new Gravel/ Nitrite level

[fish_lover]

Ok, i should have been asking this question way before *SICK* , but well better late than never. I has whiite/ cream gravel in my tank & Over a period of time I just happened to have mostly cream colored fish in my 10 gallon. I had a hard time locating my fish & had to look real hard, so I got this bright idea to change the color of the gravel to a dark color. So I bought new gravel & one/third of it, with the old gravel (I was worried that if I change it all at one time, I might mess something up).Then a few days later all changed the remaining gravel & did a partial water change (abt 25%). After that when I took the reading I found out that the nitrate & nitrite levels had shot up dangerously. I did a 25% water change as advised on the bottle & added aquarium salt for reducing the Nitrite & some Nitrate Reduction granules for the high nitrate.

This morning I saw that my fish are ok (I have seven of them )Its been about 4 days since the gravel change. But my Nitrate/Nitrite levels have shown very little change.
My reading as of before the gravel change & after are :

Before After
Nitrate:20-40ppm 40ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm 3.0ppm
Hardness: Same
Alkalinity: 300 ppm(high) 180 ppm(ideal)
ph:Same
Ammonia: .25 ppm Same

(The bottle says that if my Nitrite level is high then my ammonia level should be high too, but that is not the case)

My fish sre not showing any signs of stress so far!! Is there anything I can do to reduce the Nitrate levels?? If I dont mess with it, would it get worse or just get back to normal by itself??

 

[FroggyFox]

WATER CHANGES. Unless you have plants in the tank, the best way (only way) to get rid of nitrate is to do water changes. "Nitrate reducing" things pretty much dont work and aren't necessary.

As for the nitrite level...its possible that you upset your filter media during the switchover. Do you have a powerfilter on the tank or is it an undergravel filter?

If you just upset the bacteria a little...maybe rinsing your filter in chlorinated water or something...then I think your spikes should go down pretty quickly. I wouldn't panic...but do some extra water changes to get rid of your nitrates and help the fish cope with the high nitrites.

 

[fish_lover]

oh god, that is what I did. I completely washed my filter in chlorinated water. I didn't know it would lead to a spike in nitrite levels. Its too late now, what should I do??? Also next time I need to wash my filiter (I have a a powerfiliter) what should I do??? Should I take some water out of mt tank & wash it with that?? I washed it bcoz I had some algae in my filter & was trying to get rid of it!!

 

[FroggyFox]

To wash filter cartridges that look dirty...you should rinse them in used tank water that you pull out of the tank...or just make up a bucket of dechlorinated water to rinse it in. Running chlorinated water on your cartridge kills the bacteria thats on it.

It lead to a spike in ammonia and nitrite levels because it basically sent you back to the initial cycling process. You'd see your ammonia spike and then your nitrite spike. HOPEFULLY you didn't kill too much of your bacteria, or there's some left in other places in your tank. If you had killed all of it you wouldn't even be seeing nitrites...and since your nitrates went up too I think you just need to be sure to watch the levels over the next few days and do some extra water changes.

 

[discus4everGrl]

do you only have one tank? If you have another one you could put a piece of filter floss (the fabricy part) in the filter that got killed. That will add some bacteria back. Since you are reading nitrites like froggy said there is still a good chance you didn't kill all the bacteria and it may rebound faster than starting from scratch.