Our Tap Water Parameters (Will This Cause A Problem With Fishless Cycl

[pdludbrooke]

Our tap water is PH 7.3 and we have 37 mg per litre NitrAte (is this the same as 37 ppm ?) is thjis ok for my fishless cycle, I know I should have checked these first ?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Yes it is the same. No, it wont effect the cycle.

The issue is when you add the normal end product of the cycle, nitrate, to water with that starting level from the tap (and this site says that they can legally be up to 50 mg/l Cambridge Water Company ), you can rapidly get a build up that has to be handled. Keeping live plants would help if they work for your tank. If not you may want to consider other options, such as doing more frequent water changes or mixing distilled or reverse osmosis water with your tap to dilute the nitrates etc.

 

[pdludbrooke]

Yes it is the same. No, it wont effect the cycle.

The issue is when you add the normal end product of the cycle, nitrate, to water with that starting level from the tap (and this site says that they can legally be up to 50 mg/l Cambridge Water Company ), you can rapidly get a build up that has to be handled. Keeping live plants would help if they work for your tank. If not you may want to consider other options, such as doing more frequent water changes or mixing distilled or reverse osmosis water with your tap to dilute the nitrates etc.

Thanks

 

[pdludbrooke]

Yes it is the same. No, it wont effect the cycle.

The issue is when you add the normal end product of the cycle, nitrate, to water with that starting level from the tap (and this site says that they can legally be up to 50 mg/l Cambridge Water Company ), you can rapidly get a build up that has to be handled. Keeping live plants would help if they work for your tank. If not you may want to consider other options, such as doing more frequent water changes or mixing distilled or reverse osmosis water with your tap to dilute the nitrates etc.

Would a uv sterilizer help or am I thinking down the wrong path (the way nitrate effects the fish ?)

 

[phocoena]

It's nitrIte that is harmful to fish and that is removed in the nitrogen cycle.

nitrAte compared to nitrIte and ammonia is less harmful, but keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get to high.
As for the fishless cycle I was only changing water at over 160ppm of nitrAte. Not sure of when you have fish as I have tap water with no Nitrate in. Exxcept the plant thing.

 

[OldMan47]

A UV sterilizer is no help at all for a cycle. Your pH and nitrates are no problem at all for a cycle. Nitrates are not removed or neutralized by a UV treatment but it might possibly kill off the few bacteria that you are trying to increase in number to the size colony that you need to process fish wastes.
Nitrates vs. UV sterilizers is definitely thinking down the wrong path. Nitrates are chemicals that no reasonable amount of light can affect. UV is specifically for killing biologicals that pass through the "UV filter". It has no impact on chemical concentrations. The exposure time and its intensity affect what a UV will remove. At lower levels it can be effective in killing things like algae spores. At higher levels / lower flows it can actually kill off bacteria. If you have a disease problem in a tank and know that it is bacterial, a UV may be just the trick for a cure. If you have free floating algae and want to be rid of it, a UV is the ideal special component. If you have a nitrate problem, do a massive water change, the UV is useless for that.

 

[pdludbrooke]

A UV sterilizer is no help at all for a cycle. Your pH and nitrates are no problem at all for a cycle. Nitrates are not removed or neutralized by a UV treatment but it might possibly kill off the few bacteria that you are trying to increase in number to the size colony that you need to process fish wastes.
Nitrates vs. UV sterilizers is definitely thinking down the wrong path. Nitrates are chemicals that no reasonable amount of light can affect. UV is specifically for killing biologicals that pass through the "UV filter". It has no impact on chemical concentrations. The exposure time and its intensity affect what a UV will remove. At lower levels it can be effective in killing things like algae spores. At higher levels / lower flows it can actually kill off bacteria. If you have a disease problem in a tank and know that it is bacterial, a UV may be just the trick for a cure. If you have free floating algae and want to be rid of it, a UV is the ideal special component. If you have a nitrate problem, do a massive water change, the UV is useless for that.

I was just on the lines of thinking how nitrates would cause more algae.....???
Thanks for your help, also checked my water to day and showinging a reduction in the ammonia I put in from 3ppm to about 1.2ppm (I'm using the nutrafin ammonia testing kit (liquid)) when should I top the ammonia back up ?