Tank crashing

[mrusso518]

I came home after being out an hour today and my 12 gallon nano cube was all clouded my 3 clowns were all having problems"breathing". My anemone looks sick too. I took it out and put it in my other tank thinking it may be the problem.
Nitrite1.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 20
temp 80
salinity1.026
I did water change and it cleared up a little bit nitrates dropped couldnt get the nitrites to. The fish seemed to be doing better. I did another water change based on advice from my first thread and turned off the light. I checked on the tank just now and Its clouded up worse than before and the fish are all swiming vertical and seem to be doing horrible. Any help

 

[thincat]

Nitrite at 1.0 is pretty bad. That can only happen when there is a ammonia spike first. So either you fed to much or something died. You need to do another PWC to knock that nitrite level down.

 

[harmy4993]

A nitrite reading of 1.0 is very posionous. Heck .25 is pretty bad. Nitrites is more posionous then ammonia.

 

[thincat]

Nitrites are deadly to inverts and corals, not so much fish. Ammonia kills fish. Nitrites are only injested through chloride cells in the gills of fish and since there is so much of it in the oceans (chlorides) the gills of fish can not absorb nitrites very easliy. Since most of us have reef setups that makes nitrite of any reading deadly.

 

[harmy4993]

They have to be dangerous to fish or it wouldntmatter in fish only tanks or freshwater tanks. maybe not more dangerous then ammonia but i was under the assumption it was. But if it didnt matter fw wouldnt test for it. Pretty sure nitrites are a fish killer to. Ill do some reading on my days off.

 

[thincat]

I got my information out of "The Marine Fish Health and Feeding Handbook" Copyright 2008 by Bob Goemons and Lance Ichinotsube, forword by Martin Moe.
This is not to say that nitrite is not bad, only that ammonia is the killer and that it is almost always gone by the time the fish is dead and only nitrite is left to be measured.
Thus making us assume that the fish died from nitrite poisoning.

 

[ccCapt]

Nitrites are deadly to inverts and corals, not so much fish. Ammonia kills fish. Nitrites are only injested through chloride cells in the gills of fish and since there is so much of it in the oceans (chlorides) the gills of fish can not absorb nitrites very easliy. Since most of us have reef setups that makes nitrite of any reading deadly.

That is not entirely true.

Nitrite and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
"The marine aquarium hobby is replete with commentary about nitrite, some of which is, unfortunately, incorrect or misleading. Its toxicity in marine systems is far lower than in freshwater systems. Nevertheless, many aquarists incorrectly extrapolate this toxicity to reef aquariums and suggest that any measurable amount of nitrite is a concern.
In reality, nitrite probably is not toxic enough to warrant measuring in most marine systems.

 

[Jimbo7]

I came home after being out an hour today and my 12 gallon nano cube was all clouded my 3 clowns were all having problems"breathing". My anemone looks sick too. I took it out and put it in my other tank thinking it may be the problem.
Nitrite1.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 20
temp 80
salinity1.026
I did water change and it cleared up a little bit nitrates dropped couldnt get the nitrites to. The fish seemed to be doing better. I did another water change based on advice from my first thread and turned off the light. I checked on the tank just now and Its clouded up worse than before and the fish are all swiming vertical and seem to be doing horrible. Any help

Do another large waterchange, and try to vacuum up any of the crap you can. Make sure your water is temperature matched when you put it in.
Also:
Are you using a hyrdometer or refractometer?
Liquid or Strip Style test kits?
Do you dose anything?
What is your pH?
Any other large inhabitants, coral, inverts?
Feeding schedule?
When you do your water changes, how are you putting the water back in? You may have kicked up a bunch of surplus nasty stuff when you dumped it back in.
Do you run any GAC or PFO?
How long has the tank been up and running?
Do you use RO/DI water?

Add a filter pad or sponge of some sort behind the overflow to trap the large particles and clear up your water.

 

[thincat]

That is not entirely true.

Nitrite and the Reef Aquarium by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com
"The marine aquarium hobby is replete with commentary about nitrite, some of which is, unfortunately, incorrect or misleading. Its toxicity in marine systems is far lower than in freshwater systems. Nevertheless, many aquarists incorrectly extrapolate this toxicity to reef aquariums and suggest that any measurable amount of nitrite is a concern.
In reality, nitrite probably is not toxic enough to warrant measuring in most marine systems.

Since most of us have reef setups that makes nitrite of any reading deadly.
Larry, it was late and I should have said "makes nitrites of any reading far more of a concern."

 

[harmy4993]

sorry. i didnt mean to imply i didnt believe you. you have way more knowledge then i do. i just was going by what i had read. which was some what wrong it seems.

 

[ccCapt]

They have to be dangerous to fish or it wouldntmatter in fish only tanks or freshwater tanks. maybe not more dangerous then ammonia but i was under the assumption it was. But if it didnt matter fw wouldnt test for it. Pretty sure nitrites are a fish killer to. Ill do some reading on my days off.

If you read the article I linked to, you would have read that a test was done using 5 tank raised clownfish. Nitrites were raised to 330ppm. After a few days at this nitrite level, 2 of the 5 fish died.

 

[thincat]

Wouldn't that be the same as burying a man in 10 tons of salt and after a few days seeing if he was still alive. Nitrites at a level of 330ppms is not something that any reefer would allow his tank to get to.