I need advice on how to lower the nitrites.

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catwoman461

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Aug 2, 2003
Messages
4
Location
Connecticut
I have a 37 gallon tank and a 10 gallon hexagon that I used for a hospital tank and as soon as the fish got better I put it back in the bigger tank. now the 10 gallon has 4 fish in it and it is crystal clear here is my problem my 37 gallon tank has high nitrites. why I dont know except I had my little niece here for the week and I think when I was not looking she kept on feeding the fish. I asked her she is 4 and she told me yes. so that is where it all started, so I did a big 50% water change and the food debris on the bottom stirred up and the nitrites went up not down. so I did another change and lost my favorite angel fish. I have 2 angels now I had 4 until she came and I have 13 neon tetras that school together and one placo and one chinese algae eater very small and 3 fan tail guppies the guppies stay at the top the angels and in the middle and the pleco and chinese are at the bottom, I have several plants. I could name them but it is quite a long list. The plants are planted in sand that I cant put the vacuume in and suck up the poop at the bottom from that sweet niece of mine. anyway I did stir up the tank quite a bit and got it all cloudy and bought a bag called nitra zorb and it is in the filter. I have a penguin 330 on that tank and I bought a penguin 170 and put it on there too to get the stuff out and I put the filter from the 10 gallon on there too,. I got the water mostly clear it is a bit cloudy and bought a penquin mini and put that on the 10 gallon along with the filter that was on the hex. a liberty 125. Now my small tank has nitrites one color above normal but the 37 has high nitrates, and no ammonia I don't get what to do the nitra zorb has been in there since yesterday which means it has been in there for 19 hours. What can I do to save my fish, I don't want to lose anymore and I am scared to do another water change. so soon. Any suggestions?? also I put liquid garlic in the tank every two to three days.
 
2 things you can do to lower nitrItes. One you are already doing; water change water change water change. Its better to slow down the mini-cycle then it is to leave the nitrItes in the water. Nitrites compete with oxygen at the gills, and the fish suffocate. Try doing a small daily change instead of huge ones; maybe 20% a day?

The other thing you can do is add salt. The chloride ions compete with the nitrites and the fish can breathe. This one is a little controversal when it comes to scaleless fish like plecs tho; some say salt is a no-no, others say its ok. There is a school of thought that says salt burns the plecs skin; there are documents online however, that talk about using salt with catfish specifically for nitrite poisoning. Your call. Just FYI, definitely no salt for corys; they are one cat that truly cannot handle it.

I also have sand in one of my tanks. I do vacuum the bottom tho; try a small diameter gravel vac or pull the big tube off the end and just use the little part. Hold it just over the sand, barely touching, and you should be able to bring up some of the crud.

There are products which claim to reduce nitrites; I've never used them. I don't know how effective they truly are. Someone else will have to speak to that.

Good luck to both of you.
 
Well I added salt yesterday and did a 10g water change today. hopefully that will start sending it in the right direction. I plan on doing a 10g water change every other day until things see to have calmed down a bit.

after adding the salt last night all my fish seemed allot more active already today. I didn't know that pleco's were scaleless fish. I added one last night to try and help with gravel clean up and I have not seen him since I know they like to hide during the day but I moved everything around so the new fish could get some territory and now I still couldn't find my pleco :(. hopefully he'll turn up in the next few days.
 
Thank you for your advice, I do have salt in my tank, it was one of the very first things, I put in there, I have had fish tanks for years in the past and the salt seemed to keep my fish from getting any diseases and they never got ick or and secondary infections such as tail rot . What is contradictory is that I have neons tetras and angels and the pleco and they are all not supposed to be put in a tank with salt. But I did it and they are fine. I did another small water change and the nitrates are still up there. What scares me about doing a small water change daily is my angels they die. they cant take the daily water changes. I could put them in a plastic bag and float them in my 10 gallon and introduce them to the hospital tank but they are big and won't really fit comfortably in there .,Then I will have to get them back in to the big tank with the plastic bag again and it is better if I can figure out something else. thanks April
 
Now I just added some more salt but not as much as the box said, it said one heaping tablespoon for every 5 gallons and can you believe to hatch brine shrimp you need 8 heaping tablespoons for every 5 gallons. with a 55 gallon tank that would be an awful lot of salt. Anyhow, I have been up all night worried about my fish suffocating, and after my smaller water changes it still seems to be the same as far as the nitrites go?? I don't get it? I tested my water and it does not have any nitrites in it at all . So why wont it go down? I did just get new fish 10 neon tetras is that the reason? mixed in with the overfeeding from my 4 year old niece Cassy. So that you know I have both tests the nitrite and the nitrate. what I am talking about is the nitrites with the I they are not low where they should be. the fish seem ok and I just don't get it. I did not feed them yesterday at all. And does anyone know if the salt hurts real plants??? I have all real plants I spent a lot on them and dont want them to die. that was another reason why I got the hospital tank so my plants would not be subjected to the medications. But I dont have any sick fish now, just sick water. how many days is ok to keep on doing a water change? and I add a lot of things to the water so it can be very expensive to do it every day, I add peat in the form of liquid from the amazon river it makes the condition of the water as close to home as possible for the angels and tetras, then I have to add water soft from Mardel since the water here is hard. The ph of the water is good and by adding the peat and water soft it brings the ph down to 6.8 right where I want it for my type of fish without having to add ph down. I also add liquid garlic every other day one drop per every 10 gallons and that prevents ick and secondary infections. and I add nova aqua from Kordon that is stress coat and stess zyme and ph stabilizer so every time I do a water change it can be costly but I am going to just start using the dechlorination and then when I finally get the nitrites out I will put all that stuff back in, I just figured that each time the tank would get better and put all the stuff in. bye april
 
The high nitrites are much more harmful to the angels than water changes. What bothers them about the water changes? If you skip trying to get every bit of crud off the bottom, and simply put the syphon in the corner of the tank and drain off some of the water, that should not be too stressful. Netting them and putting them in buckets or bags for tank maintenance is extremely stressful also, so avoid doing that as well. This is going to take time, and it is hard but be patient. You are basically having to cycle your tank all over again, though a shortened version. It may take a couple of weeks for the nitrites to lower and to start showing nitrates, which signals the end of the cycle and happy fish again. You are doing the right thing.

As far as your manipulation of the pH and hardness that is an entirely different subject, and not really related to the nitrite problem. I have hard alkaline water here and I keep neons, cardinals, angels and just about everything else with no difficulties, so I am not a huge fan of these pH products that raise or lower it, but you should keep on like you have been if you are getting the results you like. Sudden changes in these values are stressful for the fish, too, so be sure you keep a handle on that while you do these frequent water changes.

Good luck, and you are on the right track!
 
*nods and agrees with TankGirl*

Better to do frequent water changes then to have nitrItes in your water. Just FYI, a lot of the chemicals you are adding may not be necessary. Angels and neons are captive bred, and are used to higher levels of Ph then wild caught. I never touch my Ph levels; my angels are fat happy pigs (so are the loaches and the plec and the gouramis and the shrimp etc etc LOL). Captive bred angels have been known to breed in Ph levels as high as 9.2! Although I certainly wouldn't recommend it LOL. I have to admit, I add a dechlorinator to my tanks and thats it. Nothing else.

High nitrAtes are not so much an issue, as they are more an indicator of water quality (high nitrAtes = lots of waste in the water; more ammonia=more nitrites=more nitrates). You don't want nitrates above 40 ppm or so, but having some register is ok.

I'm taking a shot in the dark here, but I'm guessing the increased bio-load, both the 4 yr olds "help" and adding 10 more fish, are causing an increase in ammonia levels, which consequently leads to higher nitrite levels. I'm wonering if the Nova aqua is an ammonia remover/converter. That may also add to some probs as those ammonia reducing products just convert ammonia to a non-toxic form. Prob is, the ammonia eating bacteria don't scoff it down the way they do toxic ammonia, so it slows things down. Just a thought.

Yeah, salt is not the greatest for sensitive plants. It does help keep fish from suffering nitrite poisoning tho; your call on that one.

What exactly are the levels right now? If the nitrite levels are really low, you may be able to get away with just the water changes.
 
I just wanted to say thanks for the help and let you know that my two week fight with nitrites is over. and my tank is cycled :) only took 3 weeks :D
 
:( nope but I got a new one today. I feel so bad I think I may have buried him when I was moving things around in the tank the other day.

old tank pic

don't mind the blur my photo skills are less than great.

wholetank_old.jpg


New tank pic.

wholetank.jpg
 
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