Curious about nitrates in tap water

Been reading quite a few of the cycling threads as I'm currently cycling a tank, found I have nitrates in my tap water. Wondering if that slows the process down? Will the nitrates go to work right away and is that why some never see nitrites? Two weeks into a fish in cycle and everything is progressing well ammonia and nitrites growing down daily just never saw nitrites till yesterday and got to wondering if this is why they're receding already nitrates getting them apon arrival? Great to be a part of your group, thanks.

 

Hey,

nitrates are basically the final product of the cycle. From here on, either plants will use it as a nutrient or in rare cases it's broken down again.

The nitrates don't go to work, they're nothing alive. Microorganisms change ammonia to nitrites and other microorganisms change nitrites to nitrates.
In rare cases as mentioned, there are microorganisms that break down nitrates to nitrites again, then others that break down nitrites to nitric oxide and nitrous oxide (a tank can produce NOS, how cool is that? Can't put tank water in your car though) and finally to nitrogen.

TL;DR: No it doesn't affect your cycling at all.

 

Thank you for helping me understand the process, cool

 

How much nitrate do you have in your tap water?

 

Right around .5ppm

 

I assume you meant 5.0ppm.

After the cycling is done and you have fish in your tank you can keep the nitrate at or below 20ppm, you and your fish will be fine.

Once your tank is cycled and stocked you will need to do regular water changes to remove the accumulated nitrate and reduce other organics as well as replenishing minerals.

So lets say you change 25-50% weekly(depending on your tanks needs) . Test your water before the weekly water change. For example, if water tests at 20ppm before a water change and you do a 50% you would have 10 ppm after the change, but in your case you are adding a small amount of nitrate back in with the fresh water, so it would be about 12-13ppm after the change. Seems counter intuitive to add nitrate back to the tank, but you are adding much less than you are removing.

Every tank is different and the nitrates will be affected by the level of stocking and feeding. More fish = more nitrates

Plants will consume ammonia and nitrate. Plants with access to air will consume much more, so if you incorporate floating plants and emergent plants they can help with the nitrate levels. Aquatic plants also help.

 

Thank you for the info. Just checked everything and my ammonia and nitrites are both at 0, nitrates I'm guessing about 13. Hope it's finished it's cycle. Put a little bit of java moss in and saw a u tube video on different house plants you can hang the roots in the tank and let them grow that way.
Wife had a spider plant she let me try with so guess
I'll have to wait and see how it works out.

 

How many, and which fish are you cycling with?

Once your tank is cycled it will only be able to handle the amount of fish you cycled with. If you want more fish, add them gradually over time. With each addition, the biological filter (that's what you have created by cycling) will need to grow to meet the new demand, so add new fish incrementally. When you do add new fish, watch the ammonia and nitrite for a week or so just to make sure there are no problems. If Ammonia and nitrite show up again it's because the bioblogical filter needs to catch up to the new amount of fish. Just do water changes to keep them each below 0.5ppm., just like when you were initially cycling. As the bacteria population grows to meet the new demand, the tests will go back to zero.

An easy house plant for aquariums is Pothos. You can get small pot at Lowes etc. The cuttings root easily in water and it does well in lowish light. If there is ambient light in the room from windows, there is no need for additional lighting. Philodendrons can be used the same way. There are several others. You can search Google for them.