Reducing nitrate.

[FishyLady]

Hi,
The water coming out of my tap has a nitrate reading of 20, all of my fish are fine but I want to set up a little shrimp tank and from what I have read shrimps have a low tolerance to nitrate so how can I reduce it easily in say a 10gallon tank? I am going to use real plants, java moss, & floating plants but I need to get it down to at least 10 or less, is there something I can put in the tank or the internal filter? Any help really appreciated,

Val

[Tay690]

wow your water comes out with a reading of 20 nitrates??? that's ... weird to say the least

there has to be some kind of plant or combination of plants that can make it 0 (like I see with people who have heavily planted tanks and their nitrates are always 0)

or good old chlorine I guess...worst case scenario you could add chlorine and let it kill / neutralize everything in the tap water...then remove it after with prime I guess

that's why the chlorine is there in the first place...to neutralize all the junk that comes out of standard tap water

side note : It must be super easy for you to cycle tanks with water like that lol

[chefkeith]

Plants or algae will remove nitrates. There are resins you can use also.

[Diana]

I would not add chlorine.

Ditto keith:

Set up a separate tank with just plants. They can be house plants (Golden Pothos is great) with roots in the water, step and leaves in the air, they can be under water plants (not so efficient).

Fill this tank with tap water (add dechlor) and test to see how fast the plants remove the nitrate. Then you can use this water to set up the shrimp tank, and refill this tank with more tap water. Use this water for water changes.
The live plants will remove the nitrate fastest if they are in a tank with really good light, near a window perhaps.

Also, keep live plants in the shrimp tank to help there, too.

Yes, there are nitrate removing resins. There is a very good thread about pre-treating water. I will see if I can find and link it.
http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=17885
Long, but lots of info!

[Tay690]

at least I got it half right

And when I said add chlorine...I meant to add it to WC buckets...not to the tank m'dear

obviously plants are a safer and proper option...but the chlorine WILL WORK if you're stuck

[Francois van Brederode]

It's just such a shame that when even a small amount of chlorine gets in the shrimp-tank, that all the shrimp might go belly-up.

So plants is the way to go I guess.

[Clowntje]

Since my tapwater has 50mg/l nitrate i started with osmose water but since it still gave me 12,5 mg/l I decided to do another search.

After a lot of searching and trying, i found NitratEx from JBL. It removes up to 50 mg/l nitrate from 200 liters. And its rechargable.

They also have BioNitrateEx which is not rechargable but for a bigger amount.

www.jbl.de

U can find the produkts with info on that website. just choose the language and put the names in the search. Sorry a direct link doesnt work.

So far the produkt looks very promissing.

[FishyLady]

Thank you all so much for your help, I looked into BioNitrateEx but it seems it can make the water very cloudy at first and can also cause nitrite spikes?
I am now looking at the possibility of bottled water + real plants!!! it wouldn't take too much to fill up my little shrimp tank ( 6 gall) and the cheapest bottled water has NO measurable nitrate so I assume it is less than 5.

Val

[Clowntje]

The BioNitratEx is more for use in the filter of the tank, thats why it takes up to about 3 weeks to establish itself and its also why it can get a cloudy water which can be filtered out with Carbon. I had another read but i didnt see anything saying about Nitriet spikes.

The reason i decided for NitratEx is becus i dont want it in my tank pump since i cant lift that one (eheim pro 3). Since im using osmose water i have a big storage can witht a pump on it (eheim ecco).
I just added the pad to the pump and let it run. according to a simpel test with a dipstick the nitrates are gone very very fast. with me it only takes about 1 hour on my 300 liter holding can.

If u have a big enough storage can u can even add it to that one so u have water with less nitrates for the clowns too. U can also add evrything else u want in it for preparation.

I am using it for a few months now and i must admit that my Clowns are more happy now. The Nitrate in the tank never goes over 12,5 mg/l now and that is measured when i skipped 1 waterchange.

[andyroo]

I thought Tay's Chlorine response was tongue-in-cheek....
If it's a new tank, just set it up with the tap-water (Cl treated with filters running) and let it run for a couple of days, then add plants and let it all age for a little while, then test. If it's all OK then start in with the shrimp.
If the high N persists then stick with frequent little water-changes.
A
ps: I sometimes collect shrimp from agricultural ponds that are very high in nutrients. Not sure how delicate they are, particularly if they get the chance to get used to it.