Nitrate phosphate silica,and algea

have a huge problem have borehole water very hard lot of caluim and magnesuim total 600
320 and 280.
in weeks time without any direct sun shine in the stoep undereath roof have tanks green,every time inside little but brown.
using a water softner waht can i ad to remove the silica phosphate i believe is high as wel as nitrate 15 ppm out of tap.
thx

 

i think this ties in with it:

http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?t=2403

 

not trying to growing algae

to much algea read post didnt find the solutuion in there thx

 

Hi Angelfish,

If you write in this SMS style it is very difficult for me to understand your questions.

Where are you based, if you say the hardness is so high? Your measurements do not sound correct to me.

I do not understand the second sentence that you have written, please explain?

A value of 15 mg nitrate also sounds very high.

Which water softener are you referring to, some just replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium and are useless.

If you do have very hard water and want to keep softwater fishes you have no choice but to use a reverse osmosis unit to soften the water and this is the only cost effective option.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

softner

sorry internet slow and not enough time to write in detail.

well the softner uses growe salt course salt.

only think it disolve the calcuim and magnesuim.
can i use a other filter for silicate or phosphates and especialy nitrate, looking only to keep algea the green stuff away not to change on the hardness or ph
ph whas 7.8 still waiting for my new water report to come have a old one some where if you intrested but not detialed report.
thx

 

Hi Angelfish,

If your softener uses growwe sout, it is replacing Calcium and Magnesium with Sodium which means that it is not removing anything from the water, it is just replacing one thing with another. "Water hardness" is defined as the concentration of Calcium and Magnesium so this does remove these two elements and we say that this treatment "softens" the water, but as I have said before this is useless as it is not really removing the total amount of dissolved substances in the water. Bottom line is that your water softener in terms of keeping fish is USELESS.


If there are all these substances dissolved in the water then the only way you are going to remove them or "soften" the water, you will have to use reverse osmosis to get rid of all of these substances. If you do not want to soften your water you can still keep Malawis or Tanganyikan cichlids but you can forget about any fishes that want softer water such as those from the Amazon.

I have asked before where you are from as I may then be able to give you more advice so please answer this question or else I cannot help you.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hi Prof

His info states Namibia, if this helps.

From what I can gather, he wants to solve his algae problem. The water hardness is a secondary issue. He has issues with high NO3 and PO4 from this borehole water. I would love to know if there is a solution to this, but I fear that if the source already has 15ppm NO3 then anything more than extremely low light will surely cause some algae, unless he wants to do daily water changes. And even then I doubt it is possible to use this water and keep a reasonably well stocked tank...

 

Hi Lauré, and again hi Angelfish!

If I hear Namibia then I think I am beginning to understand. Maybe you are near Tsumeb and the Otjikoti lake in which the water is so hard that you can chop it out with a pick axe! I was there last year at this time on my way to Angola.

I also know that the water in Windhoek is very hard and much of Windhoek's water is recycled. If you live in an area in which this recycling is done in earthen dams this may be leaking into the ground water and may explain the high nitrate and phosphate levels.

As Lauré indicates water that contains such high levels of nitrate and phosphate will give you consistent problems with algae. There is one possible solution that I can suggest though and that is if you put the water into a pond with water hyacinth, then this plant will pull out the nitrate and the phosphate. You could then use the water after a week or two for your aquarium.

However, it would help if I knew where you came from so that I can give you better advice.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

There is of course another solution :bigsmile:

Stock the tank with plenty of fast growing plants, high light and get CO2 injected up to 30ppm. You will most likely be the only person growing plants nicely without dosing EI :bigsmile:

The constant trimming may frustrate you...

 

where i come from gps 17.83

well almost at the gate of namatoni 20 kms from there outside tsumeb 75km
on the way to oshivelo then turnof to namatoni first gravel road left =- 10kms
ary coming agian this way your welcome to come and visit.
here is same old water details

nacl 518
suplhat so4 194
caco3 280
nitrate 15 mg/l
total akalinity 560
ph 7.5
tds 1500
conductivity 2000

this is +- 2 years old since then 2 time a row a flood on farm with water rushing over the road at +-20000000 liter per hours

 

Hi Angelfish,maybe this will help.

http://www.myfishtank.net/forum/sal...a-powerful-nitrate-phosphate-remover-diy.html

 

Hi Angelfish,

So my suspicions are correct, you are near the Ojtikoto lake! In this area, the rock formation is what we call calcerious rock, high in calcium, sodium and a string of other nasties.

You can try to keep Malawis and Tangs in this water, but forget about plants perhaps with the exception of Vallisneria and Cryptocoryne balansae. You will only be able to grow plants if you used softened water and by that I mean water that has been softened using reverse osmosis. I am sorry to inform you about this, but the amount of dissolve substances is incredibly high, far higher than the hardest water that you will find in a SA tap.

If I have the chance to ever visit you, and thanks very much for the invitation, I will bring you a bottle of distilled water! Under your circumstances it is definitely better to drink beer than water!

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

+1 on the beer instead of water.
Cheers !!!!

 

thx

this whas my plan originally to breed tangs in the water problem is with 10000 liter dam and change maybe 10000 liters a week it is going to be tiredsome to try to keep the green stuff away whas thinking of plants had plants valis giant in the tank before it can grow the water is green under stoep so only thing was the phosphate excetra that bothers me as i will keep softer species in mix ro and forr breeding 3/4 ro angelsn exetra when breeding needs to happen.
sendm me a pm then i will give my contact numbers for u
quote=Dirk Bellstedt;34911]Hi Angelfish,

So my suspicions are correct, you are near the Ojtikoto lake! In this area, the rock formation is what we call calcerious rock, high in calcium, sodium and a string of other nasties.

You can try to keep Malawis and Tangs in this water, but forget about plants perhaps with the exception of Vallisneria and Cryptocoryne balansae. You will only be able to grow plants if you used softened water and by that I mean water that has been softened using reverse osmosis. I am sorry to inform you about this, but the amount of dissolve substances is incredibly high, far higher than the hardest water that you will find in a SA tap.

If I have the chance to ever visit you, and thanks very much for the invitation, I will bring you a bottle of distilled water! Under your circumstances it is definitely better to drink beer than water!

Kind regards,

Dirk[/quote]