Nitrates in well water

[MrsYish]

Hi!

We're getting a baby RFT today and it just occurred to me that I don't know which water to gibmve him/her. We're on well water and get it tested regularly. It's slightly high in nitrates but otherwise safe. The nitrates are too high to be safe for infants or the very elderly but fine for everyone else (11 is the cutoff, ours is 12). I drink it, hubby drinks it, the older kids drink it, dogs, cats, etc. We also have a reverse osmosis system that I use mainly for the baby. Can I use the well water for the tortoise for drinking, soaking, and misting or should I use the RO? Thanks!

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Hi!

We're getting a baby RFT today and it just occurred to me that I don't know which water to gibmve him/her. We're on well water and get it tested regularly. It's slightly high in nitrates but otherwise safe. The nitrates are too high to be safe for infants or the very elderly but fine for everyone else (11 is the cutoff, ours is 12). I drink it, hubby drinks it, the older kids drink it, dogs, cats, etc. We also have a reverse osmosis system that I use mainly for the baby. Can I use the well water for the tortoise for drinking, soaking, and misting or should I use the RO? Thanks!

The short answer is:
It's safe.
You'd be horrified if you saw what a RF can drink....and be fine.

 

[Maro2Bear]

Definitely safe. ✅

 

[Cathie G]

What about both? And rain water too? If the tortoise is a baby they might not get the best water in the wild anyway. I don't know that being wild is the best way anyway. Reverse osmosis drinking water is nice. So I say use all of them.

 

[Cathie G]

What about both? And rain water too? If the tortoise is a baby they might not get the best water in the wild anyway. I don't know that being wild is the best way anyway. Reverse osmosis drinking water is nice. So I say use all of them.

I'm sorry I can't leave this alone. I googled and high nitrates as high as 12 is unsafe for anyone to drink. Also it comes from runoff from fertilized soil, waste water, landfills, septic systems, urban drainage, and animal feed lots. I read that the true cutoff is 10ppm. But that's the cutoff of safe drinking water. Who wants any of that? Id be using your ro system for drinking and cooking for all of you not just the babies. Use the well water for bathing and other stuff.🤗

 

[Cathie G]

I need to clarify why I would disagree with two of my favorite people here on TFO. ZEROPILOT and Maro2Bear. I respect their opinions so much. They may be right. But I can't help wondering why I would develop an "allergy" to corn around the age of 29. I was living on a farm, drinking unfiltered well water in a farm area. That was the early 80's. I've always suspected my corn allergy doesn't make sense. Since googling from this thread being posted I'm even more convinced that too many nitrates in my drinking water caused it.

 

[Tom]

I'm sorry I can't leave this alone. I googled and high nitrates as high as 12 is unsafe for anyone to drink. Also it comes from runoff from fertilized soil, waste water, landfills, septic systems, urban drainage, and animal feed lots. I read that the true cutoff is 10ppm. But that's the cutoff of safe drinking water. Who wants any of that? Id be using your ro system for drinking and cooking for all of you not just the babies. Use the well water for bathing and other stuff.🤗

You are not alone. I have no idea what a "safe" nitrate level would be, but zero is good with me.

 

[Cathie G]

You are not alone. I have no idea what a "safe" nitrate level would be, but zero is good with me.

The more I look the less I want.

 

[Tom]

The more I look the less I want.

We do water changes in fish tanks to keep the nitrate levels low. I don't want to drink it.

 

[Megatron's Mom]

I need to clarify why I would disagree with two of my favorite people here on TFO. ZEROPILOT and Maro2Bear. I respect their opinions so much. They may be right. But I can't help wondering why I would develop an "allergy" to corn around the age of 29. I was living on a farm, drinking unfiltered well water in a farm area. That was the early 80's. I've always suspected my corn allergy doesn't make sense. Since googling from this thread being posted I'm even more convinced that too many nitrates in my drinking water caused it.

I suspect it is more due to the fact they put corn in everything and you're being overloaded with it. Not because the well water in the 80's

 

[Cathie G]

We do water changes in fish tanks to keep the nitrate levels low. I don't want to drink it.

Yes. I always aimed for zero with my little Betta and achieved it. However, I used bottled spring water for him. I'm not sure what I was drinking though if I used my tap water for drinking or cooking. I read cooking with water that has nitrates in it just concentrates the nitrates.

 

[Cathie G]

I suspect it is more due to the fact they put corn in everything and you're being overloaded with it. Not because the well water in the 80's

The way they grew corn also changed a little earlier and in the.80's at around the same time. They began to use a lot more chemical fertilizers. I could tell something was different about corn because I love it so much. Sitting around with my family and friends working jigsaw puzzles and munching popcorn that I popped. I'm being bombarded yes especially now but my symptoms started then. High pulse is a symptom of too many nitrates and that's what corn does to me even now. It never did before. Check it out.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I need to clarify why I would disagree with two of my favorite people here on TFO. ZEROPILOT and Maro2Bear. I respect their opinions so much. They may be right. But I can't help wondering why I would develop an "allergy" to corn around the age of 29. I was living on a farm, drinking unfiltered well water in a farm area. That was the early 80's. I've always suspected my corn allergy doesn't make sense. Since googling from this thread being posted I'm even more convinced that too many nitrates in my drinking water caused it.

I'm probably wrong here once a week. So, I'm never offended.
I have some experience with well water. And in the nitrite/nitrate thing.
My house in Fort Mill South Carolina was on a well. I had 3 in line water filters and cleaning them would just about make me gag. The smell. The slime. Disgusting. But we used, bathed in and occasionally drank what came out of the tap.
It was what it was.
I'm sure that we consumed high Nitrite levels. But it was never confirmed.
Converting Nitrite into Nitrate is a process. I used to obsess over it (and ammonia) back when I had a house full of aquariums.
In fact at least one of those well water "filters" was a biological bacterial bed. Designed to reduce Nitrite. Then there was a particulate filter. And a carbon filter.
And even then.....Not great.
I had a zoo of animals. An x wife and 3 step daughters. No one was ever ill.

It's nothing like our clear, great tasting south Florida tap water.
But it's full of chlorine.

 

[MrsYish]

I'm probably wrong here once a week. So, I'm never offended.
I have some experience with well water. And in the nitrite/nitrate thing.
My house in Fort Mill South Carolina was on a well. I had 3 in line water filters and cleaning them would just about make me gag. The smell. The slime. Disgusting. But we used, bathed in and occasionally drank what came out of the tap.
It was what it was.
I'm sure that we consumed high Nitrite levels. But it was never confirmed.
Converting Nitrite into Nitrate is a process. I used to obsess over it (and ammonia) back when I had a house full of aquariums.
In fact at least one of those well water "filters" was a biological bacterial bed. Designed to reduce Nitrite. Then there was a particulate filter. And a carbon filter.
And even then.....Not great.
I had a zoo of animals. An x wife and 3 step daughters. No one was ever ill.

It's nothing like our clear, great tasting south Florida tap water.
But it's full of chlorine.

I can't stand the taste of the RO water. I drank it when I was pregnant or nursing because I had to and I had to add flavor packets a lot. We've got dogs, cats, chickens, and fish all using the well water and everyone's doing well but this whole baby tortoise thing has me pretty nervous about everything!

 

[Cathie G]

I can't stand the taste of the RO water. I drank it when I was pregnant or nursing because I had to and I had to add flavor packets a lot. We've got dogs, cats, chickens, and fish all using the well water and everyone's doing well but this whole baby tortoise thing has me pretty nervous about everything!

For my tortoise and animals I just use a Pur water filter on my tap for their drinking water. I use it for cooking also. I use tap for my tortoise's bathing water but it is city water. He's an adult. Ozonated water makes me feel like I'm strangling. I could maybe use water purified by ro but I finally settled on ice mountain spring water for my drinking and coffee water because it makes delicious coffee.🤗