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Home      Reply		Viewed: 304 -- Replies: 13
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Posted	water filter
01-09-2006 12:26 by sonia	hello can anyone please advise on a suitable water filter to get so that i can improve the quality of water from the tap for my fish. I am worried about chemicals in the water and i want to reduce nitrate levels as well. I have one tank of Malawi so dont want RO or anything that softens the water. Just want chemical free, chlorine free etc and not soley to rely on aqua safe.
01-09-2006 12:31 by paul stevens	Ive got a malawi tank and all i do is add some tapsafe that seems to do the job.
01-09-2006 12:48 by wymcot	sonia - to remove nitrates from tapwater I use a simple devise which holds nitrate absorbing resin available from Aquatics Direct. A bag of this will last a lot of water changes as it can be regenerated in a strong salt solution. As an example, I water cahnge over 300 litres a week in my tank and each filling of the cannister normally covers two water changes, treble this use following regeneration and take into account a bag holds up to 8 cannisters thats around 25 water changes, a lot more if you are only changing smaller volumes. Just two main points when using this, it should not be used on the tankwater itself as it becomes saturated too quickly, it should only be used on fresh water going into the tank via a hosepipe connected to the tap. Secondly it requires a slow flow rate in order for it to work, 150-200 lph max. This does slow down the process but does remove the vast majority of nitrates in tap water. As for the chlorine etc, you will still need to use one of the branded products.
01-09-2006 12:53 by sonia	thanks for your advise sounds a good idea but i am really looking for something to generally purify my water for my own peace of mind and for my fish's health. my friend told me that i might as well get an RO system but i really dont need a pH 7 and does RO water come out soft? i prefer african cichlids. I also have a tank full of black mollies so not sure if RO would be good for them. i once heard of a filter that remove nitrates, chlorine and chloramine from water and if you wanted to soften the water you add some special salts to filter therefore you have the choice whether to soften or not. does anybody know the levels RO produces in terms nitrate reading, pH, general hardness and carbonate hardness also, does RO remove chlorine, phosphate, chloramine and pesticides. thank you wasnt expecting answers so quickly
01-09-2006 12:54 by keith t	wymcot do you add the chlorine remover straight in the tank, i usually prepares my water in the bath first then syphon down to the tank after a few hours of it sitting there, much to the disaprovel of mrs.
01-09-2006 13:02 by keith t	sonia i use ro water for my non malawi tank, tap water before ph 8.4 nitrates 4.0 ppm tap water also contained phosphates and silicates ro unit with di ph 7 nitrates 0ppm no phospates or silicates dont test gh or kh you can get ro right to put minerals back in but i found using a combination of ro and tap my fish are fine, plants are doing loads better and no probs with algae. so in other words i use half and half and this works for me other peeps might have differant views on my malawi tank i use tap with chlorine and clhoramine remover but looking at what wymcot has suggested as i want to reduce my nitrates
01-09-2006 13:04 by keith t	sorry to but in on your thread sonia but wymcot how much are you talking about for a nitrate resin filter to put on your hose
01-09-2006 13:41 by PaddyD	Nitragons are really good, they get rid of chlorine/chrloramines etc and nitrates - rechahgeable and cost about £60.
01-09-2006 14:26 by sonia	i have just been looking on the internet and other forums about Nitragons PaddyD and everything is coming up that they DO NOT remove chlorine. I am not sure if its worth the hassle and money to buy something solely to reduce nitrates. From what i have read on other forums it appears to common thought is if you are going to spend money you might as well get RO. But i am not sure about RO and African Cichlids and Black Mollies
01-09-2006 14:46 by Ray	Hi,I use a hma to clean up tap water to mix with ro,putting that through a nitragon would give clean water without altering the hardness or ph
01-09-2006 14:48 by wymcot	sonia- RO water is OK as long as your re-add the minerals, salts and buffers etc that the process removes, basically a lot of money. In the longer term, nitrates at consistently high levels,can be more harmful than chlorine, as that disperses over 24 hrs or so. Chloramines however are a differnt matter and need to be dealt with seperately, especially if the levels are high Kieth T Yes I do add the chlorine remover directly into the tank, take a look at my thread "Boring but Essential" on the Malawi site. The resin costs £13 ish a kilo and I purchased the cylinder off ebay
01-09-2006 18:51 by sonia	sorry ray but i have absolutely no idea what a "hma" is i am afraid I think unless you have discus or another very sensitive fish RO water seems an awful lot of bother, wasn't aware about all this putting stuff back in, i thought the point of RO water was that it turns tap water into quality fish water and you put straight into your tank i am suprised in this day and age a company hasnt invented a filtration system that just takes out the bad chemicals and leave the essential stuff in i am going to continue to look for some kind of compromise between tap-water and RO water. I was thinking nitragon but i think that's quite a bit of hassle working out all this "flow rate" for recharging the salt! Sorry to sound like a old moaner but i just want something to fix on my tap or whatever, job done, none of this farting around thanks for feedback i will interested to see if anyone comes up with any other suggestions i basically want the chemicals like chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals out of my tap water without having to go to all this buffering, salt and mineral malarky
01-09-2006 20:59 by wymcot	Sonia- as you are keeping Malawi's do you know what you water parameters are
01-09-2006 21:29 by sonia	according to the test done at the fish shop (it was printed out on computer so i think a reliable reading) pH 7.6 GH 18 KH 12 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0.05 or something, but less than 0.1 Nitrate 37.5 i hadnt done a water change in 17 days though since then with my kits nitrite has been 0.0 and nitrate was 50(ish) before water change and 40 after water change

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