Help! High nitrite levels

[Alejandro.Padilla93]

I am new with this, my nitrite levels of my saltwater tank are high, i make a test before I changed the water and it was at 5.0.
When i change the water it got low but it still in 2.0... What do i need to do?

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

You shouldnt have done anything. All you did was set bak the time it takes to cycle your tabk by doing that water change. You need to let it do its own thing until it becomes nitrAte and then do your water change to get that as close to zero as possible. Now you have to wait longer. You dont have any fish in this tank right?

 

[Alejandro.Padilla93]

Yes i got 4

 

[Alejandro.Padilla93]

U can see them in my picture, i dont know the name :$ im new at this :/

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Oh gosh. Okay are you sure you have nitrAte or NitrIte? They are VERY differant and nitrate is not as deadly...

Also how big is your tank? Is it cycled??

 

[Alejandro.Padilla93]

My fish tank is 60gal and it have 5weeks old.
It is high in nitrIte NO2

 

[Alejandro.Padilla93]

Yes ot make it first cycle at the 3rd week

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Hold on. So you are saying that your tank is cycled at 5 weeks old with 4 fish? Well if you had 5 nitrite your fish would all be dead by now so i am very confused. if you STILL have nitrite then you are NOT cycled

 

[Alejandro.Padilla93]

It make it first cycle at the 3rd week old

 

[Jlsardina]

How did you cycle the tank?

 

[Bettafanatic]

I'm just as confused as Jack. Are you positive it isn't nitrates because the fish would have gone belly-up with 5 ppm nitrites?

 

[Hondatek]

Nitrite isn't as deadly in sw as it is in fw. Here is a good read on it. You still need do water changes to get thru the cycle since you have fish.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php