I Need A R/o Unit

[kribensis12]

Hello,
I had a male krib die, had my water tested and found out that my water stats were: Ammonia 6, Nitrite .75, nitrate 80, ph 9.5. I dont overfeed my 30g and the tank is considerably understocked. The only thing I can think of is that my tap water is bad. I dont have alot of money, so do you guys know of any good websites that sell R/0 Units under a 100 dollars? Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tolak]

What does your tap water test out to?

 

[andywg]

The only thing I think is that the ammonia of 6 is going to cause no end of problems for fish in there, especially with a pH of 9.5.

I agree with Tolak that we need to see what the tap water is before saying to go for an RO unit.

 

[aquaticadmirer]

I don't know where you're located, but in the US the law states that drinking water can't contain more that 10ppm of nitrate, and 1ppm of nitrite (source: http/www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/...x.html#primary). I don't think they directly test for ammonia, since if nitrate and nitrite levels are in check then ammonia should be too.

So basically the levels you're getting in your tank are probably not from your tap water and more from waste products in the tank. If I were you I'd do a little more research before spending a lot of money on an R/O unit since you might not need it.

 

[kribensis12]

I live in Illinois, I used Amquil plus, and now all my problem is .5 of ammonia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess no r/o unit!

 

[Mikaila31]

I don't know where you're located, but in the US the law states that drinking water can't contain more that 10ppm of nitrate, and 1ppm of nitrite (source: http/www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/...x.html#primary). I don't think they directly test for ammonia, since if nitrate and nitrite levels are in check then ammonia should be too.

That Nitrate and Nitrite is measured in nitrogen not ppm. The Nitrate-nitrogen reading is 4.4 times less than the ppm reading and Nitrite-nitrogen is 3.3 times less than the ppm readings. So it would be no more than 44ppm of nitrate and 3.3ppm of nitrite is allowed in drinking water.

 

[aquaticadmirer]

I don't know where you're located, but in the US the law states that drinking water can't contain more that 10ppm of nitrate, and 1ppm of nitrite (source: http/www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/...x.html#primary). I don't think they directly test for ammonia, since if nitrate and nitrite levels are in check then ammonia should be too.

That Nitrate and Nitrite is measured in nitrogen not ppm. The Nitrate-nitrogen reading is 4.4 times less than the ppm reading and Nitrite-nitrogen is 3.3 times less than the ppm readings. So it would be no more than 44ppm of nitrate and 3.3ppm of nitrite is allowed in drinking water.

Well I don't know where you got all that, but I don't think it's right. Here is another website from the EPA stating that the MCL (maximum contaminant level) for drinking water is 10ppm for nitrate and 1ppm for nitrite.
http/www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/...s/nitrates.html

I think when they say "measured as nitrogen" they mean that they measure the amount of nitrogen and indirectly take that to be the reading for either nitrate or nitrite, since each compound has one atom of nitrogen, rather than directly measuring nitrate or nitrite.