At a loss with high nitrite

[oc Robbie]

Ok I cycled my tank fishless for 3 weeks & everything seem great . Added lampeyes nitrite seemed to spike a little . All other reading had been fine . About 5 weeks in & the nitrites never go down ! I've done 30% water changes everyday for a week added denitrol everyday after changes . Temp matched water on changes . Cleaned tank of any dead plant leaves etc . No dead fish . Shrimps are doing great. Could my filter be the issue ? Seems to look pretty dirty after a wash in the replaced water . Almost brown looking. Other readings :


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[Rpeinhardt]

What exactly are your NO2 and NO3 readings?

 

[oc Robbie]

No2 is 0.8 after 30% water change & denitrol it drops to 0.4ish . No3 is 10 & is pretty stable at that .


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[Rpeinhardt]

.8 what? Mg/l? I'm used to working in ppm so I need a little clarification.

 

[oc Robbie]

0.8 mg/l nitrites . ?


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[Rpeinhardt]

Oh. Silly me. The conversion rate is 1:1.

.8 mg/l is .8 ppm.

Looking at your ammonium NH4 concentration, it's clear that that's where the NO2 is coming from. Seems like a bottleneck in the bacteria going from the second to third stage of the nitrogen cycle.

I'm guessing your tank isn't quite fully cycled and the bacterial colony responsible for fixing NO2 to NO3 hasn't grown big enough to handle the load yet.

Edit: Went back and looked at your additional info picture.

 

[oc Robbie]

So it's just a waiting game & water changes. That's ok as long as I know wants happening . Thanks for your help


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[Mebbid]

Have you gested your tap water?

I would double up on the water changes a few days and increase the amount to 50% that should help reduce your levels a bit and make the water a bit safer as well as give you a bit more breathing room.