Liquid testing is more accurate and gives a clearer visual indication of what your levels are. (It's easier to compare a coloured liquid to the chart, than a teeny, tiny felt patch).
Ah...another shout out for Ye Olde and Ancients Ways of acquiring 'Matured' water...often in a water butt, out in the garden.
How long does that process usually take? I don't even know if I have room for another tank lol, but any excuse for another right??? lol.
Liquid.
Do you have an outside space? A yard, perhaps? Room for a large, open plastic barrel?
Alright so I filled up a gallon jug with tap water, put two drops of Prime from a pipette into the jug and shook it real good. Took a test right away thinking I wouldn't see any drop from 5+ppg, and the dang thing is already sky blue!!! Immediately. Wow, I read it was instant basically at eliminating chlorine, but didn't think it would be that quick to react with Nitrites.
Yeah I think I could get away with putting one in the backyard, but I do have a lot of shade from the one huge tree, and its a small backyard. Would this be an issue for the plants?
If you have lots of floating plants, they can remove ammonia, nitrite and nitrate from water in a few days. Fewer plants will take longer.
No idea. I know there are substances that remove nitrates from water (nitrasorb, etc), but I don't know of anything that can be used as a physical filter to remove nitrite from water. In aquariums bacteria or plants remove it.
Hmmm, could my kitchen faucet have something in it that would be causing nitrites then? Because if a filter wouldn't remove it (I wouldn't be surprised if they couldn't), that would lead me to think its coming from the kitchen faucet.
Back in the Olden Days, when it were all trees round here, etc., people would keep a large open-topped barrel or tub, to collect rainwater for the garden. Fishkeepers learned that this water was actually mature and suitable for their aquariums, when heavily chlorinated water from their taps was not. (Life before water conditioners, remember). Such tubs didn't have plants and it was the simple process of leaving the water to sit awhile that removed the unhealthy (for fish) elements to dissipate.
Nope, the taps and pipework won't be creating the nitrite. It is in the water that is coming from the water company. In the UK they have nitrate in a lot of their tap water. Some places have low levels of ammonia from the chloramine they add to it. This is the first time I have heard of nitrite in tap water.
