Tropical Fish Forum

Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fishtank Filtration and Cycling => Topic started by: Aquamaid on December 31, 2014, 10:30:31 AM

Title: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Aquamaid on December 31, 2014, 10:30:31 AM
Hi all, i think i'm all ready for new fish today, had Ammo and Nitrite at 0- 0 for a few days now, been feeding ammonia till Lfs open today, done nearly empty tank water change and still  0-0 BUT! Nitrate before and after water change is 10 -20 hard to tell difference, is that ok for my hard water or should it be lower? 
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Richard W on December 31, 2014, 11:31:18 AM
Do you know what your water company says (on its web site) that the normal nitrate level is in your tap water? You should try to get your tank water as close as possible to that, which varies widely from place to place according to where the supply comes from.
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Aquamaid on December 31, 2014, 01:24:30 PM
I will double check Richard thanks. They say their Nitrate doesn't exceed 50mg/L so i'm none the wiser lol
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Sue on December 31, 2014, 01:42:53 PM
50 mg/l (or 50ppm) is the maximum permitted level in UK drinking water so it looks as though they are just saying they are complying with the legislation. My water company tells me that they tested the water for nitrate 8 times during 2013 (the last full year available) and the results varied between a minimum of 1.4 and a max of 6.9 with a mean of 3.1625.

This (https://www.nwl.co.uk/_assets/files/wq/T103.pdf) is my water quality report, does your company not have anything like this?
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Aquamaid on December 31, 2014, 02:03:02 PM
Yes they kindly sent me an e mail i will have a look on the list. It says, Samples taken 4     Minimum 32.2 Average 34.6   Maximum 37
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Sue on December 31, 2014, 02:14:48 PM
Those figures mean that for your tapwater you should have a colour on your tester somewhere between 20 and 40, but nearer the 40 colour than the 20 colour. Though to be honest, on my shade card there isn't much difference between the two. But the colour should be a bright orange red to red rather than pure orange (10) or orange yellow (5).
And your tank nitrate should be higher than that, in the definitely red shades, at the end of a cycle. Or if it is very high, the colour should be turning purplish.
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Richard W on December 31, 2014, 02:29:40 PM
Those are pretty high readings for nitrate in tap water. Mine isn't quite as low as Sue's (hers comes from up in the hills) but still quite low at a mean of 9.4. I wonder if AM's water is from ground water rather than a reservoir, as that always seems to have higher nitrates. It might be too high for nitrate sensitive fish.
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: SteveS on December 31, 2014, 05:13:48 PM
It might be a groundwater problem. The South and East, being drier, would use more groundwater than the north and west generally. My up-to-date numbers, from North London, are min:20.8 avg:24.89 max:29.8. And I know that my lot do use groundwater.
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Richard W on December 31, 2014, 06:05:26 PM
Thanks to the introduction of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, the amount of nitrates entering water from agricultural fertiliser, including slurry, has been greatly reduced. This means that those of us who get our water from surface reservoirs now have much lower nitrate levels than before. However, there is still likely to be plenty of nitrate that has percolated down into groundwater which will take much longer to clear. Much of the south east, including London, is largely dependent on groundwater.
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Aquamaid on January 03, 2015, 10:18:56 AM
I now think i have missed my window of opportunity, and am trying to balance empty tank. Despite 90% w/c on Tues, my NITRATE has risen to either 40 or 80 ppm not sure, OMG have just done same test on existing tank and it reads the same, fish are healthy so is that ok maybe? should i do tap water test again?
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Sue on January 04, 2015, 04:37:11 PM
I would test your tapwater as you've just done a big water change. That will tell you if your high nitrate came with the water change or something else.
Title: Re: Help! what should Nitrate reading be?
Post by: Aquamaid on January 04, 2015, 04:45:00 PM
I did tap test this morning Sue, and sure enough it was 40 too, so not a lot i can do about it, Platties and Minnows are thriving on it so for now i aint gonna worry (supposedly my new year mantra) that won't last long especially as iv'e got residence in the new tank now 6 new Congos, so it's gonna be days of scrutinizing and counting lol.