Hard Tap Water High in Nitrates. How do I fill a new 125 Gal Tank with the best water type.

[Howard]

Hard Water High in Nitrates 

[Daniel]

6 minutes ago, Howard said:

Hard Water High in Nitrates 

I think you are all setup to grow plants!

[Garren]

Agree with Daniel. I have high nitrates and hard water straight from the city. My plants eat up the nutrients fairly fast so I still use EG to supplement. You should be all set. 

[CT_]

I'm shocked by how many people have high nitrate in their tap.  Supposedly the epa sets the limit to 10ppm.  Is there some kind of exception?

[Daniel]

I don’t know one way or another if EPA regulations are dispositive for nitrates in well water in rural areas.

[CT_]

Oh good point.  They probably only regulate municipal water

[KaitieG]

We had a high nitrate well in our first house and had to use RO for drinking and cooking.   Happens a lot in rural areas.  Now we're at about 4 instead of 40 which makes me much happier.

[MJV Aquatics]

I live in the country (central NYS) with a well and a 95 acre farmers field across the road. My nitrates are a bit better now, but back when, in the red with the API FW test kit.

I 'invented' a nitrate filter (documented on my blog in 'My Nitrate Fight') by repurposing an API Tap Water Filter (now discontinued), filling the cartridge with API NitraZorb. It works great and I've put over 10,000 gallons through it, recharging with salt water every 200 gallons or so. I make about 45 gallons at a time in the basement for water changes on about 5 tanks.

[Tory]

How high is high nitrates? My tap water is hard with 10-20ppm nitrates and I don't have any issues with it in my tanks. But lots of live plants could be a simple solution

[tolstoy21]

Yeah I’d say it depends on how high your high is. Mine is in the 40 ppm range out of the well so I also use a nitrate resin filter much like what @MJV Aquaticsuses (I read that blog post some time back!), except purchased my filter / resin from a water treatment supply company. I think I probably recharge the resin much the same way MJV does. If I were closer to the 10-20 range, I’d not worry about it either. 

[tolstoy21]

8 hours ago, CT_ said:

I'm shocked by how many people have high nitrate in their tap.  Supposedly the epa sets the limit to 10ppm.  Is there some kind of exception?

The EPA measure is for NO3-N which is a different measure than what aquarium test kits use. The conversion from 10mg/L NO3-N comes to around 40 ppm NO3 according to an API kit if I remember correctly. 

https://support.hach.com/app/answers/answer_view/a_id/1000316/~/what-is-the-factor-to-convert-from-no3-n-and-no3%3F-

Edited February 28, 2021 by tolstoy21

[tolstoy21]

8 hours ago, CT_ said:

Oh good point.  They probably only regulate municipal water

I think the EPA limit is there because anything over the limit is known to be a possible cause of death for infants under 6 months of age (blue baby syndrome).  How far over the EPA limit that red line is, no idea. 40 ppm is around 8.something NO3-N, so human and baby safe.

In my experience as a well owner, the EPA has no idea what my water looks like. So that limit is more informative than anything else.

I only know all this cause I went through all the well tests when I had a kid and because my dad ran the township municipal water authority in my hometown when I was younger, so he recommended the well tests when my kid was born, just as a precaution.

Edited February 28, 2021 by tolstoy21

[Koi]

8 minutes ago, tolstoy21 said:

The conversion from 10mg/L NO3-N comes to around 40 ppm NO3

You've explained a lot for me Ive always been confused about that!

My water comes in around 40 ppm nitrates and .5ish nitrite and Ive just been dealing with it. So far I can only get one of my tanks and my pond to bottom out on nitrates.

I'm definitely gonna do some research on the resin filter I am a little curious now.

Thanks @tolstoy21 @MJV Aquatics

[tolstoy21]

4 minutes ago, Koi said:

You've explained a lot for me Ive always been confused about that!

My water comes in around 40 ppm nitrates and .5ish nitrite and Ive just been dealing with it. So far I can only get one of my tanks and my pond to bottom out on nitrates.

I'm definitely gonna do some research on the resin filter I am a little curious now.

Thanks @tolstoy21 @MJV Aquatics

I think I posted details about mine on this forum at some point. The replacement resin isn’t cheap (it’s meant to be a disposable cartridge) but through a little trial and error I found an easy way to recharge it with solar salt.

In my setup I found soaking the cartridge wasn’t enough, you had to drip feed the brine solution through it at a slow constant rate, buts that easy to do with a length of aquarium hose and a Ziss air valve.

if you ever need more detail feel free to ask.

[Koi]

@tolstoy21 could you post the thread or give me a keyword so I can find it?

Before I hijack this thread I'll just ask this. Does it waste water like a RO filter? Ive read somewhere that it takes 4 gallons to make 1 gallon of ro water and I don't think I can stomach waisting that much water haha

[tolstoy21]

Just now, Koi said:

@tolstoy21 could you post the thread or give me a keyword so I can find it?

Before I hijack this thread I'll just ask this. Does it waste water like a RO filter? Ive read somewhere that it takes 4 gallons to make 1 gallon of ro water and I don't think I can stomach waisting that much water haha

Nope. No waste. Gallon in, gallon out. Works inline like a sediment or carbon block filter. The waste from an RO unit comes from the RO membrane rejecting water and the removed waste.

[tolstoy21]

@Koi it was part of this thread.