Help Nitrate At 80Ppm

[sky 1]

I have just bought the API test kit and found out my tap water and tank water are 80ppm Nitrate what can i do to reduce it? I have tested several times with the same resoults I am shaking the bottle realy well so it is not that HELP PLease

 

[StandbySetting]

Just do a 50% water change, 80PPM isn't anything to worry about short term, but increasing the frequency and volume of your water changes will reduce it.

 

[sky 1]

It is my tap water that is 80ppm can i get it down somehow ?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Do you have any live plants? They will happily use up nitrates in the water.

 

[StandbySetting]

Are you in the UK? The only other solution for when doing water changes would be to use RO water and add a mineral supplement, out of interest could your test kit be expired? Nitrates will use 5ppm of nitrate in the most hi-tech of settings, so realistically they don't do that much towards reducing nitrate levels.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Are you in the UK? The only other solution for when doing water changes would be to use RO water and add a mineral supplement, out of interest could your test kit be expired? Nitrates will use 5ppm of nitrate in the most hi-tech of settings, so realistically they don't do that much towards reducing nitrate levels.

Are you saying that plants will only use 5ppm of nitrates?

 

[StandbySetting]

It was in the Barr Report a few years ago, a densely planted set up under 6WPG with pressurized CO2, the maximum uptake per day was 5PPM, obviously under normal conditions it's going to be considerably less.

 

[sky 1]

Yes i am in the uk in north bedfordshire i was thinking of phoning the waterbord to come and check my water as i have read that Nitrates at this level can be damaging to your health I only bought my test kit afew days ago so i dont think it is out of date but i shall check i only have one plant the rest are plastic

 

[StandbySetting]

Well test kits aren't terribly accurate and the UK legal limit is 50PPM, so I'd bet that it's your test kit giving bogus readings.

 

[waterdrop]

It was in the Barr Report a few years ago, a densely planted set up under 6WPG with pressurized CO2, the maximum uptake per day was 5PPM, obviously under normal conditions it's going to be considerably less.

Yes, I have seen and agree with this. WD

 

[CletePurcel]

Yes i am in the uk in north bedfordshire i was thinking of phoning the waterbord to come and check my water as i have read that Nitrates at this level can be damaging to your health I only bought my test kit afew days ago so i dont think it is out of date but i shall check i only have one plant the rest are plastic

Your water board's website will probably have the statistics for your area on it.

 

[OldMan47]

There is no problem with water at 80 ppm nitrates from the tap. The nominal 20 ppm above tap water that we use is intended to use the nitrate as our canary in the coal mine. If nitrates rise more than about 20 ppm above tap water, the contaminants that we cannot readily measure need to be dealt with. Levels of nitrates in the range of several hundred ppm as such have proven to be harmless.

 

[sky 1]

Many thanks for all your replys i shall just have to keep an eye on it but im not worried now i also have a plant that i have put in to try to help if it grows well i might get some more

 

[sausagewinkle]

Just to butt in here
Im currently cycling a tank so Im doing readings everyday etc.
Yesterday I checked it and my Nitrate had shot up to 80+

In the mean time I also checked my 160Litre tank that has been running for nearly 1 year and my 25Litre that has been running about 4 month and was water changed the day before. Both readings from these 2 tanks were showing 80+ also, i was worried about this as it has NEVER been this high before so I checked my tap water, 80+ again.

All other readings were normal so I needed a second opinion, I used my friends test kit (same as mine API master kit) and the Nitrate was fine!!
Some how my nitrate test does not work any more, im unsure if it is out of date or anything or maybe i have not put the lid on properly. Unknown.

Just from my experience try another Nitrate test, especially with the tap water reading being so high in the UK.

 

[StandbySetting]

API Nitrate test kits are rubbish, so inaccurate that they're not worth bothering with, if you want a decent one buy a Salifert one, the reagents are kept separate so they last longer and give more consistent results.