Tap Water has High Nitrates, Solution Question

[alli789]

Hello everyone,
My tap has 30 ppm nitrates, so I'm trying to find a solution for doing water changes that is the cheapest and best option for me. I'd like to use distilled water mixed with my tap water for water changes (maybe 50/50 tap and distilled for a 10% water change weekly). I'm hoping that in doing so I won't have to remineralize the distilled water because I'm unsure what product to use, and it would be additional money.
My tap water has high kH, over 14 dkh the last time I checked. I haven't measured gH but I do know that we have very hard water where we live (we have a water softener but I'm able to bypass it to add harder water to my tank if necessary.) My tap also has an 8.2 pH at the moment.
Do my parameters seem like they'd be ok if I did 50/50 water changes with tap and distilled without remineralizing? Would you recommend adding the hard water? I have one betta in a 10 gallon and I know that they can be sensitive to swinging parameters, so if I need to remineralize I will, but I thought I'd ask!

 

[hansgruber7]

I had a similar problem where my tap water was high in ammonia and nitrates. I ended up buying the RO buddy off amazon and it has been working great for me so far. Much cheaper and less hassle in the long run than picking it up from the LFS every week.

 

[Essjay]

If you use a 50:50 mix with hard water and RO, that will lower nitrate and hardness, perfect for a betta. With half your tap water hardness in the mix, you won't need to remineralise it.
As long as you use exactly the same proportion at every water change, the parameters won't fluctuate.


Just to check - are you using the bypass tap or the water from the softener? If the softener is the salt type, this should not be used for fish as it replaces the hardness minerals with sodium, which is not good for fish.

 

[alli789]

If you use a 50:50 mix with hard water and RO, that will lower nitrate and hardness, perfect for a betta. With half your tap water hardness in the mix, you won't need to remineralise it.
As long as you use exactly the same proportion at every water change, the parameters won't fluctuate.


Just to check - are you using the bypass tap or the water from the softener? If the softener is the salt type, this should not be used for fish as it replaces the hardness minerals with sodium, which is not good for fish.

Awesome, thank you very much! Good to know about the softener salt, I will use the bypassed water for water changes from now on (thank you for letting me know!)