Where we live they have installed "filtered taps" because the water from our regular tap is said unfit to drink. I think it was Dennis who mentioned the nitrates in my tank water. Well, I tested my tap and just as I had suspected, there are nitrates in the tap. Both of them. Let me give you the readings:

"Regular Tap"
nitrate: 20
nitrite: 0
water hardness: 150 (hard)
total alkalinity: 300 (high)
PH: 8.4

"Filtered Tap"
nitrate: 10
nitrite: 0
water hardness: 25 (soft)
total alkalinity: 80 (moderate)
PH: 6.8

I had been using a combination of the two to get the PH somewhere around 7.2 - 7.8. Should the PH be lower than that? Im just worried about using the filtered tap because of the total alkalinity is so low...Im afraid I may have a PH crash, so I purposly keep it high because of that. Do you think it is better to use the filtered tap by itself? Or is a combination of both best?

Also, why would there be nitrates straight from the tap?

Hmm... I think I would use a mixture of the two... the pH of 6.8 seems too low to me. But, a nitrate of 20 isn't harmful to fish, I think nitrate needs to be below 40 to be safe. It just might mean you will need to change your water more often.

Hopefully someone else can give some more detailed information on what you should do.

You have various choices, but the easiest is probably mixing the two waters. I am nervous about any pH that is below 7.0. Any problems with it and you quickly get into dangerous territory. I prefer to deal in 7.4ish. That said, my well water it over 10pH and the gH is 300+. I mix RO water to bring it down. Mixing your filtered water with the original water should do the trick.

The nitrates in the water are probably a result of fertilizer runoff into the water table. You are just going to have to realize that you are dealing with at least 10ppm nitrates before you even start and take that into account when changing water. That is all. You may find that that number will change with the seasons - more or less as the crops are done or the water table changes. This year, with our extreme drought, we were pulling water from a different water table than before -much deeper. The water has a much lower pH (around 8.8 to 9) and the gH and kH varies almost weekly. So test your water every now and then to make sure it is not changing on you. Every season at least is adviable.


A pH of well into the 8 level is still OK with goldies. It is all a matter of consistency. They need a constant pH that does not vary. They can deal with quite high (and some quite low!) pHs, as long as they do not change. REalize, though, that with the higher pH, the various components of the nitrogen cycle can be more toxic to the fish. You need to keep a handle on them all. Prime is a good product to keep on hand....

Thanks so much! Great info! That would be odd if it was fertilizer runnoff. We live in the desert, 35 miles away from any other town. Between the army base and Barstow is a 45 minute drive and nothing...absolutly NOTHING in between the two. Just mountains and joshua trees. Im not quite sure what is up with the water...but I know that they said the regular tap is unsafe because some sort of chemical was spilt into the supply. Not sure what that was though. Cant imagine it would be fertilizer...there are no farms in the area...no grass...nothing grows really. It was some chemical though you are right.