Fighting Nitrates

The quality of the tap water here in Melbourne, Florida leaves much to be desired. After using stress coat to remove chlorine, I took a measurement of the Nitrates. This "treated" water had nitrate measurements over 40 ppm. While nitrates don't have the same harmful characteristics as ammonia, they can still make the tropheus feel less than optimal, and also effect their desire to breed. So, what to do... water changes are recommended to bring nitrate levels down, however the tap water has high nitrates (which stress coat or any other water treatement does not remove).

The offensive: I decided to use de-nitrate chips, a power head, and phosban-reactor 150 in an attempt to bring the nitrate levels down. This should help the naturally occuring cycle of a somewhat newly established tank (nitrates will spike, and then begin to decrease in about a 2 week period). I also added a ton of Amazon Swords to the aquarium to help in the natural exchange of nitrates. Ammonia chips where incorporated into the 2 Emporer 400 filters in addition to more de-nitrate chips. I used my household reverse osmosis system to produce 10 gallons per day to be used for 20% water changes until the nitrates drop to acceptable levels. Because water from the reverse osmosis unit is "pure", it is missing the essentials that the fish would normally get in the wild. These essentials were provided by mixing Tanganyikan Cichlid Buffer Salts into the "pure" water.