Water Quality

[Aquena]

My nitrites are in stress zone and nitrates are ok. I did 50% water change and still the same. Established tank over 3 years. About 3 weeks ago I went through a Ph emergency which is okay now. I had been doing about 20% water changes since about twice a week. I wonder if my tank is trying to cycle and Im changing too much? How to correct high NITRITES?

 

[shellieca]

Are you using strips or a liquid test kit? Strips can be inaccurate, if you can get it tested with a liquid kit that'd help know the true nitrite levels. When you say Ph emergency, exactly what happened and what did you do to correct it? Typically regular weekly water changes keep the Ph balanced & its generally recommended to not correct a Ph because that can cause issues.

 

[Rivercats]

You have to do WC's to get nitrites down to .25 or less. Do a 50-60% WC wait a couple hours and do another. You can even do a 3rd but get them down as quickly as possible as they can do a lot of damage to fish in a short time.

 

[Aquena]

Thanks! But how will my tank cycle? I'll do more water changes, my nitrates are up a bit too, Ph at 6.8, water a little cloudy.

 

[Aquena]

My Set-Up Basics:

 

[Aquena]

I did about a 60% water change. Meant to do 50%. How can I get BB back so my tank does not go through a stressful cycle?

 

[Aquena]

Are you using strips or a liquid test kit? Strips can be inaccurate, if you can get it tested with a liquid kit that'd help know the true nitrite levels. When you say Ph emergency, exactly what happened and what did you do to correct it? Typically regular weekly water changes keep the Ph balanced & its generally recommended to not correct a Ph because that can cause issues.

I have strips and a liquid Ph test kit. My Ph crashed a couple weeks ago. I fixed that.

 

[Matt68005]

high nitrite

Benificial bacteria lives in the gravel. I hope your not vacuming it all. This is a big misconception among newer aquarist who think the stuff your vavumong up is bad
Its your goid bacteria your vacuming up. Freshwatrt fish are not hurt by nitrates. Its a sign your tanks cycled. As far as the nitrite you can use prime as confitioner only.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Benificial bacteria lives in the gravel. I hope your not vacuming it all. This is a big misconception among newer aquarist who think the stuff your vavumong up is bad
Its your goid bacteria your vacuming up. Freshwatrt fish are not hurt by nitrates. Its a sign your tanks cycled. As far as the nitrite you can use prime as confitioner only.

This a lot of bad information. Most bacteria lives in the filter media and the substrate. You could vacuum all day and still have plenty of bb in your tank. Fish are defiantly harmed by bit nitrites and nitrates. Levels to high of either can cause your fish to die.

 

[Matt68005]

This a lot of bad information. Most bacteria lives in the filter media and the substrate. You could vacuum all day and still have plenty of bb in your tank. Fish are defiantly harmed by bit nitrites and nitrates. Levels to high of either can cause your fish to die.

How is it bad information? Isnt gravel substrate? Freshwater fish can handle Nitrate levels very high. Havent you ever been to a lake? Filtet pad yes. But in the gravel too. Dont say its alot of bad infirmation and then agree with me. I think you need to read my post again!

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

A lake is a bad example of an aquarium. There is a lot of water. Constant flows the quantities of oxygen, large number of plants and micro organisms all if which play a much bigger role than they do in a aquarium

 

[shellieca]

I did about a 60% water change. Meant to do 50%. How can I get BB back so my tank does not go through a stressful cycle?

You haven't lost much if any BB from doing a 60% water change, there is VERY little of in the water column so your water change will have no real effect on your cycle. What little BB may have been lost will re-establish.

 

[shellieca]

I have strips and a liquid Ph test kit. My Ph crashed a couple weeks ago. I fixed that.

I would get the complete liquid test kit, saves money in the long run & tends to be more accurate than the strips. Weekly water changes should've kept your ph stable. Do you know why it crashed? That probably caused the problems with your cycle.

 

[Aquena]

Thanks Everybody for your help! My Ph probably crashed because I hadn't kept up with my weekly water changes during my last month of finals. ----3 weeks ago --> I did a 50 % water change and everything seemed fine. The next morning my danios and platys ALL suddenly had a white slime all over body and eyes, and were pretty much belly up. I ran to my local fish expert, he did a water test and there was no Ph. He said that high nitrates (or nitrates?) used up all my Ph. My tap water has 6.8 Ph. I had put all my sick fish in a ten gallon hospital, he prescribed me to add 1 TBS salt PER Gallon (yes this is safe for treatment) within an hour the slime was gone, and all the fish revived and survived. As for the main tank, he told me to add 1/8 TSP ARM and HAMMER brand only (Thus brand buffers the ph, unlike store bought chemicals) Baking Soda PER GALLON per day until the Ph was 7.0. That took one days treatment. Ph has been stable since. ----Back to today, I think I have been doing too many water changes the last couple weeks, but I have not changed filter media and also have a sponge filter in my tank. I have 4 baby platy fry in breeder box that I feed Frozen Hikari Baby brine shrimp and First Bites to about four times a day. Maybe because of this I was over feeding my tank? Thanks for listening...any further advice or comments appreciated!

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Your water change schedule shouldn't cause a recycle. Maybe test your tap? I know the water from my tap comes out with high trates, so I transfer city water from across town for some of my tanks

 

[shellieca]

Sounds like you're back on track. When ph crashes it effects the cycle so now that you've got that under control your cycle should get back to normal. I always advise if ammonia/nitrites are >.25 or nitrates >20 to do a 50% water change. That could be a daily happening or not.

 

[Aquena]

Thanks All, after my 60% water change, nitrites only went down a small bit, but still in stress zone! I can't imagine why?! Established tank, running 3 years! I'm going to check my tap water. Usually it's 100% safe (besides the chlorine)

 

[Aquena]

Should I buy "Stress Zyme" tomorrow? That's supposedly the beneficial bacteria to help cycle.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

It doesn't really help just wait it out you will be fine.

 

[dwayne.aycock]

High nitrite levels indicate the presence of what will soon be ammonia. How clean is your tank? are you changing out the charcoal every 3-4 weeks? If not, I suspect channeling or leaching taking place in your filter. Overfeeding will cause a spike in nitrite before it turns to ammonia. If you are not overfeeding, count your fish...are they all there. The presence of a dead fish could also five you a spike in nitrites. Water changes will always dilute what is going in. Your nitrites should Never rise when doing a WC unless there is something wrong with the water you adding.
D