Is it possible to get 0-ppm nitrates

[sdtrippe]

Hello I have tried for 5 days of water changes(10 gal. a day ) to get my nitrates in check.But I don't think it is possible.I have a 55 gallon sw with fish only.I have had my tank set-up for 8 months now.I have always had 40ppm of nitrate.,I want to get live rock and coral someday.But I can't get the Nitrates down at all.Will I ever?Any ideas...I thought about filtered water but really don't want to buy a RO Di filter. I have biowheels in my empereor 400.I thought about removing the biowheels.I have a 5" sand bottom that I have for a month now.I have a little alge but not that much.All the other levels are great ...No nitrites at all for a while now.What can I do?
Thanks
sdtrippe :roll:

 

[ricky1414]

what is your water source? your emperor could be causing the nitrates, either from the biowheel, or dirty filter media.

 

[sdtrippe]

City water. I changed the filters 3 days ago.
Thanks
sdtrippe

 

[Anonymous]

The only way to get your nitrates to 0 is to not put any in, and take out all that the tank creates. For a long time I was having the same problem. Then I checked my tap water and found that it had 15-20 ppm Nitrates. So I was trying to lower my level in the tank (40 ppm) by replacing it with 20 ppm. A little math will tell you that you have to do a ton of water changes to get it down to 20 ppm, and its not going any lower than that.

Eventually I had a new well drilled and now my nitrate level is 0 in my water and 0 in the tank.

So, the next time you do a water change, just before you use the new water, check it with your nitrate test kit. Heck, test it for ammonia and nitrites also.

If it comes back 0 then there are a couple of other things you can do to get the level down

HTH

Bryan

 

[sdtrippe]

Okay I did check ...And you right it does have a trace of nitrates.But is not even 20ppm its is ting of beige and pink.Nothing as far as nitrie and ammoinia Thanks goodness...So I guess the only thing to do is either forget about or get a ro di filter....I should have thought about checking my nitrates in the fresh water..But hey just slipped my mind...You would think that I could get it to 20 at least..Right
Thanks
sdtrippe :?:

 

[sdtrippe]

But I noticed on this change I just did a few minutes ago ...I checked the sw(in the 5 gal bucket) and it did not show any nitrates...But if I check the fresh water before chemical (declorinator)I get bearly a ting of pink still has a beige color.Does not make sense to me....

 

[nice1bruva]

don'r forget some creatures ....like clams....require a trace of nitrates in the water....5ppm or less though.

 

[tangir1]

Depends on your tank size, it can take many, many 10 gal water change to bring the nitrate down from 40ppm to less than 1ppm. If your tank is 20 gal, and you do 50% WC each time, it will take 6 WC to bring it down to less than 1 ppm if you use nitrate-free water. If you tank is larger, it will take even long. For a 40 gal, it will take about 13 WCs.

 

[cyberdogx]

RO water dude. as long as you use tap, you will never get your nitrates down, ever.

use RO salt for water changes and RO fresh for top off.

you can use distilled in a pinch.