Nitrite stuck

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Kevin78

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Dec 28, 2020
Messages
36
Good afternoon!!

I just recently cycled my 75g planted aquarium. To make sure it was cycled,, I dosed a little ammonia at 3ppm and watched if drop to zero. I did a 50% h20 change and got the nitrates down to 20-40ppm. The nitrite was falling as well. I went out and got 5 neon tetras and one female betta to see how the tank would do.

I have tested the water for 3 days now and ammonia has been zero, nitrates holding steady but nitrites won't come off of .25ppm. I did have to euthanize 1 tetra due to a large white spot which I was told was NTD. I went to get a new one today and while acclimating it, I noticed another one passed. I checked ph and it is 7.6.

Why hasn't the nitrite gone to zero and what's up with the tetras? I've read they're a finicky fish to keep.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Kevin
 
When ammonia and nitrite are both zero after dosing, then your filter/tank is cycled. Looks like it is not quite ready.
 
I did have both zero with some nitrates. Then I dosed a little ammonia and the nitrite has never come back down.
Well, since there is fish in there now, what options do I have??
 
Don't care about nitrate. Don't add any ammonia since you have fish. For nitrite reductions you can add one teaspoon of table salt or aquarium salt for every 10 gallons of water to reduce nitrite toxicity. More nitrite information is here and here.
 
And that's what had me puzzled. 2 days of 0 ammonia and nitrite with high nitrate. Then dosed ammonia, nitrites rose a little, came down and now it's stuck.
 
Well it's going to be a little confusing. Cycling your filter to remove ammonia will take 3-8 weeks to complete. However, you have a planted tank, which should not be done during cycling because plants will suck up all the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate so you filter may never cycle, and give unpredictable water parameter readings, like you are seeing now. Adding fish now complicates things more and you said you added ammonia with fish in the tank (unless I misunderstood your post).

Just follow this Fish-In-Cycling procedure and you should be just fine.
 
No, I waited for the cycle to finish(so i thought) and dosed 3ppm to make sure the cycle was working.
 
I've got a small tank with stuck nitrite too , so following.
Just another thought , my nitrite test bottle is just past useby date, 2 months ( my other bottles are fine ) just wonder if ur nitrite bottle is old too ?
 
I've got a small tank with stuck nitrite too , so following.
Just another thought , my nitrite test bottle is just past useby date, 2 months ( my other bottles are fine ) just wonder if ur nitrite bottle is old too ?
I wouldn't worry about that too much. My API test kit expired in 2010. I bought a new one, 8 months ago and they both show identical readings for everything. So I'm still using my 2010 kit...
 
Ok cool , thanks for that, I do have a new kit , but I didnt want to open it till I completely drained one of the bottles . But I was worried about its accuracy, nice to know its ok .
 
Hey guys, just wanted to throw in my two cents as well. I have heard that depending on the test sometimes, nitrates can read as nitrites on occasion. Again that’s depending on the test kit and I don’t know if that happens with all tests. Additionally, as far as neon tetras are concerned, they can be very fickle especially if you already had one with NTD. I usually add a bunch of neons at once because I have found that they do much better in larger groups assuming you have a large enough tank for them.
 
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