Help! Nitrite emergency!

[Kentaaa]

Hello all! I wish my first post on this forum was with better news but in a nutshell I have a 46 gallon freshwater planted tank. The tank was established and was doing AMAZING. It had been running for about 6 weeks. I cycled the tank with a few "starter fish" that I have had for years that were bulletproof. I tested 3 times a week and the parameters were FLAWLESS everytime.

Day 1 (3/22) Everything was going "swimly" until my discus became very ill. I checked my tank"s chemistry using the API "drop" kit and realized my Nitrites were off the chart. I would've needed a "high range nitrite kit" to even see exactly what the nitrites were. Panicking, I dumped in a large amount of Prime hoping this would lower some of the nitrites. Everything else was fine (pH, ammonia, nitrates, etc.) and all of the other fish in the tank were perfectly fine, all acting completely normal. I moved the discus to my 3 gallon established "rehab" tank where he is still alive, but I am very doubtful that he will recover. After thinking what could cause this, and scouring the internet I realized it was because I was feeding the tank WAY too much. They were receiving two blocks of Hikari bloodworms a day as well as flakes and a few pellets for my bottom feeder. My tank consists of...

1x Dojo Loach
1x Clown Loach
1x Baby Kuhli Loach
1x Baby Knife Fish
1x Gold Leopard Gourami
3x Neon Tetras
1x Diamond Tetra
1x Sailfin Molly
1x Angelfish
1x Bosemi Rainbowfish
3x Glass Cats
5x Marble Hatchets
1x Cory Catfish

The reason why I overfed was because I was worried the knife and the discus were not eating. Anyways, after testing and testing and testing and dumping chemical after chemical I realized the nitrites weren't budging. Again I went to the internet and read the only way to rid the tank of nitrites was to do 10-25% water changes every day.

Day 2 (3/23) I was planning on doing the water change later that day because I had errands I needed to run. However, as I was preparing to leave I noticed my sailfin molly hanging around at the top of the tank and it appeared he was "gasping" or in distress. Therefore that prompted me to cancel my plans and perform the water change immediately. I went out to my LFS and purchased a large gravel syphon as well as a pouch of pure live bacteria (in hopes this would lower the nitrites). As I began vacuuming the gravel the tank INSANTLY clouded up to the point where there was almost no visibility. This was due to the fact that there was SO much food and debris in the gravel. I had never seen THAT much in my entire fish keeping career.

I would watch the tank after feeding time and it appeared to me they were eating 90-100% of the food I was giving them in a 2-3 minute period. Therefore I figured I wasn't overfeeding. I didn't even know it was possible to have that much leftover food and debris in the gravel after only roughly 2 months. I then decided to take out all the plants and rocks so I could vacuum all the gravel. The tank was getting cloudier and cloudier to where I could not even see the fish so I decided to take them out and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with some of the water I syphoned out in the beginning (before it clouded). I then stirred up the gravel with my hand to release ALL the debris from the gravel so it would either get sucked up by the syphon or get sucked up by the filter. By the time I felt I had sufficiently vacuumed the gravel there was only about 10% of the water left (just enough to completely submerge the gravel). I then unplugged the filter.

Currently, I have a no-name/no-brand (SunSun?) canister filter that I purchased from China. It has 3 media chambers (carbon on top, ceramic rings middle, biostars bottom), 3 cotton pads, and a 9W UV bulb. I brought the filter outside and rinsed out the carbon as well as the pads which were EXTREMELY dirty from sucking up all the waste from the agitated gravel. It was taking in water that was not even visible and pumping out crystal clear water so I figured the pads must be pretty dirty and I did not want to put fresh new water in with the nitrite ridden debris still in the filter. I then plugged the filter in and filled the tank up with new water.

I live outside of the city and therefore have well water. I have a softener and an aerator hooked up to my home water system. The softener had salt in it, but no chlorine. I usually prefer to use the water straight from the tank before it has reached the softener and aerator but that is VERY time consuming and all of the fish were in a bucket on the floor so I had to fill the tank up using the hose (which is tapped into the kitchen sink faucet line so that particular hose puts out tap water). As soon as I filled it up I added my conditioner (Seachem Prime), added the full pouch of live bacteria from Petsmart, half a dose of Stress Coat, and half a dose of API Quick Start.

I know that might have been a bit of overkill but I wanted to ensure this water was livable for the time being. I then waited about an hour for the chemicals to cycle (the filter circulates 370 gallons per hour). I then used my API master test kit. The pH was a tad high at about 7.8-8.0 so I dosed the tank with pH down. The ammonia was decent at 0.25 ( one step up from 0). Nitrates were at 0, but....my worst fear was realized, nitrites had not moved at all. They were still off the charts. I felt defeated, 3 hours of work, 90% new water, and a clean filter and the water had not changed AT ALL. I added more prime, waited and waited, tested about 6 more times and nothing...all the same. The pH down did not work either so I dosed the tank with another shot of that as well.

The last aquarium I had I used tap water and after an entire bottle of pH down over the course of 3 days it did not lower the pH by 0.1point. But, that's another problem another day, and pH is the LEAST of my worries right now. Midnight rolls around and the chemistry still has not changed a bit. At this point I figured that the chemistry of this water is exactly the same as their last water and I can't leave them in this small bucket over night. I then added a Solo Cup worth of water from the tank to their bucket about every 20 minutes. At 2 AM there was more new water in the bucket than old and they seemed to be doing fine so out they went into the tank. Everyone seemed to be doing fine. The diamond tetra, the molly, and the knife fish seemed a little wobbly at first and did not seem like they were going to make it. About 20 minutes later they all got their bearings and were swimming around the tank just fine. They were even foraging for food like they normally do. I fed them the TINIEST pinch of flakes and they all went crazy and devoured EVERY flake within 30 seconds. Nothing hit the bottom. I then went to bed.

Day 3 (Today 3/24) I was nervous to leave my bedroom when I woke up and look at the tank because I was scared it would be a graveyard. To my surprise everything looked PERFECT. All the fish are swimming around as happy as they could be. No signs of distress from ANYONE. I fed them a block of bloodworms little by little instead of dumping the entire block in. They went crazy! I checked the chemistry in the morning and everything was the same except for the pH had fallen about 0.1-0.2. Nitrites were still off the charts.

I have been monitoring them all day and they seem to be doing amazing. I just now checked the chemistry before posting this (4:11pm) and pH has gone up 0.1-0.2, ammonia has stayed the same at 0.25, nitrite is still exactly where it was, and nitrate has gone up to 5-10ppm. I guess my question is now what do I do to maintain the tank, lower the nitrites, and not lose any fish? Should I do 10%+ water changes every day? Should I just leave the water alone and add Prime and Stress Coat? Is there a certain product I should go out and buy? I am desperate here and do not want to lose any fish. I'm already devastated about my discus and do not want to go through another loss. Any input would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you SO much,

Alex

 

[Sambo7475]

Adding prime binds the nitrites, but I think they will still show up on the api test.
How old is your nitrite reagent? Could it be provided erroneous results?


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[Sambo7475]

Sorry, I hit reply instead of return.
Was your tank fully cycled before this? (0 amm, 0 trites, trates reasonable)
I don't understand how your nitrites could be off the charts if you only have 10% of the original water left. It's mathematically unlikely, unless the trites were so high that they exceeded the range of the test reagent by more than 90%. In that case, all your fish should have been dead.
I would carefully evaluate your stock as well, you have some monster fish for your tank size.

Read the instructions on the prime bottle, it will tell you exactly how to dose to bind the nitrites. I would not use multiple products from different manufacturers, as they don't often play well together.
Sorry for the disjointed reply, it's hard to use this app for me for some reason.




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[Kentaaa]

I do believe the tank was cycled before the dicus fell ill. Like I said I tested the tank 3x a week and got BEAUTIFUL results. On day 1 when I noticed he looked sick is when I took the test and saw the trites were off the charts. I too am puzzled at how I can replace 90% of the water, vacuum the gravel, and clean the filter and still receive the SAME test results. I bought the test kit about 2-3 weeks ago. Who knows though how long its been sitting in the store though because the LFS I bought it from was a little bit off the beaten path. I too am wondering how none of my fish (knock on wood) did not die. I know I have some pretty hardy fish but it blows my mind how the knife fish (which are very finicky beasts) is swimming around just fine. If the nitrites were INDEED off the charts, wouldn't you think they would be showing SOME signs of distress? The only difference I noticed was the test I did on the original water popped purple as SOON as the drops hit the water.

On the new water however, it turned blue at first (0ppm) but developed into the dark deep purple about 2-3 minutes later. Does that have any significance? I even tested my tap water to try to get SOME clue on what was going on, but my tap water was at 8 pH, 0.25ppm ammonia, 0ppm trites, and a tad over 0ppm trates but not high enough to be at the second marker (a dark yellow but not quite orange). I am dumbfounded. I think tomorrow I am going to bring some water to our local reef store. They do thorough tests for $5. I may also buy a strip test just to see round-about numbers. I did a 10% water change earlier this evening, but the results stayed the same... I am utterly confused...

 

[Kentaaa]

Also, I know that prime binds the trites, but is there any item on the market that just completely REMOVES them instead of binding? One more thing too, after doing some reading online I discovered that most bacteria you buy from the LFS (API Quick Start, that Pet smart brand pouch of bacteria, etc.) Is already dead and therefore useless because it has been sitting on their shelves for who knows how long. Is there anyway to know if you're getting live bacteria? I know it says to check the dates and if its less than 6 months old (12 months if refrigerated) its no good but a lot of times you cannot locate an exact date on the product.

I live in SW Florida where it gets VERY hot and humid, and all I can think of is that product sitting in a 100+ degree truck on its way to be delivered and the heat killing off all the bacteria. I saw a forum post and someone hit the nail on the head. They said that stores treat bacteria products as merchandise instead of livestock. It makes it hard to find good, healthy, alive bacteria which in my case is absolutely necessary because I have a whole tank of fish in basically a brand new uncycled aquarium.

I found one product, a little obscure and "mom and pop-y" called Colony but I'm hesitant to order it because it's quite pricey and to me looks like one of those "panacea, magic, infomercial, somewhat gimmick" type product. If something can COMPLETLEY cycle a tank in minutes don't you think everyone would be using it? Just my two cents. Do you think maybe getting a gallon of water from my aquarium store's tank and adding it to mine would help any? Or maybe a few bioballs and adding them to mine would speed the process...? Thanks again!

 

[Kentaaa]

One more thing too! I don't know if this is a coincidence or not but the Nitrite test has never showed a "middle result" on ANY water. It is either blue (0ppm) or dark purple off the chart . Nothing ever in between those two. I'm sure that's just luck of the draw through. Later today I will do an experiment where in a cup I will mix 50% tank water with 50% tap water and run a test and see what the nitrite level is. Theoretically I would expect to see a mid-range result (~2.5ppm) which would tell me the reagent is working properly . However, if the results turns dark purple again (5ppm+) I will know that either the test is not accurate or the threshold of nitrites is so high even diluting it will not lower it to a readable level. I will post results later. Thanks again!

 

[Delapool]

Hi, I like the idea of doing that test. The nitrites must of come from the ammonia and will flow to the nitrate readings so it is a little odd. More water changes I'm afraid.

API nitra-zorb will remove nitrites but water changes are pretty good as well. It can take a lot of water changes. I had a mini-cycle where daily 30% water changes weren't enough to keep the ammonia and then nitrites down.

Welcome to API Fishcare: NITRA-ZORB®

 

[tanks2u]

Nitrite prob.

Check out www.angelsplus
They sell Biological Active Sponge Filters.
These filters are laden with a multiple variety and millions of healthy bacteria that can be used to quickly and properly cycle any tank.

After careful consideration I conclude this may be of great help in solving your high nitrite problem
Good luck

 

[jarrod0987]

Adding prime binds the nitrites, but I think they will still show up on the api test.
How old is your nitrite reagent? Could it be provided erroneous results?


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In my experience the Nitrite API kit goes bad more then any other test. However, when it does, it says you have 0 nitrite when you do have some.

The main thing is don't panic. As long as the fish look fine they are. If they start hiding under water fall or heavy breathing and not moving then you have an issue.

Prime can help bind them but it does not seem to always work. I don't know why. I recommend doing water changes to keep Nitrite under 1 ppm. If it is under 0.5 ppm and fish seem fine I would just let the bacteria do it's work. Sometimes, the nitrite part of the cycle goes very quickly. Sometimes not. Bumping the the temp up to 75-76 could speed things up if it is lower then that.