High Nitrates In Tap Water

[erik7281]

So I recently moved to a different place. After setting my fishtanks back up, I realized that my nitrates were pretty high (40-80ppm) compared to what they used to be at my old place. After doing 50% PWC my nitrates were still the same. I decided to test the nitrates in my tap water that I used to prepare for the tanks and found that the nitrate levels in tap water match the ones in my tanks. Any inexpensive suggestions to solve this problem?

I have a 40 gall. community tank
65 gall fig. eight puffer tank
65 gall. SAP and community fish tank

[Pufferpunk]

Haven't tried this in FW but it couldn't hurt:
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13501

[Iliveinazoo]

or collect rainwater or you could cut your tap water with RO.

[pufferpuggirl]

Just to let you know, erik7281, my nitrates are about 40ppm (maybe less at times) right out of the tap. I've been fairly successful at keeping my puffers (in relation to water quality anyway). I've only got one tank that I actually added something to reduce the nitrates.
The point I want to make is that I think the fish adapt when the nitrates are naturally high, instead of being high due to a dirty tank and bad water quality. If you can find an inexpensive way to reduce your nitrates, that's wonderful and I congratulate you, but if you can't .... then all I'm saying is that my fish aren't dying because of my high nitrate tap water, of course, I also use Prime each time I add water to any of my tanks, so that could be why I don't have any problems, I don't know.
I just wanted you to know that there are other people who have the same problem as you, although I would think 80ppm would REALLY be something to worry about.

[RTR]

General info: In the USA, nitrate levels for potable water cannot exceed 10ppm nitrate-nitrogen. That translates in ~44ppm nitrate ion. In GB, the numbers can be higher.

pufferpuggirl is not totally off-base in her comments about tap water nitrate level versus tank-developed nitrate levels. We do use nitrate as a measure of general pollution and change from the condition of our source water. In that sense, you would subtract and discount the level of source water nitrate, considering only the additional nitrate which developed in the tank.

However, total nitrate levels do matter. Nitrate alone is not guilt-free. At some point it does affect a number of immune system functions, and it is impossible to draw a sharp line for those. The net result is that any nitrate level above about 15ppm is undesirable, and above somewhere in the range of 50 +/- it becomes highly undesirable. Levels of 80-120ppm I classify as Old Tank Syndrome, and consider that dangerous to the fish, even short-term. Many fish may and can survive for long periods in OTS tanks, but it far too easy to kill them in such water. They would not be as fragile in better water.

Pufferpunk: Do you have idea of the mode of action? Or is this purely pragmatic observation that you ran across on reef sites? I am fascinated.. Reefs are unbelieveably complex biosystems, Few if any FW system can approach that, but if the effect still happens in FW, that could be well worth exploring.... My tap water has nitrate,but very low level - most hobby kits would report 0, but it really runs 1-2ppm. It could be supplemented however.

[Pufferpunk]

I do not completely understand carbon dosing but the same thing can be done in reef tanks with dosing sugar & vodka. I also found VC to help my corals. Robert, if you really have some time, here's my very long thread on the subject:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1252294

After dosing for a months or so, someone linked me to this: http://www.athiel.com/lib/vitC496.html

I have increased the all around health of my corals & even HLLE of a purple tang that was very ill.

[RTR]

Cool! As we are predicted to have one to two feet of snow followed by high winds tomorrow night through Saturday, I just may have nothing else on the schedule.

That is,unless we lose power, in which case I will be tending fires 24/7 and not be on-line at all.

Total off-topic: There is a herd of deer crossing the side yard right now. It is twilight here, they are headed for my woods to bed down.

[Pufferpunk]

Do you leave them food?

Maybe you could explain how VC & other carbon dosing works chemically? There has also been some "guessing" among some of the scientists at RC, that VC helps build collagen in cells, helping heal corals/fish doing badly & producing healthier larger & more colorful corals.

Here is the link about VC in the Reef Chemistry forum:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showt ... =vitamin+c

You misht want to save your comments to put in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=13501

[J-P]

I do not completely understand carbon dosing but the same thing can be done in reef tanks with dosing sugar & vodka.

Isn't that an either OR situation?

[Pufferpunk]

Uhhh... yeah but I think some folks are dosing combinations of any above.

[J-P]

Uhhh... yeah but I think some folks are dosing combinations of any above.

My nitrate filter will take ethonol OR direct sugar and convert it to alcohol. I have never tried mixing the 2, nor have I used it extensively. Just wanted more info

[RTR]

There is no magic in bio-available carbon dosing, it is just impossible to track or test with our tools. Life on this planet is carbon-based in liquid water. Plants are about 40% carbon (C) by dry weight. I don't remermber the figure for animals, but somewhere in that neighborhood. Without carbon, there would be no life here [FYI- silicon (Si) might in theory be a basis for a lifeform also, but none is known - this place is already occupied with carbon-based life]. Because it is so common, in the past we rarely thought about the carbon requirements,and they are non-trivial. In semi-closed systems such as our tanks, especially in high-energy ones (such as reef tanks and high light/supplements plant tanks) bio-available carbon supplement is commonly required. Many years ago, some folk played with spraying (foliar feeding) nutrients and sugar on terrestrial plants - generally with good results. We do it now in high-light plant tanks, providing CO2 dissolved gas and/or products such as Excel (a bio-available carbon source). I'm out of the loop on reefs, but as high-energy systems, reef tanks obviously may need c-supplements in some form. Most land-based animals get their carbon from their food. Marine inverts, especially those housing photosynthetic bugs, likely need or could utilize some supplement beyond what they eat. The low-oxygen bugs in general tend to have only poor access to carbon sources (the interior of live rock, as well as the denitrification techniques used with tanks are in this category). Without bio-available carbon, they can't do much. Both/either sugar and/or alcohols can serve some bugs as sources for carbon. Oxygen levels likely determine which of those is used best or preferentially - sugars can be converted to alcohols (essentially brewing - beer and wine making, also yeast and sugar DIY CO2 generators). Dosages and the O2-environment may well need be controlled in some way for those C-sources to work. That varies with the particular bugs/inverts/plants involved.

Is that total Greek? What it boils down to is that if you run high-energy semi-closed systems, you are very likely to need bio-available carbon beyond simply feeding.

PP: Leave food for the deer? No thank you. They already limit what I can grow here. The understory in my woods has essentially been wiped out in the last 20+ years - it used to be carpeted with wildflowers. There are many more deer on the East Coast and likely country-wide than there were before the Europeans started coming here. They have over-populated their habitat to the level of habitat destruction. They need to copy the lemmings, and migrate into the sea or at least off a cliff. Either of those solutions would be a massive pollution problem however. I invite bow-hunters instead.

Vitamin C's potential uses/applications boggle the mind. It interacts in myriad systems. Dosage is always a big question - one with few good answers.

[Flutter]

Too many deer? That can't be I heard it's something to do with eliminating the top predators, LOL. They are beautiful though. We now have cougars (and not just JPs kind) in Southern Ontario. I don't know if they're helping with deer but they're helping with horses...

[RTR]

They have become near-extinct along the Appalachians. There are not enough left anywhere along here to serve as wildlife population control factors.

[Dadof4]

Mass deer populations need some form of control or they can run in to a diseased state. I'm surprised your local wildlife management people haven't allowed some selective hunting to thin them out.