WOW, not sure I'm liking this....

[pgrhodes1]

Hi All,

Left my husband in charge of fish this weekend. BIG MISTAKE! He way over fed so nitrites went through the roof. Lost my Angel fish. Did 4 50% water changes yesterday and added Prime. Here are my numbers with Master Kit:

ammonia: O
PH: 7.6
Nitrites: .25
Nitrates: 20

Should I be doing anything else??

Thanks, Penny

 

[molliwopp]

ahhh that's not kool, ex hubby.

Are those today or yesterdays results? Me personally, I would do a 50% to get the nitrite below .25ppm and nitrate to 10ppm but its not life threatening. Looks ok other than that though

 

[pgrhodes1]

Checked prior to leaving for work this AM. Will they be okay until I get home and can do another change??

 

[Rivercats]

Yes they will be fine until you get home at those levels.

 

[pgrhodes1]

Do I need to clean my canister filter as well???

 

[rmiller]

Definitely give the canister a good cleaning. Wash everything in old tank water to ensure you don't harm the bacteria. I would treat this like a fish-in cycle. Just watch your numbers, making sure to keep nitrite under .25 ppm. Your bacteria will recoup soon.

 

[molliwopp]

I wouldnt clean the filter if it isn't blocked, If the prefiltering sponge is clogged by all means clean that in treated/or tank water but don't touch any bio media unless your tanks well established. Completely cleaning the filter will undo all the work the bacteria has done and you'll almost start from scratch.

If your tanks well established , clean it in stages and never all at once. If your tank is newly set up, i wouldn't even touch it.

 

[Rivercats]

I actually clean my canister filters every 4 week. I wash everything, even the pre-sponges EXCEPT for the bio-media which I never even rinse. I've yet to have ammonia spikes, mini cycles, or anything else using this method. The only problem with not rinsing and removing detris from pre-filter sponges is it can and usually will cause high nitrate readings down the road. If your on a schedule like I am I wouldn't clean the filter until then. I'd say with all your WC's you'll be fine.

 

[pgrhodes1]

Wanted to THANK you all for your advise. This is a GREAT site....

 

[Fishperson]

Are you sure that you did 4 50% water changes? Because if you just did 4 50% water changes nitrates shouldn't be at 20 ppm. Are you sure you're testing nitrate right?

Actually, if you now have 20 ppm nitrates, then, after doing 4 50% water changes, that would mean you started with 320 ppm of nitrates.

Not trying to hassle you, I'm just saying you might have a problem if you are testing/reading nitrate wrong.

 

[pgrhodes1]

Goodness my head is spinning....god if I had known I needed to be a rocket scientist to do this I would never have purchased that aquarium... Numbers this AM:

Ammonia: .25 to .50 (can't really tell, kind of between)
Nitrites: 0 (color is a deep blue not purple)
Nitrates: 10

Did a 50% WC just to be safe. These numbers are before the WC.

 

[Rivercats]

Are you sure that you did 4 50% water changes? Because if you just did 4 50% water changes nitrates shouldn't be at 20 ppm. Are you sure you're testing nitrate right?

Actually, if you now have 20 ppm nitrates, then, after doing 4 50% water changes, that would mean you started with 320 ppm of nitrates.

Not trying to hassle you, I'm just saying you might have a problem if you are testing/reading nitrate wrong.

You can actually do a lot of huge WC's in a tank which will lower nitrates BUT If something like a very dirty filter that hasn't been cleaned in quite some time is being used on the tank and is the source of where the nitrates are coming from the nitrates will just reappear/rebound in the water.

About a year ago I decided to add an Fluval 406 canister to my 220g tank but only put bio-media in it. These canisters come with sponges that wrap around the media baskets and then there is a sponge in the bottom media basket. I left those and added only bio-media (Fluval ceramic bio-media). Now I already had 3 Fluval canisters running in which I faithfully clean every 4 weeks. That tank runs at about 10ppm of nitrates with a 50% WC weekly. So I decided to try only cleaning this canister filter every 4th month. Well I can't remember what month I was in but suddenly I began seeing my nitrates rising despite my 50% weekly WC and no tank changes had been made. Once they hit 30ppm I decided to pull the filter and clean it. Wow were those sponges loaded. I actually cleaned them under tap water till no visible dirt came out. I wasn't worried about doing this as there were 3 baskets of bio-media and bio-media in the other canisters. So long story short, I cleaned those sponges, put the filter back on and did my weekly WC. Well my nitrates dropped and the tank went back to running at 10ppm nitrate again. I would see this in my 55g tanks that housed 3- 8" fancy goldfish as well. If I didn't keep their canisters cleaned every couple of weeks my nitrate levels would climb. So if nitrates are coming from say an overly dirty filter or the substrate no amount of WC's will help until the source producing the nitrates is cleaned.

 

[Rafy0126]

You can actually do a lot of huge WC's in a tank which will lower nitrates BUT If something like a very dirty filter that hasn't been cleaned in quite some time is being used on the tank and is the source of where the nitrates are coming from the nitrates will just reappear/rebound in the water.

About a year ago I decided to add an Fluval 406 canister to my 220g tank but only put bio-media in it. These canisters come with sponges that wrap around the media baskets and then there is a sponge in the bottom media basket. I left those and added only bio-media (Fluval ceramic bio-media). Now I already had 3 Fluval canisters running in which I faithfully clean every 4 weeks. That tank runs at about 10ppm of nitrates with a 50% WC weekly. So I decided to try only cleaning this canister filter every 4th month. Well I can't remember what month I was in but suddenly I began seeing my nitrates rising despite my 50% weekly WC and no tank changes had been made. Once they hit 30ppm I decided to pull the filter and clean it. Wow were those sponges loaded. I actually cleaned them under tap water till no visible dirt came out. I wasn't worried about doing this as there were 3 baskets of bio-media and bio-media in the other canisters. So long story short, I cleaned those sponges, put the filter back on and did my weekly WC. Well my nitrates dropped and the tank went back to running at 10ppm nitrate again. I would see this in my 55g tanks that housed 3- 8" fancy goldfish as well. If I didn't keep their canisters cleaned every couple of weeks my nitrate levels would climb. So if nitrates are coming from say an overly dirty filter or the substrate no amount of WC's will help until the source producing the nitrates is cleaned.

This is great info...

 

[pgrhodes1]

THANK you!! Will clean filter this evening....