Dogbert4pres November 1, 2012 Share November 1, 2012 I built a 540 sqft fish room and have it about 75% occupied with freshwater angels and soon discus, 2200g in all so far. I would like to finish out the rest of the room with my 150g and 185g display tanks and around 45sqft of frag tables. I have a 1000gpd RO which I am using to do the large water changes on the freshwater side since the fish are breeding like crazy. My problem is... the well water is 140ppm tds of which 100+ppm is nitrate. I had to get the RO not to make the water softer, rather get the fertilizer out. The RO knocks this down to 5ppm nitrate but I am told it will never go lower. I read thread after thread of RDSB filters removing nitrates and this might be all well and good, but if they worked, why is my well water 50ft from the surface so full of nitrate. I can vouch that there is no O2 there and the water has a ton of dissolved CO2 as the ph from well is 5 but at the mere sight of an angry airstone it goes to 6.8. Do my options come down to having to go DI for the new water to the salt system or is 5ppm with a RDSB acceptable? (maybe I should do freshwater plants... high nitrate high CO2, whats not to love lol) Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 1, 2012 Share November 1, 2012 Dude you have to post pictures of your fish room!!! Drool!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyfeet November 1, 2012 Share November 1, 2012 An RO/DI system is pretty standard in the salt community. Welcome to Salt Water, happy reefing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 1, 2012 Share November 1, 2012 Have you had your well inspected lately? High nitrate levels can be a sign of a failed well liner. Digging the well deeper can also help to get less contaminated water. I would get a water quality test down as high nitrate levels can cause health issues such as blue baby syndrome. For nitrate removal in the tank you could try the deep sand bed or run bio-pellets in a reactor. The bio-pellets seem to work well. You could also reprocess the water through a second RO unit to try to catch some additional nitrate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogbert4pres November 1, 2012 Author Share November 1, 2012 (edited) Thanks for the quick reply Coral, I do have another RO, a modest 150gpd one that I could do that with. I have 50psi going into the 1000gpd RO unit (had to use a booster pump) but was unaware that I could stack RO units. Will have to get that plumbed with a gauge to see if the pressure is enough on the "good" side of the 1000gpd to power the 150gpd unit. As for the well, it is all the wells in this area so it is not just me. My whole aquafer is farms and from what others have told me, just live with it. There is a LFS maybe 2 miles as the crow flies that actually sells RO water at 10ppm nitrate to people that live in the area with reef tanks. As for the fish room, nothing really special there, but it does have a 275g moving bed I buried in the floor and the plywood tanks that I will never ever make again. I think the tanks I make for the frag table will be a foam core like a sailboat. they HAVE to weigh less than those plywood ones lol. the next major project though is a RO solar water heater as the well water is 54 degrees and I have to heat it to 83 for the angels and swapping out that much water costs propane evenin summer. Edited November 1, 2012 by Dogbert4pres Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcreefer November 1, 2012 Share November 1, 2012 Welcome to the wonderful world of WAMAS and Salt, My Goodness, that set up sounds really interesting! We most definitely need to see some pictures. "How about Chaetomorpha Algae? Chaetomorpha Macro Algae, Chaeto, pronounced "kay-toe", is a great way to naturally turn the nitrogenous compounds of your tank into plant food!!! Chaetomorpha Algae removes both phosphates and nitrates from the water. To increase the amount of nutrients this algae exports, use moderate to high lighting and keep it in an area of high water flow. It should ideally be tumbled in an algae filter." (This information was taken from Aquacon but I am sure that a bunch of members have some in their tanks and would be willing to share.) You could also buy some from one of the Local Fish Stores (LFS) or sponsors here! ***Anyway my advice is a hefty amount of cheto in a refuge/sump, maybe a remote deep sand bed, mangroves and an algae scrubber.*** Any cheto, algae scrubber or mangrove plants should "eat" nitrate! Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swimboy123 November 1, 2012 Share November 1, 2012 Welcome to the hobby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 1, 2012 Share November 1, 2012 I agree with DCReefer to use the chaeto and you can place that in the DSB area for some combined nitrate removal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Chalice November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 Welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogbert4pres November 2, 2012 Author Share November 2, 2012 Can I assume then that the consences is that a 5ppm nitrate level going in with the WC is OK provided the area for the chaeto is large enough? The LFS uses a different macro algae, but I can not really take their advice much since we both have divergent paths, their's is to not hold inventory for long, mine is to actually grow it out. I learned from a biologist (who breeds discus) to put driveway heat in the main FW system to help with certain issues I was having with the larger fry before that hit the pea-sized state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 2, 2012 Share November 2, 2012 Yes, the 5ppm is fine. The chaeto is better then other macros as it doesn't go sexual and foul the tank like other can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan November 5, 2012 Share November 5, 2012 Welcome to WAMAS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan November 5, 2012 Share November 5, 2012 Do you have DI filter on your RO setup? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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