High Nitrates in Tap!

So i've been cycling my 20L at the house i'm moving into for quite some time, using media from established tanks and all that. BUT my nitrates were ALWAYS ridiculously high whenever i checked. i didn't check at first, assuming my water was neutral since its from a well, but once i checked my tap, it turns out it has base nitrates of nearly 40ppm!

i don't have any other sources of water at this new location, so i'm at a complete loss for how to bring these nitrate levels down. everywhere i look it just says water changes, but THAT'S exactly the problem.

are there any solutions/chemicals i can add to the water or something i can do to lower these crazy levels? my live plants i have on order for the tank won't be here for a week, but will they be enough to lower anything, especially once i put axies in and have a consistent source of amonia to create the stuff, on top of the tap's baseline?

in my current tank, i already have a couple bunches of java fern and an anubias nana that will be transplanted, and i plan to have cabomba, watersprite, some more nana, and some hairgrass in the new tank. will all this be anywhere near enough to keep these nitrate levels down???

thanks in advance for any answer.

nitrates in the tap is a tricky problem. I would think the easiest thing to do would be to heavily plant your tank, or start a riparium, but other than that an algae turf scrubber would do the trick, it would just be a ton of work.

Lots of plants?

Is there a type of chemical nitrate remover / scrubber? (Like a dechlorinator?) If there is perhaps you could treat the well water as you use it like a de-chlorinator?

Bren

well today i just bought some gallons of cheap drinking water, and did a water change with that. seeing as how my choices are limited on this, i'm thinking i'll just have to buy some drinking water for the major water changes during cycling (using guppies, and i'm hoping to keep some of them alive), and then hopefully just every once in a while for weekly water changes. better yet, i'll probably see if i can steel some water in jugs from some local store or something from the tap in the bathroom....ugh. such hassles over colorless, odorless, tasteless chemicals.

hopefully once its cycled i won't have to do very frequent water changes, so it won't be too big of a chore. i plan to put a ton of plants in it for aesthetic reasons, anyway, so maybe that'll eventually get them low enough to where i can use the tap...best options it looks like at this point, wouldn't you say?

AT LEAST I'LL TAKE COMFORT IN MY COLOR CHANGING LEDS I HAVE FOR LIGHTING. lol, that can be my silver lining.

blackdog said:

Lots of plants?

Is there a type of chemical nitrate remover / scrubber? (Like a dechlorinator?) If there is perhaps you could treat the well water as you use it like a de-chlorinator?

Bren

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i haven't been able to go to the store today to check, but i can't seem to find any well-trusted/ones that actually work on the internet. pretty much everything says to water change, water change, water change. until i can find something like de-chlorinater, pretty much my only option is to leech usable water elsewhere, it seems.

I'm pretty sure there isn't any chemical available that actually gets rid of nitrates. I know there are denitrator systems that deal with anaerobic bacteria(I think?) but I always have plants in my tanks so i've never looked into them.

Nitrates aren't that terrible. 40ppm is high, but I wouldn't start freaking out until you're in the 60-70ppm range.

Live plants will definitely help though.

Kaysie said:

Nitrates aren't that terrible. 40ppm is high, but I wouldn't start freaking out until you're in the 60-70ppm range.

Live plants will definitely help though.

Click to expand...

i actually used 40 as a minimum amount. it was ridiculously red, and i'd even go so far to say it was upwards of 50ppm+ just in the tap. in the tank it was basically 80ppm. i think that number MAY be because some of the media from my established tanks were kicking in (or so i'm hoping!) since i did have a nitrite reading. but today i did an 80% water change (about) with drinking water i bought from the store (yay sales!), so hopefully i can get a more accurate reading of how the cycling process on its OWN is doing, instead of getting mixed results from the tap water. that was my main concern, i can't really gauge how far along my tank is in its cycle since i'm getting false readings for the nitrate. :<
i'm actually getting the plants friday, so i'll definitely sleep better knowing SOME of the nitrate is being dealt with.

and thanks everyone for the responses! :3