tap water has 100 nitrates

[mark456]

hi, ive recently brought a test kit for nitrates and tested the tank water which has around 40 and my tap water which is around 100, what do people recommend i do when doing a water change,

i have a 20 gallon tank with

8 zebra danios
1 male swordtail
1 plec
1 black angelfish

thanks )

 

[rdd1952]

Do you have well water or city water? A level of 100 ppm nitrate is not only dangerous to your fish but also not healthy for humans to drink, especially infants. Do you have plants in your tank? It is strange that the water in the tank would have a lower level than the tap water unless you have a lot of plants that are using it. Unfortunately, there isn't anything to remove nitrate other than water changes which in your case would make it worse. Do you have a liquid test kit or strips? Strips can be very inaccurate sometimes.

 

[mark456]

Do you have well water or city water? A level of 100 ppm nitrate is not only dangerous to your fish but also not healthy for humans to drink, especially infants. Do you have plants in your tank? It is strange that the water in the tank would have a lower level than the tap water unless you have a lot of plants that are using it. Unfortunately, there isn't anything to remove nitrate other than water changes which in your case would make it worse. Do you have a liquid test kit or strips? Strips can be very inaccurate sometimes.

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hi thanks for the very quick reply, i have city water but i did use bottled water to fill up the tank but its starting to cost alot, i then did water changes using tap water and i have 4 plant thats will probably be why the tank has lower nitrates, i have a liquid test kit.

thanks again

 

[wuvmybetta]

I went through this awhile back and I was told to run the water through a cycled filter 24 hours prior to a change, but that wasn't possible with so many big tanks. It might work for you..

I wound up calling my local water department and I was informed that they were false readings due to the treatment the water goes through at the plant. After a while I believed that and I never experienced any fish loss or illness. Maybe call your local water department and ask them what's up.

 

[rdd1952]

I understand a little better. You were using bottled water so the water you were putting in had 0 nitrates but it was climbing to 40 in the tank. The problem is probably that your tank is very heavily stocked. I don't know how big the angel and pleco are. Plecos are big waste producers so that is probably why your nitrates are so high in the tank. I would check into the high nitrate content of the tap water though. That is way too high for city water. And as you said, bottled water will get very expensive and it doesn't have any buffering capacity so you may have problems keeping your pH stable.

 

[mark456]

I understand a little better. You were using bottled water so the water you were putting in had 0 nitrates but it was climbing to 40 in the tank. The problem is probably that your tank is very heavily stocked. I don't know how big the angel and pleco are. Plecos are big waste producers so that is probably why your nitrates are so high in the tank. I would check into the high nitrate content of the tap water though. That is way too high for city water. And as you said, bottled water will get very expensive and it doesn't have any buffering capacity so you may have problems keeping your pH stable.

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the reason it climed up to 40 was because when i did the water change i used tap water so that has increase the nitrates upto 40, my pleco is about 3inchs and my angel is about 2inchs tall, and the 8 danios are only small, i was speaking to the man at my lfs today and he said that the water where i live is very high in nitrates and will make younger children ill and will be very harmful for my fish, i dont want to keep buying bottled water because of the cost, is there any other solutions

thanks for all your help

 

[rdd1952]

I would definitely talk to the water company and see why it is like that. They definitely shouldn't be producing water that is that high in nitrates. As he said, infants and young children can become very ill from such high levels.

 

[mark456]

ok then thanks very much for the help