fishytales
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2018
- Messages
- 16
I have a fully established cichlid tank that I’ve had for a year now.
Here are the specs:
70 gal tank
20 gal sump with bio media
Eheim canister filer (2217)
30 gal capacity HOB filter with biowheel
Air pump, bubbler, wave maker etc.
Tank has always been at 0 Ammonia and Nitrites and <20 ppm nitrates.
Everything was great until they started adding choloramines in my water. Now every time I do a water change (50% every week) I use Prime and the moment I add it to dechlorinate the water, the ammonia reading is about 2 ppm. Now I understand the ammonia is not harmful because Prime renders it ineffective for a day or so. My biofilter goes to work and within a few hours brings it down to 0 PPM. The issue I have is with NitrItes. After the ammonia goes to 0 there is always a nitrite reading of about 0.25 ppm. This goes away in 24 hrs or so, but until then the fish are subject to nitrites. The nitrospira are not able to handle such a large amount of nitrites from the ammonia conversion all at one time.
I’d like your thoughts on how bad this is for the fish and if there’s anything I can do to prevent this or potentially detoxify the nitrites temporarily. I have more biomedia in the tank than any I have come across, so I’m sure that’s not the solution.
Here are the specs:
70 gal tank
20 gal sump with bio media
Eheim canister filer (2217)
30 gal capacity HOB filter with biowheel
Air pump, bubbler, wave maker etc.
Tank has always been at 0 Ammonia and Nitrites and <20 ppm nitrates.
Everything was great until they started adding choloramines in my water. Now every time I do a water change (50% every week) I use Prime and the moment I add it to dechlorinate the water, the ammonia reading is about 2 ppm. Now I understand the ammonia is not harmful because Prime renders it ineffective for a day or so. My biofilter goes to work and within a few hours brings it down to 0 PPM. The issue I have is with NitrItes. After the ammonia goes to 0 there is always a nitrite reading of about 0.25 ppm. This goes away in 24 hrs or so, but until then the fish are subject to nitrites. The nitrospira are not able to handle such a large amount of nitrites from the ammonia conversion all at one time.
I’d like your thoughts on how bad this is for the fish and if there’s anything I can do to prevent this or potentially detoxify the nitrites temporarily. I have more biomedia in the tank than any I have come across, so I’m sure that’s not the solution.