Nitrate reading: 40-50 ppm

Star_Rider said:
either way 40-50 ppm nitrate reading is nothing to worry about.

if you are dosing the seachem line(the whole shebang) then you are also adding nitrate when dosing.this will add to your ppm count...
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Yes indeed I guess I'll leave out the Nitrogen for now. I guess feeding would also rise the nitrate levels, wouldn't it? After testing I found out it was the tap water that contains high levels of nitrates...45 ppm. Thanks :)
 
dundadundun said:
test your test kit with a nitrate reference solution. if it turns out it's right it's still no big deal. w/c's should certainly help but i think the epa guidelines for drinking water are ~45ppm... so your tap could potentially carry that much. i'd certainly be testing that.
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**** you were right on the money, my tap water nitrate levels were at 45 ppm!
 
if you're getting 45ppm tap... and 50 in-tank... then whatever's going into the tank is making 1-2ppm between w/c's (assuming weekly). if you are dosing N separately you could certainly stop blowing that money for a while, i'd think.

if it's just part of a comprehensive mix you may still need it. at that point it's lower concentrations anyway... and your numbers aren't alarming, really... so i wouldn't worry about it.
 
The amount of nitrates allowed varies from state to state. 45ppm is very high for tap water. Here in California the limit is 33ppm before they declare it non-potable and don't allow you to use a well. The EPA has it listed as 10ppm.

http://water.epa.gov/drink/contaminants/index.cfm#1

The major risk of high nitrates is to infants under 6 months old when using formula.

So for you fish and plants these levels are not an issue but if I were you, I'd drink the RO water.
 
thanks for clearing that up, the v.

it does say (measured as nitrogen) (N). i was reading on barrreport recently that no3 measured as simply N would have to multiplied by 4.44 or 4.42 (not sure which) to ascertain accurate ppm's when measured as no3.

basically... ~45ppm no3 is ~10ppm pure N. sound about right? would make sense from what i read, sepehr's tap measurement and your link to the epa guidelines.

gotta say... i absolutely agree about not drinking that water un-filtered.
 
sepehr said:
Yes indeed I guess I'll leave out the Nitrogen for now. I guess feeding would also rise the nitrate levels, wouldn't it? After testing I found out it was the tap water that contains high levels of nitrates...45 ppm. Thanks :)
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The recommended range for tap water regarding nitrates is 10ppm or less for human consumption. That is the upper range. Above that and it can cause death in infants. I am really surprised that your tap water is that high. Is this a well we are talking about here? The reason I know about this is because we are looking at single family homes in an area that requires the use of well water. We have the wells tested at the places we put offers on and the last one came back with nitrates at 30ppm, which was really high, and a turbidity above 1.5 which was really high too. If you are on a municipal water supply, you might want to mention this to the municipality before infants start getting sick and possibly dying.

On the last property we were going to put a contract on, we would have essentially had to use RO filters underneath the sink for our drinking and cooking water. It was going to be a PITA, but something that we were willing to do because the property was just that nice.
 
Wow that is high nitrate levels for tap water as the EPA maximum allowable for city systems is 10 PPM I believe. look it up and call your water company, it should not be 45 PPM out of the tap unless you have cross contamination from a septic tank nearby.

I had to do a special 25% water chnage on my 244 mabuna tank becasue with winter and loss of daylight the pothos nitrate filter for that tank which dose not face a window but gets reflected light off the wall allowed my nitrates to spike to 40. So now I have had an 18W light on the plant 16 hours a day and its back down to 10 PPM.
 
guys... before everyone goes ranting on about 10ppm, can someone straighten this out or not?

nitrates = 1 nitrogen atom and 3 oxygen atoms = no3
nitrates measured as nitrogen (just like our epa example) = measuring only the nitrogen in the nitrates
the epa page posted mentions nitrates (measured as nitrogen)
to get nitrate ppm from a nitrogen reading you multiply by 4.4 something to include the molar mass/weight of the oxygen
this means that 10ppm nitrogen (what kills babies according to the epa) should come out to about 44 point something something ppm nitrates when tested with a hobby kit... because they don't test pure nitrogen (N) they test nitrates (NO3)
since test kits test no3 you can divide by 4.4..... to get your pure n reading.... what you're doing is dividing out the molecular weight of the oxygen in your nitrates to figure out how much nitrogen is actually in your nitrates.

i found this info on barrreport. i tend to trust tom, left c, hoppy, philosophous... and a few other key members over there a lot more than other folks who don't look into how and why, may not know the chemistry, etc. ...

also... although i'm sure it's not the greatest thing to constantly ingest... the mortality issue related to such levels is supposed to only be viable in the first 6 months of the infants lives according to the epa if i read that right.

so... either someone can set me straight... or i'm forced to assume the op's 45ppm nitrates is about 10ppm nitrogen and may be totally acceptable in his municipality... except i wouldn't drink it personally...

basically... if the epa and our municipalities are measuring nitrogenous waste in our drinking water the same way we're measuring nitrates in our tanks... i have an issue with that. i would hope you guys would too....
 
one last note... doesn't it seem alarming... or a little off... that 10 ppm can kill infants... yet california (typically the strictest state) allows up to 33ppm... there has to be some kind of conversion for that to make sense, IMO.
 
dundadundun said:
guys... before everyone goes ranting on about 10ppm, can someone straighten this out or not?

nitrates = 1 nitrogen atom and 3 oxygen atoms = no3
nitrates measured as nitrogen (just like our epa example) = measuring only the nitrogen in the nitrates
the epa page posted mentions nitrates (measured as nitrogen)
to get nitrate ppm from a nitrogen reading you multiply by 4.4 something to include the molar mass/weight of the oxygen
this means that 10ppm nitrogen (what kills babies according to the epa) should come out to about 44 point something something ppm nitrates when tested with a hobby kit... because they don't test pure nitrogen (N) they test nitrates (NO3)
since test kits test no3 you can divide by 4.4..... to get your pure n reading.... what you're doing is dividing out the molecular weight of the oxygen in your nitrates to figure out how much nitrogen is actually in your nitrates.

i found this info on barrreport. i tend to trust tom, left c, hoppy, philosophous... and a few other key members over there a lot more than other folks who don't look into how and why, may not know the chemistry, etc. ...

also... although i'm sure it's not the greatest thing to constantly ingest... the mortality issue related to such levels is supposed to only be viable in the first 6 months of the infants lives according to the epa if i read that right.

so... either someone can set me straight... or i'm forced to assume the op's 45ppm nitrates is about 10ppm nitrogen and may be totally acceptable in his municipality... except i wouldn't drink it personally...

basically... if the epa and our municipalities are measuring nitrogenous waste in our drinking water the same way we're measuring nitrates in our tanks... i have an issue with that. i would hope you guys would too....
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I don't know the particulars of all this. All I know is what the well water tests state.

The method used to test Nitrate-Nitrite is EPA method 353.2.

In the test results that I have seen, they break out Nitrite-N and Nitrate-N with this test. Here is the specifics about the test:

http://www.caslab.com/EPA-Methods/PDF/EPA-Method-3532.pdf

I'm an attorney/CPA, not a scientist, so I have no idea what the difference is between our test kits and the way EPA requires the test be performed. Definitely don't know if you divide by 4.4 to make our test kit the equivalent to the EPA test to take the molecular weight of oxygen into account. I could probably figure it out if I wanted to, but I just don't have the time or the energy to go through it today.

You seem pretty versed on this.

Just found this. Everything you might want to know regarding California's drinking water requirements. On page 77 it states that the maximum acceptable level of nitrate as NO3 in the water is 45 mg/l. How does 45 mg/l convert to ppm? I believe they are pretty much one and the same.

http://psbweb.co.kern.ca.us/eh_inte...tTopic/CaliforniaCodeOfRegulationsTitle22.pdf

What I do know is that using my test kit, the water coming out of my tape, municipal water, is ALWAYS less than 5 ppm nitrate. I don't think I would want to be drinking it if it was at 45 ppm, even if it is on the edge of the acceptable range.

Yep, no thanks:

Nitrate is an acute contaminant, which means a single exposure can affect a person's health. It reduces the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen. In most adults and children these red blood cells rapidly return to normal. However, in infants it can take much longer for the blood cells to return to normal. Infants who drink water with high levels of nitrate (or eat foods made with nitrate-contaminated water) may develop a serious health condition due to the lack of oxygen. This condition is called methemoglobinemia or "blue baby syndrome." Some scientists think diarrhea can make this problem even worse.
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http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/Programs/nitrate.htm

 
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