Personally fish "high" is like people fatal (well exaggeration)..

concentrations around <10ppm is "considered safe" in general.. >10

Nitrate levels greater than 10 ppm exceed state and federal standards for nitrate .

for people too high and treatment is recommended.
There are Nitrate selective resins one can get to remove them and RO will remove "some" (level depending on multiple factors).
most fw planted tanks will have Nitrates at or above 10-20ppm and in a sense is recommended..

High Nitrate - Some areas of tap water do have high levels of nitrate and this can affect the end product of�RO water. People believe that�RO units will strip every molecule of nitrate from the water despite whatever reading the tap water is.�In high nitrate areas some nitrate will be left in the�RO water.

A membrane has an approximate removal rate from between 90 - 98% but this can be affected by the mains water pressure, how old the membrane and carbon/sediment filters are and the�temperature�of the feed water.

soo all depends on the complete test and levels..
Our tap water is like 2-4.1ppm ovr the years..

 

We're on well water with an RO system too, and I don't think there's much (if any) nitrates in the RO water. I've never really tested it tbh.


FWIW though, there's a few ways to lower nitrates if it does become an issue for you. I've had good luck with purigen in the filter and heavily planting with fast growing plants. One of my tanks actually needs to be dosed with nitrogen because it will be 0ppm if I don't.

 

If there is nitrates in your water RO will get them to close to 0. DI will get them to 0 guaranteed. Although I wouldn't bother as plants feed on nitrate.

 

Yeah but nitrates build up over time so I would rather start at zero so the tank is getting a refresh every time I do a water change. The TDS was kind of high. Higher than my tap water in my current rental (which is just 9 blocks away from the house I am buying and it is on public water which is also wells). Surprisingly the PH, GH, and KH were far lower than I thought they would be. Lower than the town tap which seems odd to me. I will have to test from a different source. Maybe there is some sort of filter inside I am not aware of. But the high nitrates I am concerned about. Well inspection didn't even test the water. There was some problem with the well pump so they were limited as to what they could do so I have to see what that is about. UGH. Buying a house is stressful.

 

@;

Yeah but nitrates build up over time so I would rather start at zero so the tank is getting a refresh every time I do a water change. The TDS was kind of high.

Your RO water will be pretty much nitrate free, too low to test with our kits in most cases.

And as to TDS, typically high with a well, especially if water is hard (Mg/Ca and others). Softener just exchanges ions, so doesn't reduce TDS.

You can use the same system for tank water and kitchen water. Just takes a little doing.

And good luck on the house, always an exciting time of life. You got a spot picked out for the new larger tank!:wink2:

 

Have you considered simply installing a whole house filter? I've been looking into Lifesource Water and might install one after tax season.

This thread has made me think to find out if their systems can remove nitrates.

 

Whole house filters just seem to reduce sediment and maybe chlorine. I guess they would just reduce the TDS. Wouldn't help. Whole house RO systems seem to cost about 10K or more. Yikes. I am worried this house is turning into a money pit.

 

Be aware of how the nitrate measurement is reported. mg/L (or ppm) as N is not the same as mg/L as NO3.

 

Hello Monterey! I am a few hours south of you. You know how notoriously difficult those tests are to read the exact number. To me they looked to be at least 50ppm. But it could be less. Could be more. We are scheduling another inspection that will test the water and make sure there isn't anything else funky going on with the water. Water in California is already nerve wracking because around here the wells could just dry up at some point too.

I am coming to terms with all the other inspections (fun to get the termite and pest inspection which recommends 40K worth of repairs). Most of them can be done over time or done for less. But water is a big one. Obviously not just for the fish but also for health of the humans. So I am hoping nothing else is discovered. This is a super cool house that I don't want to have to pass on.

 

Hello Monterey! I am a few hours south of you. You know how notoriously difficult those tests are to read the exact number. To me they looked to be at least 50ppm. But it could be less. Could be more. We are scheduling another inspection that will test the water and make sure there isn't anything else funky going on with the water. Water in California is already nerve wracking because around here the wells could just dry up at some point too.



I am coming to terms with all the other inspections (fun to get the termite and pest inspection which recommends 40K worth of repairs). Most of them can be done over time or done for less. But water is a big one. Obviously not just for the fish but also for health of the humans. So I am hoping nothing else is discovered. This is a super cool house that I don't want to have to pass on.

Where abouts are you? I’m in Apple Valley.

 

When you use a RO unit with a well you might want to use a booster pump to increase the pressure to the membrane to ~60 psi (usual operating pressure of booster pump). Well pumps usually run around 40psi. You will get a better rejection rate and lower the tds of the product water. City water pressure is usually higher and no booster pump is needed as a result.

Yeah but nitrates build up over time so I would rather start at zero so the tank is getting a refresh every time I do a water change. The TDS was kind of high. Higher than my tap water in my current rental (which is just 9 blocks away from the house I am buying and it is on public water which is also wells). Surprisingly the PH, GH, and KH were far lower than I thought they would be. Lower than the town tap which seems odd to me. I will have to test from a different source. Maybe there is some sort of filter inside I am not aware of. But the high nitrates I am concerned about. Well inspection didn't even test the water. There was some problem with the well pump so they were limited as to what they could do so I have to see what that is about. UGH. Buying a house is stressful.

It depends which aquifer each well is tapped into. It could be different for two houses next to each other! All depends in the mineral concentration in the ground which can change quickly.

I have a water softener because of the very high concentrations of manganese and iron. The good part about owning a water softener is that it exchanges sodium ions for the iron, manganese and many other unwanted elements in the water that stain toilets and clog up pipes. It's bad for aquariums though - too much sodium in the water now. However, RO units have a very high rejection rate for sodium ions so my resulting RO water has a TDS of 1-2 ppm!! My other house with a well was 12 ppm after RO. I lucked out with the new one. Crappy water is the norm where I live, along with some NO3. An RO unit will substantially reduce NO3 (nitrate) although, won't get rid of it completely.

 

I was struggling with high nitrate levels in my aquarium (around 40+ PPM). I have a 180 that is a real chore to do water changes on. It did not seem to matter that I did frequent water changes. I still had high Nitrates. And then I read something about nitrate levels in tap water (especially well water). My city water is exclusively sourced from wells so I tested it and found out that I had 10+ PPM coming out of the tap. I could not change water enough to keep nitrates around 20 PPM (where I want it) without spending a ridiculous amount of time changing water, so I did a DIY drip water change setup. It uses a regular refrigerator carbon filter to remove chlorine (not needed if you are on a private well) and drip irrigation parts. You also have to have either a bulkhead drain or a DIY syphon overflow Click this link for King of DIY instructional video.

. It was a lifesaver. Not only for my fish, but for my sanity. I ran a 2 gph (48 gallons per day) drip for couple of weeks until I got my numbers under control and then I switched to a 1 gph (24 gallons per day) drip. One thing I would recommend is using clear pvc fittings at the top of the overflow. They can be a bit expensive and hard to source, but the peace of mind visually seeing that I still have syphon and that air is not collecting in the pipe is worth it to me. I got my clear pvc parts from https://formufit.com/pages/clear. They have the best prices I have found.

 

Whelp got the first of my test results back today from the water testing company. The good news is there is no E. coli. That would have required treating the well as it can not be filtered. The bad news is that my suspicions are correct and the nitrites are at 23.2 mg/l. The safe level is considered under 10 mg/l. So I have to filter the water. Other minerals and contaminants we tested for I won't get the results for another 2 weeks or so but I guess it doesn't much matter since I have to filter the water for the Nitrate anyway.

Obviously I am going to want RO water for my tanks as well as the house so the little systems they sell for under the kitchen sink for drinking water won't do. So I have to see about the pricing on a whole house RO system and how much that is going to cost.

Fun. The house is so awesome but it is turning into a real money pit. Not sure what I am going to do if the sellers won't come down in price.

 

Whelp got the first of my test results back today from the water testing company. The good news is there is no E. coli. That would have required treating the well as it can not be filtered. The bad news is that my suspicions are correct and the nitrites are at 23.2 mg/l. The safe level is considered under 10 mg/l. So I have to filter the water. Other minerals and contaminants we tested for I won't get the results for another 2 weeks or so but I guess it doesn't much matter since I have to filter the water for the Nitrate anyway.

Were the units nitrate or nitrate-nitrogen?


I wouldn't worry about nitrate in drinking water:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247562/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1566680/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4171798/

But being well water there's the potential for much more toxic substances to be present. I would use RO for those...

 

Yeah they sent out the water for other tests but those results won't come back for another two weeks or so.

 

Talked to a water filtration company and the guy said they could probably do a whole house system for under 3,000. Not as bad as I thought. He was talking about softeners initially but I told him I would prefer an RO system with no added salts because of my tanks (and house plants - I'm a garden designer/horticulturist so I'm really into plants). Anyway he said it wasn't too big a deal and definitely not a reason to pass on the house. Closing should be Nov. 11th or so if all continues to go well.

Yay!

 

Congrats...

 

if those measurements are nitrate-nitrogen then they are out of control and you will need RO. If they are nitrate (in line with your traditional nitrate test) then they could be controlled by a DIY drip system. Not necessary to have a whole home RO. You could do a smaller scale RO for a drip system to handle the demands of your tank(s). The difference in cost is about 10/1. Approx. $300 for a RO to handle your tank(s) and drinking water vs. $3k for whole home. Would require a bit of DIY to do it all for that price though. Your water guy could probably hook up a (drinking water system) for around $500 and might even provide a tap off to supply water to your tank(s). He will not be happy with reducing a 3k sale to $500, but he will do the job. Money is money. Keep in mind that the tap off would have to be continuous drip as a RO system will not do major water changes without a huge bladder tank.