Help major nitrite spike won't go down

[ktomminello]

Good deal

My suggestion, all things considering, suggest "live" sand such as aragonite, it's expensive but you can probably order it online or find it on craigslist for a decent price. I wouldn't suggest oolite sand considering your stock. I would say either 1 clown or 1 damsel and a cool looking CUC and make a nice feature tank, 20g is a bit small for more than 1 saltwater fish when you take into consideration the amount of sand and rock- minimum recommended sand bed- 2-3in and 1lb rock per gallon.

You can use regular marine sand and cultured live rock, but at this point in the game you really don't have the time to do an old fashioned cycle, lets be realistic guys . Using live sand, cultured live rock (with as many hitchhikers as possible) stirring up the sand and adding by section and purified real ocean water along with a supplement like Kent's marine nano reef 2 part and you should be back on track, just hold onto your seat and get ready to ride out a saltwater fish in cycle


Saltwater reef tanks are the closest you can get to being God... You can watch single celled organisms collect and become life from nothing but sand, rocks and water... It's easy to understand the concept, but the devil is in the details. I don't care if you made it through grade school or not- if you can take the time and do the research, have the patience to understand the nature and design of maintaining a successful reef tank you have the equivalent of a phd in creationism, lol.

 

[Colton]

No matter how many water changes I do, the nitrites wont drop. I got all of the waste I could find in the tank, and did a 50% pwc. Nitrites won't drop. I'm really scared for my fish. I'm only 13, and I don't get much money. I don't want the fish to die, but I'm almost certain they will. Is there anything drastic that I can do to drop the ites significantly?

 

[HovaRockz]

Qt the fish while you work on your displays troubles

 

[Colton]

How do I start a qt tank?

 

[Colton]

The nitrites just claimed my smaller clown, bozo. He was swimming around erratically from the poisoning I guess, and got sucked into the filter.
He's chopped sushi now /:

 

[ktomminello]

So sorry about bozo the clownfish I suggest mixing a 5g bucket of saltwater, get rid of your substrate and all water and set up a bare bottomed, undecorated tank and slowly start again, beginning with a second time over on cycling. All things considered saltwater tanks, especially such a small reef tank is nearly impossible to maintain without a ton of money and time, are nightmarishly and notoriously overly high maintenance and are not for beginners. All that said- if you do proper research and are willing to put in the effort the sense of accomplishment make it so worth it... I hope your parents are very supportive of this hobby.

 

[Colton]

They're not supportive at all. Everything comes out of my pocket

 

[TheTodd]

I kinda agree with the QT idea if you are not able to get the trites and trates down. Both levels being that high is going to kill the fish, but is already doing damage now. Something is causing that problem. What kind of filtration do you have?

 

[ktomminello]

They're not supportive at all. Everything comes out of my pocket

I'm so sorry. It's a lot on your young shoulders!! My tanks are a full time job pretty much and I'm a retired mom (7 and 9 years old). My daughter is already interested in aquariums and I've been teaching her (she's 7). That being said, a quarantine on the inhabitants and redo of your tank would be a wise idea. Oh, here's something I just thought of, there is a possibility that the town/city that you live in uses fluoride in their water or possibly a calcium based water softening pillow, that can severely screw up your levels

 

[Colton]

I kinda agree with the QT idea if you are not able to get the trites and trates down. Both levels being that high is going to kill the fish, but is already doing damage now. Something is causing that problem. What kind of filtration do you have?

I have a tetra whisper 40 gallon filter- 200 gph
And and aquaclear 30- 150 gph

 

[Colton]

I'm finally getting somewhere with trites. I've been doing 3 gallon water changes daily. They've came down to about 7 ppm. Still deadly though. Wish me luck!

 

[Colton]

Okay, my nitrites are at 1 ppm. I feel so much better now, I just need to get my trates down some, and I'll be in the clear! The spike was from over feeding. Its not my source water. I went to the processing plant, and had them test it.

 

[ktomminello]

That's awesome!! Sometimes adding a small amount of nite-out during a larger change along with adding porous decorations like saturated Malaysian bogwood, or other type of driftwood or lava rock caves can help give beneficial bacteria (and sometimes not so beneficial bacteria) to colonize and help balance your tank. Any type of media from a balanced established tank is also a good little way of kicking your cycle over that phosphate stage I'm so glad you're having success and learning to enjoy the hobby!!