Nitrates

[patrick]

I'm just about ready to start a new 72 gallon f/o tank. I live in the country and I have well water. I had it checked and it does indicate a small level of nitrates. So I will never be able to lower to the recommend level with water changes. What do you recommend. I have seen on this site where people are using distilled water but my pet store says I should not.They recommend r/o water but does not sell it and I can't find where anyone does around here.
My parents live the next farm up and have city water. I could get water from them and treat for city water. Any other ideas?

 

[kris]

Odds are their water is not much better than yours believe it or not. If you have alot of cash laying around check into a r/o unit and make your own, otherwise what I would do is use your water, small amounts won't hurt the fish. If you go this way though, accept the fact now that you most likely will be limited to the more hardy fish (which really isn't much of a limitaion) P.S. have you also checked this water for phosphates and alkalinity and ph--those were the biggest problems I had with my well water.

 

[beth]

You should be able to buy distilled or RO water at the local grocery store if you don't want to go the RO unit in your home. Every grocery store in the country sells "distilled" or "purified" water. And if you read the water lable, you will see that a lot of the times the water is purified via RO.