Rising nitrite levels

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Maseyen

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 22, 2016
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5
I recently found a dead snail in my 75 gallon tank. My nitrite and nitrate levels have been steadily high despite daily 20 percent water changes. My ammonia levels have remained at zero and neither my clowns nor the chromis seems to be bothered by the elevated levels. Is there anything else that I should be doing to bring down these levels?

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Hi there
Is your tank relatively new and how high are they as you shouldn't really be getting any reading of nitrite if your tank has been cycle probably ,as for nitrate Fish can with stand relatively high readings with out calls for concern in the short term ,but you do need to get it under control just carry on doing water changes every day until you reach the level you're happy with,


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I've had fish i, for about 3 weeks my readings were all zero for the first couple weeks and I found the snail after my first high reading. The nitrite are around 2ppm and the nitrates are around 10ppm. Ammonia still has a zero reading.

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Nitrates of 10 is nothing to worry about as long as it don't keep climbing as for the nitrite that's the one you need to get to 0 so you need to keep doing the water charges until it's gone also it sounds like you haven't got enough good bacteria going in your system yet this is why you have a nitrite Reading you could try adding a bacteria booster to your system which should help bring it down as well. As a Dead snail shouldn't really give you a nitrite problem if you have a Enough good bacteria in your system. The worst it would do would course a very slight nitrate Reading.


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Hello,
In regard to your rising nitrite level, I can think of a couple things you could do to help these nitrite levels lessen.

1. Feed your fish only what they will eat right away. No leftover food degrading into your tank ecosystem to give you an ammonia spike and start the cycle to nitrite.
2. Add some live plants: chaeto is great and will suck nitrite right out of the water. Plants are great for stopping the nitrate cycle and making your tank safe for your fish.
Hope this helped :)
 
I'm happy to say that levels in my tank are finally getting back to normal. I'm even seeing copepods on the glass. Hopefully things are on the road to success.

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