chriznat20@msn.
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
OK like ive said before, I love this site, but nobody seems to be helping me My 55 gallon that ive had for a month and 1 week has some nitrites that are high. The ammonia has pretty much dropped off, but my nitrites are off the charts. The fish seem perfectly ok, and I even doubted my test kit so today i brought a water sample to my LFS. They confirmed my results. The guy there said to gravel the filter and perform a 25% water change. I did. Is there something I am doing wrong? Ive been feeding my fish (3 tiger barbs, 1 striped rafael, 2 gouramis, 1 pleco, 1 tetra) once a day and I am not totally brain dead- I only feed them way less than what they can eat in 3 minutes. Nothing even makes it to the bottom of the tank!! I have two whisper 30's (bio filters) I havent cleaned them out, I didnt want to harm the bacteria but they look good as new. When I filtered the gravel a lot of fish fecal matter came up. What gives? Oh, the temp is at 76 degrees, I have added aquarium salt, but only about 5 teaspoons and that was about 3 weeks ago. Help!