Harmful Nitrate Level

[444bronte]

Could anyone help me understand why my tank’s nitrate is so high? I decided to test the water after losing a few of my fish. I have done a 25% water change and I had a slight trumpet snail infestation which I’ve now removed the majority of them.

 

[Colin_T]

Test the tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

The UK regularly uses recycled water and nitrates can be 40-50ppm out of the tap. If you have high nitrates in the tap water, you can get filters to remove it or put the water in a container with lots of floating plants and let them use the nitrates.

 

[Essjay]

The UK regularly uses recycled water

Well, in the sense that the water we use ends up evaporating and falling as rain which then ends up as our drinking water which evaporates after we've used it which then falls as rain and ends up as our drinking water and on and on.

From the website of the trade association of water and waste water companies across the UK -

The UK’s drinking water is sourced from many locations including rivers, groundwater aquifers, reservoirs, and in some unique places, directly from the sea.

 

[MaloK]

If your water supply is clean, What is your substrate ?

Your tank does not look like the typical ones that would experience high nitrate.

I fact it looks a little too clean, loll, How old is your setup ?

 

[Colin_T]

Well, in the sense that the water we use ends up evaporating and falling as rain which then ends up as our drinking water which evaporates after we've used it which then falls as rain and ends up as our drinking water and on and on.

From the website of the trade association of water and waste water companies across the UK -

I thought you lot had recycled sewerage water?
They mentioned wanting to use it here and it was a no go. Massive backlash to anything like that here.

 

[Essjay]

No, sewage is treated then discharged into rivers or the sea. There have been instances recently where untreated sewage has been discharged and the water company fined for doing so.

 

[MattW]

No, sewage is treated then discharged into rivers or the sea. There have been instances recently where untreated sewage has been discharged and the water company fined for doing so.

I think they had that issue in the Lakes. Shocking from UU to be honest

Untreated sewage pumped into Windermere after fault

Millions of litres of raw sewage were pumped into one of England's most famous lakes after a fault.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[EmmaS]

I recently tested my nitrates twice in a space of two weeks. I had zero nitrates according to my Amazon test strips. The ones you get 100 tests for a few pounds. I became suspicious and decided to test my tap water. Again zero. I knew then the strips were rubbish and brought a nitrate kit from ApI. My results are between 30ppm-50ppm roughly same as my water. My tank is understocked and heavily planted with fast growers. I don't see a reduction in my nitrate levels so they are around 40ppm. Ideally I would like them around 10ppm

 

[Essjay]

Firstly, have you looked at your water quality report on your water company's website? They will have tested nitrate a number of times and will list the highest, lowest and average levels. If your API results agree with these (hopefully the 'average' number) you'll know your test results are accurate.

If your tap water does have 30 to 50 ppm nitrate, you cannot get it lower than that by water changes. We have members on the forum who have high nitrate in their tap water. Some use nitrate filters (eg Pozzani) to prefilter tap water for water changes; others use terrestrial plants growing with their roots in the tank water but the stems and leaves out of water to take up the nitrate in the water.

 

[AJ356]

I thought you lot had recycled sewerage water?
They mentioned wanting to use it here and it was a no go. Massive backlash to anything like that here.

We ship our sewage out to Oz for the convicts (not the cichlids) to drink

 

[fishorama]

It could be a seasonal high after a dry summer or agricultural runoff. It might change.

I don't think I'd be happy drinking water with that high of nitrate. Might be time for a tap filter or RO under sink system (more expensive to buy & to run) for you & your fish.

 

[Guest5431]

I don't remember anything really nailing down a point nitrate is a problem at any level. You know those people who set a fish tank up and never change the water? They bring some in to test and you get astronomical levels. Even Tetra was selling some garbage saying to never change the water called EasyBalance back in the late 90's. Other aspects may or may not be a problem from lack of water changes but try telling that to someone who's only been topping off for 5 years or more. Fish tend to adapt to whatever if it happens slowly and at that point, trying to change the water itself becomes the problem that kills them when the change itself causes a drastic change to the established norms. I'm a 50% a week guy myself living in a never world it seems.

Also, High Nitrate is somehow used as a preservative. You'll have to get a chemist to explain that right now but garbage like Hagen's Cycle used to test so high that if you added enough Cycle to your tank, you'd start to get a testable level of nitrate just from the additions of the Cycle itself and not necessarily from any bacteria the garbage in a bottle added.

 

[gwand]

I try to keep my nitrate level as low as possible. I have a friend with a 125 g Mbuna tank with nitrate levels always around 300 ppm. Most of the fish tare 8 years old in that tank and continue to spawn successfully. Go figure!