how do you lower nitrates?

Have you ever tested your tap water for nitrates? Federal guidelines permit 20ppm, and if the water comes from a well, either your private one or a municipal one, it could well test above that level. My mother's house has water from a township well that tested at 60 ppm. Before I installed a whole house RO that is.
 
And it will take more water changes than you think to get down to 20ppm. If you start at 40 and do a 25% WC with tapwater that has some nitrates in it........... I think you can see the math behind it at that point. It gets worse when you consider that nitrates are constantly being produced and can't figure out why you're just about back to 40ppm within a week or even less. No, I'm not going to suggest huge water changes. Any change should be as gradual as possible. What I am suggesting is 25 percenters in much shorter cycles than you might consider fun.....like every 3 days until it gets under control. If that doesn't get the job done I'd start with your tap water in looking for clues. I recently switched to Seachem Prime and I have to say I've noticed a big difference.
 
Nitrites don't become toxic until 80ppm. 40ppm is often a recommended high with some dropping below that. Plants do quite well at lowering the nitrates, with some being considered "nitrate hogs". Water changes do the best job. Doing 1x a week @ 30% is usually enough if you do it every week. with weekly testing you will soon see what is normal for your water.
 
I am trying to converte it to a shrimp tank but they are still too high. I will keep up with the water changes a few times more this week. My other shrimp tanks have 0 nitrites and about 10 nitrates. so hoping that i can fix this problem soon
 
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