nitrates off the chart

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slipgate

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Mar 4, 2010
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Just lost what seemed to be a healthy beta. So I checked the water params and all were perfect accept Nitrates which were off the charts high.

I just go an RO/DI system so I plan on making a 50-75% water change and then changing maybe 10% every other day for the next week or so.

It is very hard keeping Nitrates down when the tap water comes out at 20ppm!
 

BettaFishMommy

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Mar 17, 2008
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Sherry N.
also double check that you are doing the nitrate test correctly. there are a few precise steps that need to be followed. (i will assume you are using the API freshwater master kit with drops and vials?)
 

slipgate

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Mar 4, 2010
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Yep - that is the test kit we use and are following the directions to the "t". We have let this tank go for awhile without water changes so that would explain it. I have my RO/DI system running now filling the 50g trash can.
 

dundadundun

;sup' dog? ;woof and a wwwoof!
Jan 21, 2009
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S.E. PA
Thanks! They are lying their a off! I'm going to complain now!
don't do that! nooooooooooooooooo..............

before you go and do that you want to know what 10ppm nitrogen means in water vs. how we measure nitrogen. we measure nh3/nh4 (ammonia/ammonium) no2 (nitrites) and no3 (nitrates).

this means that if you're on city water and you pour water out of your faucet into a bucket and add dechlor you're going to get a measurment of nh3/nh4 from your tap water if most likely. ever since 2006 it's been federally mandated that any system serving a certain amount of homes must use chloramine instead of chlorine for their bacteria killing agent due to it's stability in an aqueous solution. it doesn't gas off in the pipes leaving for bacteria to take a foothold and leave you with toxic water at your faucet. chloramine is nothing more than chlorine bonded with ammonia. since we break that bond and make a bond that de-toxifies/eliminates chlorine, we're left with free-floating ammonia. it's definitely an improvement from the alternative, though.

i believe this is ammoniacal nitrogen.

then there's nitrogen from nitrite (no2) and nitrate (no3) being the least toxic.

in nitrate there is one nitrogen atom and 3 oxygen atoms. when nitrate is measured in ppm it must be divided by ~4.4 to get your total nitrogen from nitrate. this is due to the total molecular weight or molar mass of 3 oxygen atoms and one nitrate atom per every part.

check this out... http://www.webqc.org/molecular-weight-of-NO3.html

so - if we were to calculate a number to use as a reference representing 10ppm n of no3 for our nitrate test kits using the numbers in the link above we'd divide that 10ppm by it's percentage it represents by molecular weight and get how many part per million of nitrate that represents on our no3 test kits like so...

10ppm n of no3 = 10/22.5897% or 10/.225897 which comes out to approximately 44.2679628ppm nitrates and is well above your 20ppm.
 

dundadundun

;sup' dog? ;woof and a wwwoof!
Jan 21, 2009
4,295
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S.E. PA
also... if you're going to run ro/di for a freshwater tank, might i suggest you run a mineralizer after the filter or use seachem equilibrium, gh booster, baking soda, dolomitic limestone, crushed coral, etc. to buffer and add minerals to your water. reconstitute...
 

Jannika

MTS Survivor
Mar 17, 2010
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N. California
Dun, you lost me. My water company reports 5.28 ppm nitrates in the water, and that matches exactly what my home test reveals.
 
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