Nitrites in tap water

M

MSmith

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Nov 20, 2003
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Hi,

I'm getting ready to set up a new aquarium. I've tested our tap water and it has about 0.5ppm nitrites. Will Bio-safe and Bio-spira be able to take care of that or will I have trouble if I put fish into it?

Thanks for any help.
 
Nitrites are not good. From what I have read, Bio-Spira does not address nitrites as well as it does ammonia, and tanks cycled this way will frequently have nitrite spikes. You could try it, and see (ie, add the product and then test), but I would worry that you'll still stress the fish using this for water changes, and by introducing nitrites, you may have problems with keeping nitrates down if this is an unplanted tank.
 
It is an unplanted tank. So, what should I do? Are there any products that will remove nitrites or do I need to use store-bought water? (That's what my husband and I drink--we know our water's lousy.) It's only a 20 gallon tank, so that would be feasible if not ideal. If I use store water, should I use regular or distilled?

Thanks.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about nitrites like that. Salt will help out a lot with reducing how toxic it is. If you don't have any loaches or plecos, add a tablespoon per 5 gallons... if you have them add a tablespoon per 10 gallons.
 
It's municipal water. I've tested it high and came up with that result both times. I'm sure it's not the test though, because I tested both spring water and distilled water from the store and they both tested at 0ppm. I cannot drink the water here. It's awful. I live almost on the beach by the Gulf of Mexico and there's lots of pollution from refineries and tankers and stuff. I don't know if that has any effect or not--I'm not sure where nitrites in tap water come from. I've bought spring water for my initial tank filling. I'm not sure what I'll do for water changes--I'm thinking of using some of the AmQuel Plus to treat the water, but I wanted to give my tank a chance to cycle and my fish to adjust before adding nitrites from the water. I plan to add fish and bio-spira when I get back from traveling for Thanksgiving.
 
I think I'd be inclined to call the local water utility and inquire about that. I just did a quick search on www.epa.gov for allowable levels of nitrite, and if I read it correctly (not a given; I skimmed it pretty quickly), it looks like 1 ppm is the max allowable for a peak reading, and regular readings must be lower than 50% of that. If that's correct, your consistent reading of .5 ppm is too high...

I'd start with the water company and go from there.

Good luck,
Jim
 
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