Denitrator or aditional canisyer filter?

[Buzas]

Hello,

I have 55gal tank with 6 juvenile discus. My tap water is very hard and have ~90 ppm of nitrates. So Im using RO with JBL aquadur (minerals) for my WC daily (25-30%) and its not enough for my tank... Im always have ~25 ppm of nitrates in my fish tank, so I need minimum 50% of WC in my fish tank with RO water, but I cant to do it, because my RO filter generates only about 30% of my fish tank size per day.

So I have a question what is worht to do in my fish tank. I heard about denitrators and etc. but I dont know its worth to do something like this in freshwater aquarium or not. Maybe I need additional canister filter with more media like seachem matrix and etc?

Thank you for advices.

[zhuls1]

Hey Buzza, Im afraid that 90ppm is alot of nitrate and I highly doubt any media would be able to keep up with it. Probably best to upgrade your RO filter or add a second one. You could see what the others have to say though.

[gators111]

Couple of questions: 1) Are there nitrates in your tap water? And R/O water? 2) What and how much are you feeding your discus.

[Phillydubs]

As a follow up to gators good questions... ever try to age the water and test before and after?

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hi there, if I were you I would probably consider just a separate nitrate filter, they should produce practically nitrate free water a lot quicker and with no wastage compared to r/o. The other desolved minerals (as long as nit toxic) should not be a problem (the juvies I just got eere raised in 600μS hard water), but if you feel your GH is still to high you could mix your r/o water with the simply de-nitrated water. Just a thought

[Buzas]

Couple of questions: 1) Are there nitrates in your tap water? And R/O water? 2) What and how much are you feeding your discus.

Nitrates only in tap water. Feeding 6-8 times per day, they are ~ 2.5" (juveniles), feeding beef heart mix and etc. the problem is not the food. I want to do a lot of WC but the problem is how to rid of nitrates from my tap water (or maybe to make something to get rid of easy from fish tank water), because I dont have enough RO water... Im walking with 1 gallon bottles every 1.5 hour to take RO water from my kitchen, and when you need it ~15 gallon per day, its not normal, trust me... Maybe one week its ok, but when you need to do it all the time...


As a follow up to gators good questions... ever try to age the water and test before and after?

What is common between water age and nitrates? My tap water is from borehole, there is no chlorine or something like this if you think..



Hi there, if I were you I would probably consider just a separate nitrate filter, they should produce practically nitrate free water a lot quicker and with no wastage compared to r/o. The other desolved minerals (as long as nit toxic) should not be a problem (the juvies I just got eere raised in 600μS hard water), but if you feel your GH is still to high you could mix your r/o water with the simply de-nitrated water. Just a thought

Thank you for answer, its something what I need. Could you please more about water denitrating? I mean I need the best/simpliest ways how to do it right.

[Paul Sabucchi]

https://www.pozzani.co.uk/water-filters-185/product_info.html
This is what a number of folks are using, replacement cartridges are about £12 or thereabout. Try to see of there is a similar product from around your country otherwise these should ship. This unit is designed to remove nitrates from your tapwater BEFORE IT GOES IN THE TANK, not to remove them from the tank water.

[gators111]

Maybe others will disagree, but feeding 6-8 times a day seems excessive. Especially if beefheart is half of that. If you're doing 25-30% WC's daily, you shouldn't have high nitrates unless you have excess ammonia coming from somewhere. If you aren't adding it through WC's, then the most likely next culprit is overfeeding. After that, it would be not vacuuming out all the waste or keeping a good maintenance schedule on your filters. I forgot to ask if your tank is bare bottom, planted, or some other substrate that could be trapping waste. You can do all the WC's in the world, but unless you track down what is the source of your ammonia, you'll always be playing catch-up. Another filter won't help either, except in the frequency of your filter maintenance, maybe. Your biofilter is working really well, hence why you have so much nitrates. My advice is to clean your filters and tank of any waste, and cut your feeding schedule in half for a week and see what your nitrate levels do.

[fishbubbles]

Maybe others will disagree, but feeding 6-8 times a day seems excessive. Especially if beefheart is half of that. If you're doing 25-30% WC's daily, you shouldn't have high nitrates unless you have excess ammonia coming from somewhere. If you aren't adding it through WC's, then the most likely next culprit is overfeeding. After that, it would be not vacuuming out all the waste or keeping a good maintenance schedule on your filters. I forgot to ask if your tank is bare bottom, planted, or some other substrate that could be trapping waste. You can do all the WC's in the world, but unless you track down what is the source of your ammonia, you'll always be playing catch-up. Another filter won't help either, except in the frequency of your filter maintenance, maybe. Your biofilter is working really well, hence why you have so much nitrates. My advice is to clean your filters and tank of any waste, and cut your feeding schedule in half for a week and see what your nitrate levels do.

His nitrates aren't coming from ammonia being converted. Many countries have high nitrates straight from the tap, In this case he said his tap water produces 90 ppm of nitrates. Also feeding 6-8 times a day is fairly common for trying to max out the potential of juvies and small fish. Frequent feedings are fine as long as the waste is picked up a few times per day with daily water changes.

[Bizarro252]

My tap water has ~20ppm Nitrate, nothing like yours but I run this product in bags, in a pipe that I have a pump recirculating the water through the media - gets me down to close to 0ppm in about an hour (30 gal of change water in the barrel). You recharge it with salt. You can run it in your canister filter as well but it will likely not last as long as it will get dirty/clogged after a while, if you were to put some very fine floss in front of it to keep it clean it could still last a long time.

Been using my 500ml for about 6 months and love it, I just store it in a bucket of brine, rinse and use when I need it.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/nitratr-regenerable-nitrate-adsorption-resin-brightwell-aquatics.html