Emergency

[F4A]

I woke up today to fine 60% of my fish as dead, all shrimp are dead and my snails are out of the water. My ammonia level are normal, and nitrate levels are normal. The Nitrite levels are off the scale, I guess its somewhere around 5, maybe more.

I have drained the tank down to 50% and I will switch 50% of that water for fresh and slowly add the water back up to 100% total.

I have SeaChem Prime on hand.

Anything else I should do?

 

[phin]

Read the seachem prime bottle. You can dose up to 5x the normal dose in an emergency to control nitrite spikes. That would be 10 drops per gallon. Be sure your water temperature is < 86 degrees or you will have severe oxygen depletion with the added prime.

Also add something like seachem stability or fritz zyme or some other bacteria booster to help replenish the bacteria you lost.

 

[Rivercats]

If nitrites are off the scale that is what killed the fish, but you had to have had a large ammonis spike to get that high of nitrites. You really should do another 50% WC in a couple hours after the first and keep doing them until your nitrite is down to .25 or lower. Have you checked you Ph?

 

[F4A]

PH is normal (7 - 7.5)
Ammonia is normal (0.05)
Nitrite was reading 5, now reading 1~
Nitrate is normal (10)

Can i change the water again in an hour because I will be going out shortly?

 

[Rivercats]

Yes you can wait till you come back, the readings are better than before.

 

[phin]

If nitrites are off the scale that is what killed the fish, but you had to have had a large ammonis spike to get that high of nitrites. You really should do another 50% WC in a couple hours after the first and keep doing them until your nitrite is down to .25 or lower. Have you checked you Ph?

Thats not necessarily true. If the bacteria present to process ammonia to nitrite did not die, but the bacteria that process nitrite to nitrate died then no ammonia spike needed to be present. It was simply a partial crash of the biological filter that caused the dieoff. Something killed off part off the part of the biological filter that removes nitrite and processes it to nitrate.

I agree though that you should keep monitoring your water. Add extra prime and a bacter booster.

 

[F4A]

Can I change the water again within the hour, is this okay?

 

[Sambo7475]

Can't hurt as long as you are treating the water you replace. Just give enough time for your filter to circulate the water. I've done three 50% pwcs in a day when I had a nitrite spike during cycle.

 

[tamtam]

Can I change the water again within the hour, is this okay?

yes totally fine. Tempt match the water properly, condition it with prime and you are good to go.

How long has the tank been up and what was the stock before deaths and currently? A fully cycled tank with proper stock and water changes should have 0 ammo and nitrite. If you normally run low levels of ammo or nitrite then I would look at the big picture and see what is causing this. Did you recently change out any filter media?

 

[F4A]

I have done 4 water changes in the last 24 hours and the Nitrite is still showing as 1ppm. The ammonia has increased slightly since yesterday to around 0.25 ppm. I have made sure the substrate is spotless. What is causing this spike?

When I add Prime into fresh water, how long should I wait before pouring it in tank? I usually do it straight away which maybe has knocked out the bacteria.

 

[F4A]

I only cleaned the filter a short time ago but I just opened it up to check it and everything is covered in a black slime. I don't know what it is but I've cleaned it off.

 

[Rivercats]

Well now your tank should finally get back to normal but watch your readings for a few more days just to be safe.

 

[tamtam]

I have done 4 water changes in the last 24 hours and the Nitrite is still showing as 1ppm. The ammonia has increased slightly since yesterday to around 0.25 ppm. I have made sure the substrate is spotless. What is causing this spike?

When I add Prime into fresh water, how long should I wait before pouring it in tank? I usually do it straight away which maybe has knocked out the bacteria.

What size tank? And what is your stock?

You can use the water right away. You can even dose the tank directly for the whole volume and pour the water in.

How long has the tank been cycled?