Nitrate High

zackcrack00

zackcrack00

Members
What qualifies as a "high" nitrate level? The water from my tap comes out at about 60 nitrate. I raise angelfish, livebearers, and Bettas. I know poor water quality stunts growth, but what is high enough to stunt growth?


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dogofwar

dogofwar

CCA Members
Water that high in nitrate out of the tap isn't safe for consumption. Sure it's that high?

I try to keep mine <20...

Matt
 
festaedan

festaedan

potamotrygon fan
60 is pretty high. The only time my nitrate ever goes over 30 is when my tanks arecycling or when Im on vacation and the "fish-sitter" feeds too much.
Do you have an R.O. unit you could hook up?
 
zackcrack00

zackcrack00

Members
Dan,
I wish! I may get one if I can get my fish room set up. It would benefit me greatly as I want to breed angelfish, (ph 6-7) red marble ancistrus (6.5-7.2 is preferred; I read) livebearers (anything, but 6-7.2 preferred) and Bettas (5.8-7). And if I have room, apistos like electric blue rams and triple red apistos.


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Localzoo

Localzoo

Board of Directors
zackcrack00 said:
Dan,
I wish! I may get one if I can get my fish room set up. It would benefit me greatly as I want to breed angelfish, (ph 6-7) red marble ancistrus (6.5-7.2 is preferred; I read) livebearers (anything, but 6-7.2 preferred) and Bettas (5.8-7). And if I have room, apistos like electric blue rams and triple red apistos.


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I know you've probably read the stuff Doug has posted. But once you set up your fish room he might be able to help... Hard part is scaling things down and bowing how to dose carbon source at a smaller level but I bet it can be done.
Also do you have well water?


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D

DougGosnell

Members
The EPA mandates that nitrate in public water systems is below 3 and if not, they are required by law to notify the public. Over 10, there can be instances of blue baby syndrome which is the nitrate causing the oxygen to not be absorbed into the bloodstream causing ... well a blue baby.

If you are on a well, well join my hell (such a poet or in today's world, a rapper). My well is well over 100 and caused me to buy a 1000 gpd RO and even out of the RO it is still a shade over 5. I built 2 large nitrate digesters to deal with having a hatchery and feeding growouts, you probably do not have that option since I doubt you have a central system.

zackcrack00 said:
What qualifies as a "high" nitrate level? The water from my tap comes out at about 60 nitrate. I raise angelfish, livebearers, and Bettas. I know poor water quality stunts growth, but what is high enough to stunt growth?


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D

DougGosnell

Members
oops, coffee not kicked in and failed to read entire thread.

Well... until you are on a central system, RO is your only option. You should be able to get it to under 5 and maybe your Mom will pay for it since it is unsafe water for people too.

The angels should be able to take it, mine thrived at over 100 nitrate. It was discus and rams I could not keep, they died all the time.

As for your color chart, those color vary all the time and from API kit to kit. I think yours understates the issue as on the API chart I use, there is only 2 orange and the rest red. API must use "high quality" printers to make those cards, guess I should be happy they aren't purple and green too.



QUOTE=zackcrack00;187029]Dan,
I wish! I may get one if I can get my fish room set up. It would benefit me greatly as I want to breed angelfish, (ph 6-7) red marble ancistrus (6.5-7.2 is preferred; I read) livebearers (anything, but 6-7.2 preferred) and Bettas (5.8-7). And if I have room, apistos like electric blue rams and triple red apistos.


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Frank Cowherd

Frank Cowherd

Global Moderators
Staff member
Being on well water you are probably not using PRIME or AMQUEL PLUS. But both of these and similar products actually will combine with nitrates and lower them. I do not think nitrate test after using either of these chemicals will read right, though you could try it and see.

It might be simpler to add sufficient AMQUEL PLUS to remove the nitrate from your well water than to remove it by using an RO unit.

The other method of removing nitrate is to use plants. Aquatic plants work well to do so, but plants that have their roots in water and their leaves above water are even better at removing nutrients like nitrate from water. You would have to set up a very large tank or barrel or watering trough with a circulating pump, a rack to support the plants so their roots would be in the water and their leaves above water and a light. In other words a hydroponic system to grow plants. A serach on designs for such should bring up a multitude of designs and give you lots of ideas. With a circulating pump and a few valves, you could then just pump water from it to the tank you are doing the water change on.

Some people use a similar system to remove nutrients from a large aquariums to remove nitrate, nitrite and ammmonia and phosphates. Those systems are usually found in marine systems and are referred to a refugium. IF you look up refugium inWikipedia you will see they have a wide variety of purposes, including nutrient consumption.
 
D

DougGosnell

Members
BTW, I am not sure who your Mom is calling, but it will not do any good. The only thing that can be done would be a county wide denitrification of the groundwater which is a huge undertaking. Thanks to the agri-industry, fertilizers are woefully overused and the reason the Chesapeake is in the condition it is.
 
D

DougGosnell

Members
I think plants will have a hard time consuming both the incoming WC nitrate and those generated by growing out fish. Were I to turn off my digesters, I go from 5 to 40 in 24h and 80 in 3 days. I know I feed heavy (3-6x a day on growouts) but also clean the bare bottom tanks once a day on adults and 2-3x a day in growouts.

From what I read on the use of Amquel Plus on nitrate removal, most end users say this is strictly marketing hype and does not remove anything. Further reading points that it *can* reduce nitrates but must be used in conjunction with liquid sulphur to do so, something I am sure no one would put in their tanks. I would further add that it is quite possible Amquel Plus is not doing anything at all and use of sulphur feeds another nitrate digesting bacteria.

But that is just my take on that, your mileage may vary.

Frank Cowherd said:
Being on well water you are probably not using PRIME or AMQUEL PLUS. But both of these and similar products actually will combine with nitrates and lower them. I do not think nitrate test after using either of these chemicals will read right, though you could try it and see.

It might be simpler to add sufficient AMQUEL PLUS to remove the nitrate from your well water than to remove it by using an RO unit.

The other method of removing nitrate is to use plants. Aquatic plants work well to do so, but plants that have their roots in water and their leaves above water are even better at removing nutrients like nitrate from water. You would have to set up a very large tank or barrel or watering trough with a circulating pump, a rack to support the plants so their roots would be in the water and their leaves above water and a light. In other words a hydroponic system to grow plants. A serach on designs for such should bring up a multitude of designs and give you lots of ideas. With a circulating pump and a few valves, you could then just pump water from it to the tank you are doing the water change on.

Some people use a similar system to remove nutrients from a large aquariums to remove nitrate, nitrite and ammmonia and phosphates. Those systems are usually found in marine systems and are referred to a refugium. IF you look up refugium inWikipedia you will see they have a wide variety of purposes, including nutrient consumption.
Click to expand...
 
R

RunCichlidRun

Members
Your water tests...

zackcrack00 said:
I just tested, exact same. My tap is roughly 60ppm in nitrate (I think). What do you think?



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If that is straight from your tap (and not your tank), in addition to calling the proper authorities, I would try a different set of testing drops. Could yours have expired or be otherwise defective? I am assuming the "test tube" is clean. Can you test a neighbor's water to see if they showing roughly the same thing?
 
daninmd

daninmd

Members
wow, I hope you guys are drinking bottled water! I would definitely have someone come in and run a full test of your water. a new well may be in order to get to a deeper, cleaner water source if you are really pulling 60ppm out of the well. right now I would say your fish tank's water is the least of your concerns...they can handle nitrates in their water and be ok.
 
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