Aquariums: Did a 90% water change and still in the red…
Did a 90% water change and still in the red…
Posted by Abject_Barnacle
21 Comments
GloomyWill4 on
what donyou have in the tank??
Abject_Barnacle on
I have shrimp coming in the mail in a few days and I’m freaking out, I did a 90% water change and still no reduction. My tap water is at 80ppm normally… should I continue to try and do more water changes. Then in the end drain all the water and replace with distilled water from the store? I ordered sechem de-nitrate and it comes tomorrow.
TofuDadWagon on
That doesn’t seem right. Have you tried testing distilled water to test the kit?
Round-Guitar-1807 on
Fresh or salt water tank?
ephemeralhyped on
On the top of your test page it says saltwater test kit
MaruMint on
You could try testing straight tap water and see what you get.
I bet that fluval stratum you got might be releasing a ton of nitrates; your plants will love it, and it will jump start your cycling. But yeah you’ll need more water changes.
buttershdude on
You’re likely pickign up some nitrate leaching out of the new aquasoil. But I’ll bet your test kit is bad, and I certainly hope your tap water doesn’t actually contain 80 ppm. Yikes.
Kriiisss21 on
Check the expiration date on the bottle?
FuzzyJoint on
Looks fucked man
Cool-Stranger829 on
Get a better test kit. Api nitrate and alk are pretty consistently off from the manufacturer.
LordAlrik on
I’ve got this same issue. I just bought one Thursday, and it read 160+ nitrates. Did a 50% change and still 160+
AquariumsCo on
If your tap water has 80ppm nitrates I would be very concerned. Any more than 10ppm is unsafe to drink and can interfere with your body’s ability to carry oxygen. If your tap water is truly 80ppm you must boil it and even then, l would not drink it. At the very least, you should run it through a reverse osmosis filter before drinking.
The very first thing I would do is alert the health department. This is a serious problem. Have you tested for nitrites and ammonia? Your water is polluted and finding the source of the pollution is important.
As far as human consumption is concerned, the max for nitrites is 1ppm, and ammonia should be less than .5ppm. With nitrates as high as they are, I expect to see high nitrites and maybe some ammonia too. Scary!
If you don’t have anything else, just to be sure run down to the store and get some test strips, at least this should confirm your findings. I run a water district and findings like this would result in a shut down order or at the very least a ‘boil your water’ advisory. Sometimes something gets into the well and dies causing everything from e-coli to other hazardous toxins and often aquarium peeps are the ones who find it first (not my water of course, we’ve never had this problem!)
OutsideEgg3895 on
where do you live????? 80ppm for tap water is insane bro
pyrocidal on
jfc that’s insane. please update with the new test kit
StealManTrap on
Same thing happened to an ammonia test kit i had. Tested the spring and distilled water. Found the kit was bad
Gorbashsan on
Mine comes put of the tap at around 50ppm because i live in an agricultural zone and our groundwater is heavily contaminated by the runoff. Do you live near a dairy or farm area?
nonamelessness on
Did you change it out with unflushed toilet water
humidhotdog on
Could be an inaccurate test. The test kits can be inaccurate sometimes. Maybe try getting test strips and see what those look like.
69throw42away69 on
There’s some ways to handle this in tank, specifically plants that will help to balance and using a bubbler. It’s wild that your tap water is this high, id recommend calling your city services and report it as this can have negative health effects in humans and be potentially lethal for animals.
TohDoubleD on
Check out talk water. And maybe don’t drink it
natural_scientist on
That tapwater can cause sepsis and eat you from the inside.
21 Comments
what donyou have in the tank??
I have shrimp coming in the mail in a few days and I’m freaking out, I did a 90% water change and still no reduction. My tap water is at 80ppm normally… should I continue to try and do more water changes. Then in the end drain all the water and replace with distilled water from the store? I ordered sechem de-nitrate and it comes tomorrow.
That doesn’t seem right. Have you tried testing distilled water to test the kit?
Fresh or salt water tank?
On the top of your test page it says saltwater test kit
You could try testing straight tap water and see what you get.
I bet that fluval stratum you got might be releasing a ton of nitrates; your plants will love it, and it will jump start your cycling. But yeah you’ll need more water changes.
You’re likely pickign up some nitrate leaching out of the new aquasoil. But I’ll bet your test kit is bad, and I certainly hope your tap water doesn’t actually contain 80 ppm. Yikes.
Check the expiration date on the bottle?
Looks fucked man
Get a better test kit. Api nitrate and alk are pretty consistently off from the manufacturer.
I’ve got this same issue. I just bought one Thursday, and it read 160+ nitrates. Did a 50% change and still 160+
If your tap water has 80ppm nitrates I would be very concerned. Any more than 10ppm is unsafe to drink and can interfere with your body’s ability to carry oxygen. If your tap water is truly 80ppm you must boil it and even then, l would not drink it. At the very least, you should run it through a reverse osmosis filter before drinking.
The very first thing I would do is alert the health department. This is a serious problem. Have you tested for nitrites and ammonia? Your water is polluted and finding the source of the pollution is important.
As far as human consumption is concerned, the max for nitrites is 1ppm, and ammonia should be less than .5ppm. With nitrates as high as they are, I expect to see high nitrites and maybe some ammonia too. Scary!
If you don’t have anything else, just to be sure run down to the store and get some test strips, at least this should confirm your findings. I run a water district and findings like this would result in a shut down order or at the very least a ‘boil your water’ advisory. Sometimes something gets into the well and dies causing everything from e-coli to other hazardous toxins and often aquarium peeps are the ones who find it first (not my water of course, we’ve never had this problem!)
where do you live????? 80ppm for tap water is insane bro
jfc that’s insane. please update with the new test kit
Same thing happened to an ammonia test kit i had. Tested the spring and distilled water. Found the kit was bad
Mine comes put of the tap at around 50ppm because i live in an agricultural zone and our groundwater is heavily contaminated by the runoff. Do you live near a dairy or farm area?
Did you change it out with unflushed toilet water
Could be an inaccurate test. The test kits can be inaccurate sometimes. Maybe try getting test strips and see what those look like.
There’s some ways to handle this in tank, specifically plants that will help to balance and using a bubbler. It’s wild that your tap water is this high, id recommend calling your city services and report it as this can have negative health effects in humans and be potentially lethal for animals.
Check out talk water. And maybe don’t drink it
That tapwater can cause sepsis and eat you from the inside.