The nitrate level in my well water is about 30ppm. Is there a cheaper solution than installing a reverse osmosis system to remove nitrates? Thanks.
Nitrate in my well water
- Thread starter gwand
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TwoTankAmin
Fish Connoisseur
Live plants. And you would need at least a moderate to heavy planting level.
For a start, the plants love ammonium as their preferred source of nitrogen, So they will out compete bacteria for ammonia. However, you will still have some amount of the bacteria no matter how many plants you could have.
Your fish/shrimp/snails cannot produce enough ammonia yo keep that level of plants fed. So the plants will use nitrate. Not only will they use any nitrite your limited amount of bacteria can create. They will use some to all of the nitrate in your tap.
There are more benefits that the above gained from having live plants. They usually make a tank healthier than if there were none. They provide the inhabitants with cover. This can reduce stress and increase the survival rate of any fish which might be born in the tank. Finally, they look nice and can be fun to do for some people.
The only downside is you will have to learn a bit about keeping plants in a tank and what you need to do to make sure they are as "happy" in the tanks as the fish etc.
Another option would be a veggie filter. When I entered the hobby at the start of the millennium I was fortunate enough to find a fish forum and chat where Robert T.Ricketts aka RTR participated. He was a legend in the hobby at the time and a true expert. He wrote extensively and his articles are some of the best and accurate I have read. So, here is what he wrote on veggie filters VEGGIE FILTERS I learned a great deal from him.
For a start, the plants love ammonium as their preferred source of nitrogen, So they will out compete bacteria for ammonia. However, you will still have some amount of the bacteria no matter how many plants you could have.
Your fish/shrimp/snails cannot produce enough ammonia yo keep that level of plants fed. So the plants will use nitrate. Not only will they use any nitrite your limited amount of bacteria can create. They will use some to all of the nitrate in your tap.
There are more benefits that the above gained from having live plants. They usually make a tank healthier than if there were none. They provide the inhabitants with cover. This can reduce stress and increase the survival rate of any fish which might be born in the tank. Finally, they look nice and can be fun to do for some people.
The only downside is you will have to learn a bit about keeping plants in a tank and what you need to do to make sure they are as "happy" in the tanks as the fish etc.
Another option would be a veggie filter. When I entered the hobby at the start of the millennium I was fortunate enough to find a fish forum and chat where Robert T.Ricketts aka RTR participated. He was a legend in the hobby at the time and a true expert. He wrote extensively and his articles are some of the best and accurate I have read. So, here is what he wrote on veggie filters VEGGIE FILTERS I learned a great deal from him.
Hello. That level of nitrate isn't bad. A hardy aquarium fish will hardly notice this level of nitrogen in the tank water as long as the level remains constant. In fresh water aquariums, nitrates should be kept below 50 ppm and never higher. I'd say your well water is fine for hardier fish like Guppies, Zebra Danios, most of the species of Tetras and Platys too. If you like larger fish, then Comets are very hardy. Trying to change the chemistry of your tap water isn't a good idea.
10 Tanks (Now 11)
Newer thinking is that nitrate should be kept below 20 ppm, and as near to zero as possible. Nitrate is still toxic to fish, it's just not as fast a killer as ammonia and nitrite.
OP
OP
Any method other than reverse osmosis system to strip my tap water of nitrates?
There are nitrate filters to remove nitrate before putting the water in the tank. Here in the UK there are Pozzani filters, I don't know if that brand is available in the US.
Others suggest having a container of water with fast growing plants (mainly floating plants) which will remove the nitrate from the water before you use it.
Member AbbeysDad has written about high tap nitrate on his website
Others suggest having a container of water with fast growing plants (mainly floating plants) which will remove the nitrate from the water before you use it.
Member AbbeysDad has written about high tap nitrate on his website
Our member @AbbeysDad had/has the same problem, high nitrate in his well water. He describes on his blog how he solved it. Here is the link to his blog:
And here is a link to the articles(I think I got them all).
I mean no disrespect to anyone, but in my view live plants will not help much. It is true that they assimilate ammonia/ammonium, and generally speaking they will take up all of it. Tom Barr told me that you really could never overload a tank with fish to the extent that a good growth of fast-growing plants would not be able to grab all the ammonia. Yes, some gets by to the nitrifying bacteria, but hopefully not much because this only results in more nitrate at the end of the process.
Plants do not want to convert to nitrate. it takes them about 24 hours to "switch gears" so to speak, and then they have to use valuable energy to change the nitrate back into ammonium in order to use it. Diana Walstad has this:
Another stumbling block is the balance issue. If ammonia/ammonium should become depleted, in balance with the other 16 nutrients and the light intensity, only then will plants waste the energy on nitrate. In most of our natural or low-tech planted tanks, we have a good stocking of fish (most of us anyway) and the light and nutrients are unlikely to be sufficient to jump ahead of the nitrogen.
Nitrate at 30 ppm is a lot. And in my view the normal plant load cannot take this up to any appreciable degree. Even in high tech planted systems the nitrate assimilation by plants is so far as I have ever been informed much less than this. Massive water changes are done to dilute all this. These work because the nitrate is not coming in with the water, this is a very different issue.
And here is a link to the articles(I think I got them all).
I mean no disrespect to anyone, but in my view live plants will not help much. It is true that they assimilate ammonia/ammonium, and generally speaking they will take up all of it. Tom Barr told me that you really could never overload a tank with fish to the extent that a good growth of fast-growing plants would not be able to grab all the ammonia. Yes, some gets by to the nitrifying bacteria, but hopefully not much because this only results in more nitrate at the end of the process.
Plants do not want to convert to nitrate. it takes them about 24 hours to "switch gears" so to speak, and then they have to use valuable energy to change the nitrate back into ammonium in order to use it. Diana Walstad has this:
The ammonium preference of aquatic plants is substantial. For example, when Elodea nuttallii was placed in a mixture of equal parts ammonium and nitrates, the plant removed 75% of the ammonium within 16 hours while leaving the nitrates virtually untouched (Fig 1). Only when the ammonium was gone, did the plant begin to take up nitrates. Likewise, when the giant duckweed Spirodela oligorrhiza was grown in nutrient media containing a mixture of ammonium and nitrate, it took up ammonium rapidly, whereas it virtually ignored the nitrates (Fig 2). Because the plants for this particular study were grown under sterile conditions, the ammonium removal could not have been due to nitrification. Also, the investigator showed that plants grew rapidly during the study suggesting that N uptake was due to the plant’s actual use of this major nutrient. Nitrate uptake requires light energy. For example, Water Lettuce (Pistia stratiotes) took up nitrates in the dark at 1/3 the rate than it did in the light. In contrast, light had no effect on ammonium uptake; plants took up ammonium at the same rate with or without light [4]. Nitrate uptake does not occur until plants are forced to use it, that is, when all ammonium is gone. Even then, there is a delay, because the setup for nitrate uptake must be generated first. Thus, Water Lettuce required 24 hours to attain its maximum rate of nitrate uptake [4].
Another stumbling block is the balance issue. If ammonia/ammonium should become depleted, in balance with the other 16 nutrients and the light intensity, only then will plants waste the energy on nitrate. In most of our natural or low-tech planted tanks, we have a good stocking of fish (most of us anyway) and the light and nutrients are unlikely to be sufficient to jump ahead of the nitrogen.
Nitrate at 30 ppm is a lot. And in my view the normal plant load cannot take this up to any appreciable degree. Even in high tech planted systems the nitrate assimilation by plants is so far as I have ever been informed much less than this. Massive water changes are done to dilute all this. These work because the nitrate is not coming in with the water, this is a very different issue.
What about using a terrestrial plant like a pothos or spider plant? You only keep their roots in the water and the rest of the plant grows over the tank. Don't terrestrial plants more readily absorb nitrate?
Yes...maybe. We had another thread a couple months ago where a member cited some scientific research indicating that terrestrial plants would take up ammonia over nitrate. I do not argue with scientific evidence, but having said that it may not be all that accurate. I didn't know anything about the authors. And it is a fact that aquatic plants take up ammonia/ammonium via their leaves, not their roots. Terrestrial plants take up nitrate via their roots, not from the air, or so I have always been informed.
Hello. I think this may be what's called an "Ideal" level. This level is something to try for, but in reality, isn't going to be reached. Most tap water sources are going to have nitrate in the 10 to 15 parts per million range. Add just a few tiny fish to the mix and you'll have nitrate levels above 20 ppm. I think the 50 ppm level is much more reasonable for the vast majority of tank keepers.
10 Tanks (Now 11)
Nitrate is toxic to all fish we keep. It does not act as rapidly as ammonia or nitrite, but it is nonetheless toxic. Scientific thinking now is that is depends upon the level, the exposure time, and the species. It harms the fish by weakening it, depending upon the afore-mentioned, and this causes stress and allows the fish to succumb to problems like disease more easily than if nitrate was not present. Fish have a shorter lifespan; I understand this is difficult to prove, but it is still the thinking.
Considering that in the habitat waters, nitrate is so minimal it often cannot even be detected, and this is with scientific apparatus, not our hobby kits, it is easy to understand why fish would be affected. Keeping it as close to zero as possible will benefit the fish, there is no argument here. Books from decades past cited 40 ppm as "safe," but we now understand this is inaccurate. Nitrate at 20 ppm is as high as it should ever be, but that isn't the point--the point is nitrate should be as low as possible to the point of being zero. Most of us with planted tanks and no nitrate in the source water can easily have this. Over more than a decade I tested nitrate regularly just to see, and in my 8 or 9 tanks nitrate never registered above the 0 to 5 ppm range with the API kit. I've no idea if nitrate was 0 or 1 ppm, or up to 5 ppm, but it never rose above that. And my tanks were quite heavily stocked, with thriving aquatic plants including floaters which are the best of the lot when it comes to water quality.
Cich;lids are known to have trouble with nitrate at 20 ppm. Over on the cichlid site they are now crediting nitrate with diseases like hole in the head and Malawi bloat. Not food, but nitrate.
OP
OP
Thanks everyone for you input.
If you have nitrate in the well water, you could have other nasty things that could harm you or your family. You might want to get the well water tested by a specialist water testing company and try to find out exactly what is in the water besides nitrate. If it has something seriously toxic, you could be poisoning yourself when you use it.
OP
OP
That’s my plan.
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