High Nitrates In Tap Water

[Hathaway]

Hello
 
I've been using JBL BioNitratEx and I don't seem to be getting anywhere with it, which is particularly disappointing given the amount of glowing reviews I read before opting for it. The last bag went in about 7 or 8 weeks and I've yet to see it budge at all. The bags were placed in the last two compartments in my eheim 2075 filter, as the others had media I wasn't so keen to remove, and I wasn't sure whether I could play around with the ordering of the compartments. Should I try moving them to the top or further up, is that likely to really change anything?
My tap water comes out at 50ppm according to my water authority report, though testing with API and Salifert liquid test kits shows higher than that, but I'm not sure if they're entirely accurate to that degree. My stocking is currently very light (details in my sig) and the tank is fairly heavily planted, including frogbit. Was hoping the plants at least would soak some up but I'm getting no indication there either.
Getting an RO unit is out of the question really, I don't have the room for it and they're a tad pricey. Which is why I opted for the JBL filter media. I'm guessing that if I've had the media in their for around 2+ months and I've yet to see any degree of change, I'm not likely ever to? I'm in the process of emailing JBL but they've not been overly helpful so far.
Does anyone use any other product they've found works for them?
 
EDIT: Forgot to add in case it's relevant, but my ammonia and nitrite readings are consistently on 0. 

 

[AbbeysDad]

 
I've been where you are and just might be able to help. I [also] have high nitrates in my well water due to a 95 acre farmers field across the road. I didn't feel an RO system would work without an additional pump because my well system has a 30/50 psi controller and most RO units require higher pressure (>=50psi) to force water through the membrane. Note that if you have higher pressure, you can get a respectable RO unit for $100 or so...then you just need to adjust pH and replenish minerals...
I opted for the API Tap Water Filter (now discontinued) to produce DI water. However, with my water, the cartridges were spent quickly. With the cost of the cartridges and the rate of depletion, it wasn't much better than buying water!
I emptied a spent cartridge and filled it with API Nitra-Zorb to filter nitrates out of my tap water. This worked pretty well and nitra-zorb can be recharged with salt water. I continue to use this but I've also added an inline nitrate filter from Omnipure (claimed to be good for 1500 gallons) as well as an inline activated carbon filter (claimed to be good for 1 year or 2000 gallons). These inline filters (same as used on refrigerators, ice makers, etc.) are fairly inexpensive - you'll just need an appropriate faucet adapter.
 
So this gets you nitrate free water for water changes.
 
Now for the tank. With nitrate free water you can up your partial water changes to get back in control. To expedite, in addition to water changes, I used API Nitra-Zorb pouches in the filter. I alternated pouches as one was in the filter, the other was recharging in salt water.
 
I've also 'invented' a denitrate filter. I took a Lock 'n Lock plastic 4 quart canister filled with a combination of Seachem Matrix and Denitrate. It's fitted with airline tubing and driven by a Tom dosing pump to move a mere 3.5 gph. I seeded the media with Seachem Stability and it appears anaerobic bacteria are keeping nitrates low. I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when I tested (API test kit) the tank water for nitrates and the result was ZERO.

 
Good luck - lemme know if I can help further.

 

[Akasha72]

Hi, I'm not sure if this helps but I was talking to the guys are maidenhead aquatics about my troubles with phosphate (high from my taps) and my attempts to keep it under control had created high nitrates. He showed me these JBL filter bags you mention as he know's me and know's I have a JBL external filter. He did say that he'd tried them himself in his own tank and had found that they only work if you keep the bag completely flat. If they are allowed to bunch up they stop being effective. He said he puts his bag underneath his ceramic media to keep it weighted down.
 
Something else that might be useful info is that I tried JBL's phosphate remover and found it to be useless. Through a process of elimination and through talking to people with marine tanks I learned that phosphate removers come as iron based and aluminium based. JBL's is iron based and all the iron based one's didn't work for me. I then switched to the aluminium based one's and they work. It would seem my water type may be to blame for that so maybe do some research into various types of nitrate removers - find out their make up and try a different one. It may be not working for the same reason as the iron based po4 removers didn't work for me
 
Hope that's not too confusing lol

 

[StevenF]

With high nitrates you might be in a situation where plant growth is limited due to nutrient deficiencies.  After a water change the high nitrates  in the water plus the fish generated nitrates cause plants to grow.  But in the process the plants would deplete other nutrients in the water.  As the limited nutrient deplete plant growth and nitrogen consumption would slow.  it might be possible to improve plant consumption of nitrogen by adding gertilizers that don't contain nitrogen.  Adding trace nutrients fist would be my choise.  Molybdenum is apparently used by plants to process nitrogen and in tap water there is often very little of it available.  My utility reports ND for not detected for Molybdenum. Macro nutrients  potassium and phosphates might also be low due to the high nitrate levels.  
 
In my case i have the opposite situration.   I use RO water and in order to get plant growth I have to fertilize with trace nutrients to prevent plants from dying.  This works and my nitrogen is always reading zrero.  But then my tank developed a algae issue and I eventually discovered i had high phosphates (and probably potassium but I don't have a  test kit for that).  I started adding nitrogen to my trace fertilizer (which actually does have a small amount of nitrogen).  That has helped out greatly.   prior to the nitrogen fertilizer phosphate levels increased every day and could easily reach 1000 ppm within a couple weeks.   No they are stable at about  50ppm.  Combining pertilizers with some of the filter recommendations from AbbeysDad might work very well.