Dont take anything for granted!

I have been trying to reduce my nitrates now for around a month and it is still at a constant level (around 15). This has given me a few headaches but I decided I would test for nitrates in my RO water that I get from a local supplier. Low and behold there lies the culprit....the water they supplied had the same level of nitrates as what is in my tank. So all of those water changes wouldn't have done a thing!

So my lesson learnt was that dont take anything for granted.

 

That is why you should own your own RO/DI unit. You can never know when they changed their filters.

 

Amen.

 

I agree with that you should get your own RO/DI unit. Too many people have had the same problem you have with local stores.....

 

Get the kents nitrate sponge, it removed the last 20ppm for my nightmare nitrate problem.

 

agreed.. in fact, untill i can get my RO unit, i even taste the water before i put it in.. one time i almost dumped 5 gallons of FRESH water on a change.. they gave it to me by mistake..

 

Until you get your RO unit, you are probably better off just using tapwater and mixing yourself, so you know exactly what you have.

Many of us here just use tapwater (of course treated with a declorinator) and it works just fine.

Of course water quality varies from place to place, but is worth trying out instead of depending on someone else.

 

Whoa!!

I always thought that was a huge no-no. I mean is chlorine really the only thing in tapwater that'll cause problems? i always thought tap water had metals and other crap.. I mean ive always just used treated tapwater for my freshwater, but i thought marine was a LOT more sensitive to it.. hmm, someone chime in here, i dunn wanna kill my tank.. but if tapwater is cool, that would save me a lot of headache on tap off

 

The worst thing about tap water is water treatment facilities add COPPER in the summer months to cut down on algae growth. Aslong as you have a copper test kit, and it always reads zero, you are fine. You can also get nitrates and phosphates from tap water. We've checked our tap water with a TDS meter and its usually less then 50ppm which is really great for tap water. So my only concern inthe summer months is copper.

 

tap water is'nt that bad.i've been using mine which is city water for 6 yrs and my tanks great.i would'nt use well water though,it would have all kinds of metals in it.of course we have the best tap water arround.i'm sure theres some places with unsuitable tap water.