Nitrate In Tap Water?

[rchambers]

Hi I have only had my fish in the tank since Sunday and when I put them in the readings were

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - <5
PH - 7.5

Now I tested the water yesterday and got a reading of 80mg for nitrate (all other readings the same) so did a 25% water change. Measured nitrates again and its still 80mg. Tested the tap water and it reads 80mg also (from kitchen and bath taps). I don't understand how I managed to initially get the nitrates so low (unless I messed the first test up) when the nitrates are so high. I'm in Aldershot, Hampshire in the UK if that helps (maybe someone localish has the same problem).

Do I have to worry about the high nitrates in the water as I thought the maximum you wanted was 40mg but I obviously will never get it this low.

Confused newbie?

 

[chicklette]

I only know ppm, so what is 80mg in ppm?

If you tell me that I may be able to help.

 

[LolaLouie]

Wow how wierd I just posted the exact same topic!! But i'm in London.

 

[rchambers]

1 mg = 1 ppm in water so my reading is 80 ppm. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[chicklette]

You may need to buy an RO unit or mix distilled with tap water and buffer it. How big is your tank and how many fish do you have in there?

 

[rchambers]

Tank is 260 litres and only a week old atm. I used some filter material from my friend though and the ammonia and nitrite levels have remained 0. I currently have 6 Cardinal Tetras, 3 Dalmation Mollies and about 25 four day old molly fries

I can't imagine everyone in my area using distilled water or RO, maybe I'll get the fish shop to test my water and compare it to theirs (they must be using the same water as me surely).

 

[LolaLouie]

I just got a new test kit. Turns out the water is fine the test kit is rubbish. Def test your water at fish shop 1st!

 

[CFC]

Chicklet will you please stop going around telling people that they need to keep their nitrates below 20ppm!! If this was the case then 90% of the people in England wouldnt be able to keep fish as in most areas the tapwater comes out at between 20 and 40ppm.

High nitrates are not a huge cause for concern unless they are consistently above 100ppm, of course it is best to keep them as low as you are able to but provided they arent rising by more than 25ppm over the course of a week between your water changes then you are doing ok. If they do rise by more than 25ppm over the course of a week then you either have too many fish or your maintainace schedule isnt keeping up with nitrate production and you either need to do larger water changes or change water more frequently.

High nitrates in tapwater are a common problem across the UK, increased rainfall and flooding in winter and drought in summer all factor in how the high the nitrates in the system get as water has to processed faster at the plants to get it clean and back out for public consumption.

 

[chicklette]

Chicklet will you please stop going around telling people that they need to keep their nitrates below 20ppm!! If this was the case then 90% of the people in England wouldnt be able to keep fish as in most areas the tapwater comes out at between 20 and 40ppm.

I apologize. I have read on web sights that above 20ppm is dangerous, however I was wrong so I’m sorry about that. I don’t want to scare people.

So I was wrong so don’t worry about the nitrates. I guess the web sight I read was wrong. I will do some more research on nitrates.

 

[rchambers]

Don't worry about it. I just took a sample of my tap water and tank water to the LFS and they tested it on three different kits. Turns out my nitrates are around 50 ppm as I was holding the test tube too close to paper making the colour look darker lol. Still high but I'm going to phone the water company and see what they say as the tap water is 50 ppm too. On the positive side ammonia and nitrites are still zero so looks like my tank is properly cycled