Question about Nitrite

[Cherie]

I am still a little new at the whole fish thng, but I am learning. I have a 150 gallon new tank. It has been set up for two weeks. Set up with Bio Spira and 2 fish added one week after start. So the 2 fish have been in there for 1 week. The Nitrite in my tank is showing a very slight reading this morning. I have had problems with my others tanks in the past with ammonia and treated with partial water changes. So does this work the same way. A partial water change? Thoughts are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Zagz]

Yes pwc's are used to keep nitrite and ammonia down. For 150 gal tank bio spira is a great idea, but depending on the fish you have it may not be enough to keep the cycle moving along. What fish did you add?

 

[Cherie]

Two african cichlids.

 

[7Enigma]

Cherie,

You started out very well with your cycle (ie large tank with a very small number of fish). You can reduce your nitrIte level with water changes just like ammonia.

Depending on how low your level is you might not need to do a PWC. With such a large tank, it would take a tremendous amount of water to be removed to bring a barely visible amount of nitrIte down. Keep monitoring it, but if it was my tank I would just use a tank dose of your dechlorinator/water conditioner such as Prime. This will detoxify the small amount of nitrIte in the tank so its not harmful to your fish, but also save you the trouble of doing a huge PWC.

Now if that level continues to climb and you get over 0.5ppm I would think about doing a water change, but with so little in there a bit of dechlor is all that would be needed.