Sunshine State

I am so completely confused about what's in city water and what whole house water conditioners are supposed to do. When I first set up my new aquarium and started testing the water, I found that my tap water (through my water softener) had .5 PPM ammonia and .5 ppm nitrite, 0 nitrate. My next door neighbor has a different system, and water conditioner. I tested their tap water and sure enough: 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, but traces of nitrate. So I called my company and and asked for an upgraded system that would treat the water same as my neighbor. Today, they installed the system and I have 0 ppm ammonia, but still .5 ppm nitrite, 0 nitrate. Then I started reading on the internet about water quality and different water conditioners and became even more confused. The information I read (about city/well water) says that nitrates and converted into harmful nitrites either in the human digestive system or through bacterial process in the water system. Maybe I am just on information overload at this point, but don't know. Is it different for aquariums than for house water Is it a different nitrogen cycle. Is it ok to be adding tap water that contains .5 ppm nitrites to my aquarium Any scientists out there

cerianthus

If your tank water's pH is lowered than 7.6, I wouldnt worry about .5ppm of NH3. Would be slightly concerned with .5ppm of NO2 though. More importantly what is pH of the tank and tap now?

Sunshine State

Hello and thanks so much for the prompt response. The untreated tap water pH is 8.4, ammonia .5, nitrites .5. THe very weird thing is that I tested the water from an outside faucet BEFORE the city water goes through the house plumbing and I get 0 nitrites, still have same ammonia--now I'm REALLY confused.

Shawnie

you have a bunch of different readings..id be confused also!! are you using the API strips? or liquid ? have you checked the expiration of the kit your using?

Sunshine State

I use the API master test kit (liquid), and it's expiration date is a long time from now. What I can't figure out is the 0 ppm nitrite from the faucet outside the house (before water runs through filtration system). Could it be that the filter is bad? OR is there something in the plumbing lines through the house to cause the change in nitrites from 0 to .5? ammonia I can more understand because I know that city water may have some in it. Also, the water softener side of the system doesn't do anything to decrease the ammonia from the street .5 always. The additional filtration (carbon) they added today, did decrease the ammonia to 0, but nitrites are at .5. Something is definitely amiss and I don't know how to trace it. All I know for certain is that my neighbor has a water conditioning sytem (different brand than mine) and her readings are consistent: ammonia 0 ppm, nitrite 0 ppm, and nitrates less than 10. Her pH is always about 7.6. Now I have to decide if I want to debate this with my current water conditioner company or just have them come and take the thing away.

cerianthus

I dont know exactly what kind of filtration and what kind of resins/media is used to soften the water thus cant say for sure but at least you dont have NH3 now.

I dont see a connection b/n NO2 to NH3 (although reduction reaction/process is possible but we would see such reaction/process taking place in our aquarium if it were true therefore NO connection in reduction process/reaction of No2 to NH3 at least by biologically,IMO).

My first guess is either run the water for awhile before /collecting/testing (remove water that's been sitting in the pipe/filter) OR

You could have containerful of filtered tap water circulating at all time (RESERVE) in large plastic container w/ powerhead (PH) + mechanical media (Hagen's Aquaclear PH has such mechanical media called Quick Filter). You will be surprise to see media turn brownish and slimy in no time (YUK). Imagine drinking water which passes such yucky stuff, especially water which have been sitting in such media.

Anyway, when such filter is ran in the containerful of filtered water, it should go bio-active in time to reduce Nitrite, especially if water has source of NH3 from tap, even with no fish,

OR you could simply use product such as PRIME.

First two suggestions are cuz you seemed to be baffled by such results and by doing couple of experiments, you maybe able to find answers on your own. SATIFACTION of Accomplishment!, LOL!


Which ever route you choose to go, hope all goes well!

BTW, small (20-30%) amt of water replaced during PWC should pose no problem as long as level are low as it is.