High Nitrates

[smartin78]

My local tap water is very high in Nitrates 40PPM. Hailey suggested I purchase an RO for my tap to keep my Nitrates in check. Unfortunately this is a little pricy for my low budget at this time. Does anyone know of a DIY that is cheap or another option (chemicals, bottled water, Etc.) I am trying this media that is suppose to absorb nitrites and nitrates. It doesn't seem to be doing at thing.

My current setup is a 75 Gallon Tank
1 H.O.T Magnum (canister 250GPH)
1 off brand HOB at 330 GPH
1 Proquatics (Canister 160 GPH, it is new and will replace the HOB once it is cycled)
PH 7.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 160 +

3 Severums
1 Silver Dollar
1 Angel
3 Kribensis
2 Dwarf Goramis
3 Cory Cats
3 Clown Loach
3 Apple Snails
1 Bamboo Shrimp
2 Striped Raphael Cats

[Damon]

Distilled water will work (its the same as R.O.) but will cost you much more in the long run. There is really no DIY way to get rid of nitrates. A nitrate "pillow" (Nitrasorb) Will exchange them for sodium, but thats not really healthy either.

[redpaulhus]

wow - federal standards for safe drinking water call for 10ppm or less...
You may want to consider some floating plants - frogbit, salvinia, giant duckweed, philantus fluitans, etc. They will use atmospheric CO2 and quickly pull nitrogen out of the water.

You also may want to look into a whole-house filter (water with that much nitrate can cause health problems, especially in small children or infants) - look for one that specifically removes nitrate (probably RO or DI or RO\DI).

Boiling will make the problem worse (concentrates the nitrate).
Bottled water will work but will very quickly cost much more than an RO system. (which I think Simpte already said).

[smartin78]

I like the idea of using plants to lower the nitrates. The problem is I only have a single 40W Florescent Bulb from which I understand is not enough for plants. Any lowcost lighting ideas?

I will retest my tap water when I get home and make sure I did not do something wrong when I tested it the first time.

Where you saying less then 10ppm is law? Should I be notifying someone?

Thanks for the input!!!

[davian459]

Ouch, are you sure that's really your nitrate readings off the tap....that plainly ain't good.

The best solution to your problem would be to change your water provider (almost impossible) or get a RO system (costly... but in your situation I think its worth it) just like SImpte and redpaulhus have already pointed out.

Here's just something you could try if you have some extra space and some extra equipment... make a plant only setup. Plants with high light requirement would be great. Watersprite and if you're a bit adventurous, some philodendrons would also be very useful. So long as they would have enough light, they'd eat up enough of the nitrate to get your water to more acceptable parameters. Note that I said acceptable parameters, don't expect plants to get your nitrates down to zero.

[smartin78]

OK, Good News. I either A.) Did the test wrong or B.) I tested my hot water and it ups the Nitrate level (don't know if that is a posibility). I retested my water with it set to cold. And it tested 5PPM Much better. Now that I have been reading about these RO machines though, I may save up and buy one for my drinking water. They sound pretty interesting. I found some on ebay for about $90 after shippint $120

Well I feel much better.

[MyraVan]

RO units are no good if you're an environmentalist. "An RO unit delivering 5 gallons of treated water per day may discharge 40 to 90 gallons of waste water per day to the septic system." according to
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/h2o...ys/ae1047w.htm

I use rain water along with tap water to make the tank water slightly less hard. (Our tap water has GH 300ppm.)

[Damon]

Depending on where oyu live, rainwater is not viable. For instance, here in Dayton, Ohio, the rainwater is very acidic and carries lots of pollutants. For a 75 gallon tank, the cost of 2 months waterchanges will be more than a simple 3 stage R.O. unit.

[karatechic007]

i have found an RO system for the whole house to work well because then you can drink the water with out worrying about it and the water works fine for fish (or atleast it worked fine for my fish) im not an expert at all, but i would suggest either getting a RO system or getting bottled water i also dont really believe someones post that said that RO systems make a whole lot of waste water.....but that is just MHO

[MyraVan]

i also dont really believe someones post that said that RO systems make a whole lot of waste water.....but that is just MHO

Indeed, it's your humble opinion, based on no evidence whatsoever.

How about "The downside is that the amount of waste water produced to get a gallon of treated water is about two to three times the amount of filtered water." from
http://www.create-your-healthy-home....se-osmosis.htm

Or how about "RO units waste a lot of water. The membrane usually has 4-6 times as much water passing by it as it allows though." from
http://www.reefsplendor.com/pages/waterfilters.html

If people choose to use RO filters, that's entirely up to them! I respect their choices. I am simply stating the fact that it does waste alot of water.