taikoboi
New member
So I just hook this system to my washer machine?
High Nitrate problem Please Help
- Thread starter taikoboi
- Start date
So I just hook this system to my washer machine?
shaginwagon13
Chartered Accountant
Washer machine, under your sink, even the piping to your hot-water tank.
Just make sure you tee it off to the COLD water line and not the hot water line.
taikoboi
New member
yeah definitly lol... don't wanna cook my fish hehe.I think I'm going to order one today! Thanks for the info:-D
check the nitrates in the filter water u use. i bet you thats most of ur problem along with over feeding. i have heard this so many time on so many forums that distilled/filterd water has nitrates as high as 80-100ppm. please check ur water and post ur results i am curious.
shaginwagon13
Chartered Accountant
Its not for the fish.... hooking a RO/DI unit to the hot water line will ruin your membrane.
Anything over 113-115F will melt the glue and material that the membrane is made of and destroy it so you want to avoid that by using the cold water line.
If, when you hook up your RO/DI unit, your getting very little output, you may have low pressure in your pipes. In that case you will need to buy a booster pump.
shaginwagon13
Chartered Accountant
Wow I wasn't even aware of that.... you learn something new everyday.
taikoboi
New member
Oh I see.. Okay I will make sure to hook it up properly and use the cold line.
taikoboi
New member
Will do, I will check when I get home and let you all know.
shaginwagon13
Chartered Accountant
From your pic it looks like you have a power head pointed downward in the right hand side of your tank. Your tank can be milky maybe because the power head is stirring up the sand bed and keeping sand particles suspended in the water column.
sporto0
New member
Most milky or cloudy water conditions are usually associated with a type of bacterial bloom in the water column, I don't think the sand is causing your cloud, try cutting back on the feeding, maybe twice a day, every other day or just once a day. High nitrates will not cause the water to become milky but you are always going to have higher nitrates with that many & those type fish, like bnumair said, water changes & a refugium with macro algae will help keep them lower, but in all honesty, for a fish only tank, nitrates are not really a problem & even if your levels are over 100ppm they are not toxic to your fish. Something is fueling the bacteria bloom & it's probably a combination of new tank syndrome & slight overfeeding, the tank will eventually catch up to the load you have put on it, but I would refrain from adding anything new for a while. Good luck.
uncleof6
Active member
I want a link to this information, and on what it is based.
Although "rocky mountain spring water" can be expected to have "additives" in it, RO water comes in at ~ 20 µS/cm, (conductivity) assuming 95% removal or rejection of the contaminants, starting with tap water @ 400 µS/cm. Distilled water comes in at far less ~.5 µS/cm, and at a CO2 equilibrium with the surrounding air, i can't imagine it going above 20 µS/cm. It is hardly going to have any nitrates in it--let alone 80 - 100 ppm. Chasing the proverbial penny in the total of the ocean volume, or the one rogue algae spore on a dead rock.
I would agree that bottled "drinking water" could easily have anything in it, however distilled not so likely. The reason it is NOT advised to drink distilled water over a prolonged period of time: the lack of nutrients in it--that cause a nutrient depletion in the human system--leading to health issues.
taikoboi
New member
Very helpful info! I will reduce feeding to once a day and look into refugium with macro algae.
This forum is so helpful I'm glad I joined. Lots of informative people. Thanks all.
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taikoboi
New member
Do you think I should get rid of my fluval canister filter? Read somewhere it could cause a lot of nitrates.
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sporto0
New member
Here's the deal with canister, wet/dry & mechanical filters, they will not produce more nitrates than the bio load (fish waste & uneaten food) put upon them, they just don't allow for nitrates to be converted into nitrogen gas like porous live rock does, however there is only a small amount of nitrogen gas being converted, it's not like you would have zero nitrates with live rock only compared to say 100ppm nitrates with a canister filter, over time in this hobby, we have tried to perfect everything, the fact is if you rinse your sponges every week or two & clean out your filter every 4-6 months so that detritus build up is eradicated, you will be fine, it will NOT produce higher nitrates. Reef tanks are a slightly different animal, corals can be affected by higher nitrates, thats why we limit the livestock & try to avoid overloading our systems, but that does not mean you couldn't use a an HOB or canister filter for mechanical filtration, minus the bio-media along with live rock for biological filtration, but again nitrates are part of the nitrogen cycle, so that is why water changes are so important in my opinion, they are the fastest way to export nitrates from a closed system such as a home aquarium. I do want to stress that nitrates are non harmful to fish & that should not become an obsession for you unless you want to keeep some corals & in that case you would probably need to reduce your fish stock to accomodate the corals because of the nitrates they produce. Sorry for being long winded, but there is never an easy or one way to do anything answer in this hobby.
taikoboi
New member
I understand. I do clean my filter pads every two weeks but I have been emptying the whole canister and throwing the water away. I have a feeling I shouldn't be doing that hehe.
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taikoboi
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