Nitrates in tap water !

[Merrilyn]

Brisbanites beware. A discus breeder in Brisbane just told me that he measured a nitrate reading of 15 coming out of his tap :!:

Test your tap water before you do a water change.

You may not be doing your fish any favours :?

[Proteus]

Maybe a super special on Seachem de*nitrate is needed???

[GreenDiscus]

Thanks Merrilyn
I was about to do a water change on 4 tanks (40 discus) today in Brisbane, but will delay until I check it out. I can still do my new babies water change though that are still feeding off the parents, since I use heated aged water over a week old for them.......
We have just gone onto level 5 wter restrictions !!!

[Merrilyn]

I know you guys in Brisbane are having a hard time of it. Level 5 is going to make it tough for fishkeepers.

Try to hang in there. It's gotta rain sooner or later.

In the meantime, test your water before you do water changes. Even heating and aging the water for a week won't remove the nitrates.

You need to use a specific nitrate remover.

[GreenDiscus]

Brisbane was going to have a reforendum about recycled water, but now they are doing it anyway !! TV adverts say how clean it is, but this proves they have not got it right.......

Thanks also for the comment that "ageing" the water for the babies will not help !!

I have reduced water changes on my highly filtered and highly oxygenated tanks with no problem, since this reduces BOD Levels, but not on breeding tank set ups.

Perhaps Proteous can send a sample of his product - is it safe with babies ?!

[Pauluk]

Do you usually have no nitrates in your water? its very common in the uk, my tap water is 30ppm, I cut it with 50% ro water so its at 15ppm so theres no need to add nitrates for the plants which I do if it gets below 10

[Merrilyn]

Paul, our water here in Australia, for most parts of the country, is soft, neutral and with a nitrate reading of zero.

During the drought this year, nitrate readings have been starting to show up in our tap water.

[GreenDiscus]

Paul - I used to keep Discus in Eastern England and the Calcium Carbonate from the chalk furred up your kettle in days. This coupled with Nitrate from Agricultural Fertilser run-off was not good for Discus....!!

Im not sure if the current high Nitrate level in Brisbane is from Agro Chemicals or Pollution due to the dry resovoirs and recycled water. However, UK has had recycled water for many years as well...................