Nitrite spike established tank

[Ryan87500]

I have a fully planted tank that has been running for a few months with no issues. Recently I had my first fish die and tested the water and had a small amount of nitrite and what looks like over 80 nitrates.

I do weekly water changes but have been fertilizing and one of the elements is nitrates. So I did a series of large changes of a few days and also rescaped and removed two large Amazon swords.

It has been two days and I just tested the water and noticed over 1 nitrites.

I dosed with prime for now to help with toxicity and will do a large water change tonight.

Any thoughts on what went wrong? Could to high of nitrates cause my nitrite bacteria to die?


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[Mebbid]

I would say it's possible that the nitrite spike was caused by the removed plants. You likely had a large ammonia spike that caused the fish death and then are seeing the tail end of the nitrites.

What substrate do you have?

 

[Ryan87500]

I am using pool filter sand.

My ammonia was normal when I tested a few days ago and today. What is interesting is two days ago before I did a few huge wc to lower my nitrates I had maybe .25 or .5 nitrites so assumed that my nitrates were to high slowing the conversion process.

But two days after getting my nitrates in order my nitrites seem to be high.


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[jlk]

Have you tested your tap water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate recently? If these all read zero, then it's likely that removing the swords and disturbing everything upset your tank 's balance.

I would not be not be overly concerned though. Just continue to monitor your conditions and do wcs as needed to keep levels in check until things settle.


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[Ryan87500]

I will have to check the tap tonight. I tested it awhile ago and had no issues but I know things change. When I did a large wc last night it lowered my nitrite so I assume tap is fine.

The newest update is my nitrite was back to zero this morning. I was going to skip a feeding but decided to feed so will see what results are tonight.


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