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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Nitrates

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16 Nov 2006 20:52 #1 by JohnH (John)
Nitrates was created by JohnH (John)
Good morning,
Although I have been testing my tank and latterly my tap water for ph levels I didn't check nitrates until last weekend. The shock was to find that nitrate reading was 100ppm straight out of the tap!
Now, my water is pumped out of my own 'well' - over 240ft deep so I dread to think where they are coming from, I don't think they're permeating through locally as almost all of that 240 feet drilled was solid rock.

I suddenly now know, I think, why my Angels stopped laying eggs and why nearly all the Killifish eggs I bought failed, and those that did hatch died almost immediately after being transferred to tank water - having mostly been hatched in rainwater.

Of course, I'm doing my routine water changes, but now I see that I'm only probably adding more nitrates each time!

Any suggestions to reduce nitrates in my tap water would be gratefully received, I never had nitrate problems before so have never had to try to deal with it. I did post an enquiry a week or so (before discovering nitrate level) about R/O, but even if this would help I don't think I could be in a position to use one, for resons explained in that posting.

Thanks in advance.

John
Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


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It's a long way to Tipperary.

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17 Nov 2006 04:23 #2 by monty (monty)
Replied by monty (monty) on topic Re: Nitrates
Hi JohnH,

There are Nitrate removal media which you can try, and Tetra have a product called Nitrate minus and I would guess other companies have something similiar. I've never used any of them so can't comment on their effectiveness.

However the best way for reducing nitrates is still water changes. I would suggest this is the initial route you take as it is the quickest way of getting the levels reduced. Do you have a neighbour who you can get some suitable water from ?

I'm guessing I don't need to tell you that the high Nitrates from the well should be something of concern.

Rgds,

Monty

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17 Nov 2006 05:41 #3 by ChrisM (ChrisM)
Replied by ChrisM (ChrisM) on topic Re: Nitrates
What can you do?Did you double check water test kits?

Nitrates are one of the major issues to all fishkeepers at levels of 40+.So 100+ is a major problem which I believe is unreconcilable.There is no way you can get rid of nitrates enough to have decent water.And if nitrates are that high what else is in the water.

You need to look at an alternative source of water.

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17 Nov 2006 06:10 #4 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
Replied by Sean (Fr. Jack) on topic Re: Nitrates
I would not worry too much about your fish, at that level it is carsangenic
if your family drinks that over 20 years. Some farmers must be pumping slurry into the water table.

If seeing angle eggs matters then:

If you got a small amount of water to change, get a few beer 25L buckets and drive it in, if you got a fish house and a lot of water to deal with the the only way is to have a 200L holding tank and add swimming pool chlorine to the oto chlorine test kit shows a nice yellow colour, the when the "break point" happens remove the chlorine with de chloinator (sodium thiosulhate) all available lennox chemicals off the nass road, and the rest naturall available form a swimming pool shop.
That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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19 Nov 2006 20:26 #5 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re: Nitrates
Quite a worrying pattern seems to be emerging here.

Thanks for responses.

I think the answer that slurry was leaching into the water table from somewhere is a feasible one as, after all the rain during the week the level has dropped to under 10 from 100! This is a startling reduction, I can't think of any other answer. Perhaps Nitrates from the slurry got flushed away by the torrential rainfall?
Anyway, obviously the answer would be for me to buy some barrels and fill them up when levels, like now, are low and keep them for when levels get high again, in the meantime, while they're still low I can use the water from the ground - but checking it beforehand - naturally!

I'm a bit worried now what else might be in the water, would anyone know where I might send a sample of it to in order that it could be properly analized?

Thanks,

John
Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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20 Nov 2006 15:10 #6 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re: Nitrates
I will find out were to send your water to be tested and get a price.
I think it costs around 150euro.
My sister has to get it done yearly. She uses well water like yourself.

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