Nitrate and nitrine problem

[Andrew McFadden]

Well thanks for the advice anyways I'm going to try other things to get the levels down. I guess this is what I get for buying my fish from a local fish store. I tried doing research before I got fish but when I had questions no one seemed to want to help, and the people who did help I guess gave me bad info so I will try to keep my fish healthy. I don't have the money right now to go and upgrade tanks so I will have to deal with what I got

Try rehoming some to the lfs it will help big time.

 

[DjBootleg]

First off. You SHOULD NOT have taken out the gravel and cleaned it real good. You added to the problem. Didn't help it. Beneficial Bacteria lives in your gravel and in your filter. BB breaks down the nitrites and ammonia and turns it into harmless nutrients. By taking out your gravel and "cleaning it" I assume you rinsed with tap water. Witch has chlorine, and chlorine KILLS bacteria... By doing so your pretty much starting from scratch.

 

[Aspencer]

BB breaks down the nitrites and ammonia and turns it into harmless nutrients.

Not exactly true. The BB turns Ammonia into NitrItes and then into NitrAtes which you need to do water changes to reduce. You might start a mini-cycle but your filter should handle the ammonia. You might have had decaying food in your gravel which produces ammonia so it is not all bad...better to vaccum well every water change and not to overfeed.

 

[nghsquad05]

I will try to make sure I don't feed them too much but I do vacuum out the gravel every time

 

[nghsquad05]

I went and bought some prime to detoxify nitrites and nitrates. I was told that's better than anquel plus so I hope this works

 

[rotorhead22]

Use your Prime only when you do water changes to condition your tap water. Do water changes to reduce your Nitrites and Ammonia, while you go through the mini cycle. Don't worry that much about your Nitrates. It's the other two that are lethal to your fish. Let the BB bacteria do their job and re-populate, which is a slow process. BB (Nitrosomonas) needs ammonia to convert to Nitrite and another BB (Nitrobacter) needs Nitrites to convert to Nitrates. Using additives to convert anything will hurt or slow down your cycle by depriving the BB of their food.

 

[nghsquad05]

Ok I will how often do u suggest I do water changes till it gets better

 

[rotorhead22]

PWC are not random. They should be based on testing, at least initially. Take your readings and do water changes to get your nitrite and ammonia levels into a safe range (<.25 ppm). If they are at 1 ppm, a 50% PWC will get them to .5ppm. An additional 50% change will get you to .25ppm. You need to be checking your levels every couple of days to ensure nitrites and ammonia don't get up to lethal levels. Do PWC as needed.