Nitrite level

[pwrmacG4]

i have done my water changes and the only time my nitrites are low is after i change the water. my nitries have been around 1 maybe 2.. what should i do?

 

[cchase85]

Water changes... nitrites NEED to be zero, as I am sure you know.

 

[MissFishy]

If your nitrites are still rising, that means your tank isn't fully cycled. How long has this tank been cycling? Are you treating the water BEFORE adding it to your tank? What are your ammonia levels?

 

[Kissyboots]

When I first started testing my water, nitrites were at 4. I know, not good. I did millions of water changes until it went away. I don't think I added anything chemical. So water changes would be best.

 

[pwrmacG4]

it has been on 4 weeks now.. ammonia has been 0 for a week and a half. i have been doing 50% water changes regularly. i use the aquasafe to treat the water prior to adding it into the tank

 

[TabMorte]

It can take up to /8/ weeks to cycle a tank. It seems horribly cruel that nature would take that long but it's true.

 

[pwrmacG4]

wow... that sucks

 

[TabMorte]

Yeah, water change, water change, water change!

 

[pwrmacG4]

i have a shop vac with a drain in the bottom of it.. so i siphon the water into the shop vac with my gravel vaccum. i fill the tank back up with a hose hooked up to my utility sink. i set the water temp to the same as in the tank and i put the water treatment solution in.

 

[TabMorte]

With your nitrates that high you need to be doing water changes like... daily. You can use Prime to treat the water too, it helps to detoxify the Nitrite.

 

[pwrmacG4]

well.. sticking to water changes seems the right thing to do

 

[pwrmacG4]

ok.. after another large water change my nitrite level was 0.. i have done multiple water changes of 50% or more and the nitrite levels have never been at 0 after the change. the lowest after the change was .25. my ammonia went to 0 after a water change and never came back. is it possible this will happen again with the nitrites?

 

[ishar]

To remove the chlorine, the new water needs to be fully exposed to your dechlorinator- and it needs to have this BEFORE entering your tank. It sounds like you treat it after you pu tit into your tank. VERY BAD.

When I do a water change I put the recommended amount of dechlorinator into a 5G bucket and then fill the bucket up- this allows the turbulence of the water to mix the dech. up and remove all of the chlorine from the water before it enters my tank.

 

[pwrmacG4]

no.. i do add it to the water prior to adding it to the tank.. i use a hose to fill a tupperware container next to the tank.. then i use a small bucket to fill the tank.

 

[pwrmacG4]

bumped for more input..

 

[TabMorte]

I would keep an eye on the nitrites they could go up again still if you aren't done cycling.

You're adding the decholinator right too then if you're adding it like that.

 

[roark fishies]

Sounds like you might be going through the nitrite spike. Mine done that around the time Ammonia went down to 0. I was happy about that but then seems like no matter how many water changes I done it was hard to keep the nitrites down. Just stay on top of the water changes until the nitrites level out and eventually drop to 0. The end is in sight at least!

 

[pwrmacG4]

roark.. how long after your nitrites spiked did they go down to 0?

 

[roark fishies]

The tip of the spike lasted about 4-5 days. That's when I had to go back to daily water changes. Then they went down to a more "tolerable" level for the fish (enough that I wasn't having to do daily water changes) for about another week or so. So that's about a couple weeks? But then, oddly enough it went back up to .3 (after it went down to 0). Still really low but not complete I guess. I don't know what happened there.

 

[pwrmacG4]

well.. after most of the water changes it goes to 0 or 0.25.. oh well.. just keep up with the water changes.. i will be so happy when i don't have to do that anymore