HIGH Nitrites OVER 10ppm?

[stanneyboy]

I have a 10g freshwater tank with five plants. I bought a pre-cycled substrate and after a week everything tested solid (zero nitrite). I put in three guppies. Under 36 hours later I retested the water and the nitrite was 10ppm. Couldn't believe it was that high so I retested it. 10ppm. I STILL couldn't believe it so I tested it again. 10ppm. I took a sample of the water to PECTO and had them test it. 10ppm or over. So here are my questions.

HOW did my nitrites go from ZERO to 10ppm in such a small timeframe?

After some emergency water changes and adding both Cycle and Amquel+ the nitrites are now back down to 0, but they were elevated above 3ppm for about a week. Two of the three guppies have managed to survive.

What is the likelihood of them continuing to survive?

 

[krap101]

It is likely either your gravel wasn't even cycled, or cycled entirely. A vast majority of your bacteria is in the filter, and adding seeded gravel might speed up your cycle, but it won't be instant. If you took a filter off an established tank, the cycle would be near instant if the tank size/load is equal to or lesser than what was on the old tank. You also don't mention ever adding ammonia. Either your bacteria died, or there wasn't any ammonia to convert until you added the fish..

If you keep ammonia and nitrites under .5 (.25 is preferable) and nitrates under 40, I'd say 85% that the two remaining guppies will survive.

 

[Mark Hewitt]

What are the other readings? Ammonia and Nitrates?

 

[BigJim]

Are your fish still alive? I would think that 10ppm of nitrite would be toxic to just about all fish.

 

[Crepe]

I agree with BigJim. normally 1ppm of nitrites is bad but 10 is lethal. Did you get nitrate and nitrite mixed up? 10ppm Nitrates isn't bad.

 

[stanneyboy]

My Ammonia and Nitrite are currently 0ppm. Last Wednesday night we got the Nitrite down from 10ppm to about 3ppm via a 50% water change and by using Amquel Plus. On Thursday we started using Cycle Biological Agent. It stayed 3ppm until Sunday when we did an 80% water change, and used more Cycle Biological agent.

I expected the fish to be dead days ago because as you mentioned 1ppm is harmful 10pp is on its own planet of DOOM. I did not mistake NitrIte for NitrAte, my nitrates have been hovering around 20ppm. I also did not misread the strip, we did 3 tests at home and 1 at PECTO which confirmed a 10ppm or higher NitrIte Level.

I agree with your analysis Krap101, I think that the precycled substrate needed to be fed before we added fish. Not something I had learned in my studies and the guy who sold it to me didn’t mention it either, but that does make a lot of sense.

We are thinking about adding ONE Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami to the tank next week as long as things stay stable. THoughts?

 

[krap101]

Did you buy live sand? That is meant for saltwater?

 

[Crepe]

Also considering you're using strips I would say that they're buggered out. Once you open the container strips start to deteriorate. They've got a shelf life of a few months afterwords.

 

[logansmomma1228]

what did you use to test your parameters? I find it hard to believe that all of your fish survived 10ppm of nitrites. Either you got them mixed up, or nitrites was 1ppm, but there is a very slim chance that ALL fish survived that.

Test strips are notorious for being innacurate. I suggest you get liquid if you didn't already