Hi
I have tested nitrates in my tapwater and my test kit have giving me a reading of over 50ppm. Apart of installing an R/O is there anything I can try to eliminate the nitrates in my tapwater?

'As I recall there was a tap water nitrate remover called 'nitragon' that is cheap and effective, although looking it up I haven't seen any listed websites still selling it. Perhaps someone else has one around here or knows where you might be able to buy it.
If you had a sump you have some other options like a sulphur nitrate filter

I had my tap water tested by my water company years ages ago. If you are in the uk phone the water company and they will come round and take a sample and give you an accurate result. The max limit unfortunately is 50 which makes it very hard to keep fish in. If its over 50 the water company have to investigate why and also to reduce it to below 50

The best way to remove the nitrates is with an RO machine. I used one for my discus and it would take 2 days to get enough water to change 25g, I had to add 1 tap water to 3 RO water to get the Ph right and to add essential minerals. To get a RO machine to do a large amount gets very expensive. Also they are not a good idea if you are on a water meter, they waste 3 times as much water as you get.

Are you sure your tap water is 50. Are you using the bottles testers or the dip strips. The strips are notoriously inaccurate

In your situation fish keeping is always going to be hard work. I hate hearing cases of nitrates being so high in tap water, and I would dread mine ever getting that high.

what can you do? there are a few things, but to be honest they all mean more work for you and an extra cost.

1 a nitragone. its a rechargeable tube that you filter your tap water through. pros and cons. its very slow and takes a few hrs to filter 50g. its cheap and last may yrs as it can recharge may hundreds of times. mines 10+yrs old.£70 it does not remove a lot of nutrients from the water like RO.you can make you own using a tube and a lot of anion exchange resin like fluval lab series.
www.romford-reef.co.uk/main1.htm

2 RO water. again its not cheap to run and even worst if you are on a water meter.I won't say to much as a search for RO will turn up all you need to know.

3 a nitrate reactor. Deltec make some of the best, and are what I would go for if I was buy one. I have heard mixed views. they work for some people but do take care to get working and keep working. alcohol reactors are not cheap but are better than sulfur as you don't get the ph problems as much, but ph will still need monitoring.(these run on vodka .5mg per day)£300+
www.theaquariumsolution.com/nfp509-nitrate-filter

have a read of the links, wetpets sell RO units so you can get some info from there site. you will need to look through the wetpet site as they have a poor link system that won't take you direct to the item.

consider how much water you are going to change each wk and workout the best option. )