Stuck on Nitrites!!!

[tmg996]

I didn't see a direct response to my statement so I didn't know you were talking to me.

I don't understand what you mean by 'stuck on nitrites'. Just dealing with a spiking nitrite level? Nitrites can and will go away with water changes.

If you have fish in the tank, and its a fairly new tank, and your ammonia level is nil, and your nitrate level is minimal, then I would say the nitrite reading is probably accurate.

I said stuck because today makes 2 weeks ive been battling nitrites with the same readings, ive changes 225% of the water within a week and a few days, and the levels havent even gone down to 3 or 4, ive even done a 50% water change, and 4 hours later brought a sample and still the same, im stuck!! i was told 10 nitrate is a good level for it to be at

 

[jetajockey]

Not having a test kit makes this difficult, because you can't get immediate test results. If you have 5ppm nitrite and you do a 50% water change, your nitrite reading should be at 2.5ppm.

If the tank is fairly new, then having spiking nitrites is not really that uncommon, especially if a tank is heavily stocked.

Hopefully you get it sorted out.

 

[tmg996]

Not having a test kit makes this difficult, because you can't get immediate test results. If you have 5ppm nitrite and you do a 50% water change, your nitrite reading should be at 2.5ppm.

If the tank is fairly new, then having spiking nitrites is not really that uncommon, especially if a tank is heavily stocked.

Hopefully you get it sorted out.

My point exactly, i do a 50% wait 4 hours, and its still the same, im STUCK! i know nitrites are going to show up when cycling, but its usually a few days to a week max of a spike, mines been 2 weeks...

 

[jetajockey]

well one thing is that if they are using the API nitrite test, it maxes out at 5.0, so that means anything over 5.0 is going to register as 5.0 also.

Consider doing a huge water change? Like 90%, or even 100%? I don't really like doing massive WCs like that, but to nail down the issue I would. If you do a 90-100% wc and the water is still reading at 5.0 then the tests are certainly wrong.

next time you go to test your water, take a sample of your straight tap water for testing as well, that can give you an idea of what is going on in there also.