Saltwater Mix - Nitrates, Nitrites & Ammonia Present - Uh, What?

[prettyfishy76]

I made a 30 gallon batch of saltwater in a 44 gallon Rubbermaid trash can on Tuesday, 3 days ago. I used the Coralife Marine salt and dechlorinated tap water. A powerhead has been circulating the water and a heater has been set to 78F. The lid was placed securely on the trash can so that my cats wouldn't take a dive into the bin by accident. I opened up the lid this evening and noticed an ammonia-like smell. So, I tested the water for Nitrates, Nitrites and Ammonia. Here is what came up:

Nitrates: Between 5.0 and 10

Nitrites: 0.50

Ammonia: Between 0.25 and 0.50

How does this happen with freshly made saltwater? The trash can, powerhead and heater were clean before I mixed the water... Has anyone else had this issue? Right now, I have the trash bin in another room with the lid off, heater turned off and powerhead still running. I placed a PolyFilter in there.

I have used tap water to mix saltwater in the past and did not have any issues. However, I didn't let it mix for more than a few hours before using it. Thoughts?

[esacjack]

sounds like there was some organic material somewhere in there. Maybe due to the rain? I'm only curious, but why are you using tap water?

[prettyfishy76]

I am using tap water because I found out that there are people around town that do the same who said they weren't having any issues with it. I do have an RODI unit, but I feel bad wasting so much water. I change many gallons of water in my tanks.

[ct67stang]

ive read many member use their waste water for other things instead of letting run down the drain, water garden, grass, even use filling their washer as it self fills. I personally planned on setting it up so the "waste line would feed a closed top barrel outside and have the barrel for my garden with a valve on bottom. I too hate the fact that there is a lot of waste water

[+Timfish]

As one who uses tap water I'm actually surprised to see the ammonia level only .5. I usually see something around 1 ppm. Test your tap water before you add the salt. As far as nitrites I haven't had a test kit for that since probably 2000, it won't stay around very long and will get broken down. How much of a water change are you doing? I would go ahead and do your water change and test your aquarium water immediately after and again in 12 hours then in 24 hours. What you will see is how your system is dealing with nitrogen.

[+Timfish]

I tested my tap water this evening and had about .5 ppm ammonia and about 5 ppm nitrates. I'll test my tank I use tap water on tomorrow. There won't be any ammonia but I am curious what the nitrates are.

[+Timfish]

The system I use tap water on has 0 nitrates (nitrate-ion ["red" reagent]). I'm glad you posted this question. Since I realized many years ago that a ell maintained system won't have much nitrates and stopped testing haven't given nitrates much thought. looking at this system now and the level of nitrates that are going into it but using a high sensitivity test kit and monitoring the nitrates added to a system in a water change and seeing how fast the corals are using it up could be a quicker way to monitor coral growth than just waiting for them to grow. Here's a current video of the system I've been using tap water on since 2008: