I guess my main question now is; "Would adding more filtration will help the nitrate problem?" I know I can buy nitrate absorbers, but would the extra filtration help the situation also?

Thanks for your responses

 

[freddyk]

No, the filtration process creates nitrates. If the filtration you have right now keeps your nitrite and ammonia at 0, then the only benefits you would gain from increased filtration is mechanical (removal of physical waste).

 

[jfrancho]

I don't know what they do in your area, but my municipal water authority will provide written chemical analysis of supply water. In fact, by law, they must provide this info yearly. You might try to get ahold of this, perhaps it would shed some light on the toxic situation. I don't blame your resisitance to experimenting on your fishes. Though, I would be hard pressed to keep up a hobby that incurred that kind of expense and labor. If you could get that report, and possibly post the findings, we may be able to determine the problem with your tap water. I can certainly associate with your description of a cart full of water. When my RO membrane spit the bit, I temporarily had to resort to purchasing RO/DI available at the grocery store. As freddyk pointed out, keep up the water changes, and let us if you can come up with that report.

 

[LuckyLoach]

Thanks guys. That's what I needed to know. I'll see if I can get ahold of one of the water reports. I appreicate all of your help.