Help water readings off the chart!!!!!!!!!!

[rocky_2197]

I have just returned from a short week long trip to find my water parameters are all off the charts ph 7.8; nitrate 40 ppm; nitrite 10.0 ppm; gh 150 ppm; alkalinity 120 ppm; ammonia .5 ppm. All the fish seem to be fine acting normal and there appears to be no appearent effect from the sudden increase of nitrites. I have done a 50% water change and the nitrites are still of the charts. My question is: Is there any thing else I can do to correct this problem fast. Any suggestions would be much appriciated. Oh I had this tank for almost a year now and this is my first problem so I realy need help fast. Thanks.

 

[PK Tester]

Hello Rocky and welcome to Aquarium Advice!!!

Basically your readings were not that horiablly bad to have a huge fuss about. How often do you regualry do water changes? You nitrates were still in the safe zone. Nitire was High is the only issue. What type of fish do you have in your aquarium? Your PH is about livebearer range. Basically the first day I would have done a 50% water change than daily afterwards intil your readings our down I would do a 25% water change. It seems like your aquarium is not fully cycled. How many fish are in it? How old is it? Normally when an aquarium is fully cycled you will not have ANY nitrite or amonia readings. Its possible a mini-cycle occured.

Basically just keep up water changes intil your levels drop back down...How old is your test kit?

HTH

 

[Allivymar]

There is one emergency step you can taken rocky (and welcome to Aquariumadvice!). Salt. Yep, salt is THE treatment for nitrite poisoning; the chloride competes with the nitrite ions at the gills and keep em from suffocating the fish. Doesn't take much; maybe a teaspoon for a 10-20g tank. So no worries about salt sensitive fish.

In the meantime keep up with the water changes as per PK's advice. Keep in mind a 50% water change will remove half of the offending nitrogenous waste from the tank. If your readings are off the chart, it will take a couple of water changes to get them down to readable levels. A few daily water changes of 50% should set you in the right direction

 

[Kerrinne]

I think the fact that I got aquarium salt for my tank and used it really helped me through that nitrite stage of cycling. I heard tetras don't do well with salt, but I guess the little amount recommended (as Alli stated) plays little effect on them as mine never seemed to be bothered by it.

 

[rocky_2197]

Thanks all for the nice welcome and useful help. I will be continuing the water changes and add some aquarium salt. I had my tank stocked almost a year now with 2 black mollys, 2 red swordtails; 2 pica catfish, 1 medium pl*co, and 1 bamboo shrimp. Until I returned from this short trip All readings where zero or around neutral. It is a new jungle test strips that I got a month ago so I think they are should be reading acuratly. Thanks again.

 

[Allivymar]

I wonder what caused the spike in nitrogenous wastes...did you have someone feeding the fish while you were away? If so, its likely they WAY overfed your guys. Just for future reference, healthy well fed fish in a mature tank can go for a week or so with no feedings; they won't starve. Its better then overfeeding em, especially when the result is the problems you are having.

 

[rocky_2197]

I didn't have anyone feeding them, I put one of those dissolving weekend feeders in there. I too am wondering what caused the spike. All equipment seemed to be operating normally so I would like to correct the initial spike and then do some investigation into what caused this to occur so it wont happen again. Thanks again.

 

[malkore]

The dissolving weedkend food is most likely the reason your nitrite/trate is so high. I'm sorry but 10ppm nitrite is HIGH, and 40ppm nitrate (while not deadly) is way too high.

they make those with plaster of paris...BAD stuff to add to a tank.

 

[BrianNY]

Could also be those test strips. They aren't the most accurate things in the world. One more thing, did you clean out your filters before you left on this trip? You could have possibly lowered the bioload of nitrifying bacteria.

 

[Allivymar]

*nods and agrees*

Its likely those weekend feeders; they do a job on water parameters. If you look at the ingredients in a Wardley's weekend feeder you'll see what I mean: Calcium Sulfate, Salt, Corn Starch, Wheat Gluten Meal, Whole Wheat Flour, Soy Protein Isolate, White Fish Meal, Shrimp Meal, Fish Protein Concentrate, Wheat Germ Meal, Brewer's Dried Yeast, Calcium Propionate (a preservative)...Yuck! Its mostly plaster, salt and corn starch.

Next long trip just leave em be They'll be fine!

 

[rocky_2197]

Well I have been Doing the 50% daily water changes and added aquarium salt on monday. As of today My nitrite have dropt to 5.0ppm and my nitrate fell to 20.0ppm. I will continue to do the daily water changes till I get my water back to safe readings. As for those weekend feeder thing I just threw them out. Thanks all for all of the help. Me and my fish appreciate it.

 

[Allivymar]

Yay! Things are moving in the right direction; congrats

 

[rocky_2197]

My nitrites are down to 3.0 and the fish are so happy. I they all seem to appear to had little affect by the high nitrites, which is so great. Thanks everyone for the help. I'm glad I found this website.