losing guppies

[butterfly_koi]

I've had my tank 29 gallon for four months now, everything was going good. Now I seem to be losing guppies, I think I figured out as to why just don't know the best way to fix it. the Ph and hardness levels have always been on the higher side (I think its mainly because of my tap water) but now I'm noticing the nitrites are rising slowly in my tank. Tested it today and it was about .3. It could be do to the fact that I had all of the fry in the tank as well as my guppies but I'm not positive on that. So how do I go about lowering the level? I did a pwc two days ago, is it safe to do another one?

 

[calfishguy]

Yes you can, do daily pwc until your nitrites are under control. What are your exact params. Have you added any fish lately. Tank mates.

 

[butterfly_koi]

Yes you can, do daily pwc until your nitrites are under control. What are your exact params. Have you added any fish lately. Tank mates.

I put all of my fish in my extra tank (always kept it running just in case of emergencies) I think I know what I did, I changed the substrate in the tank from gravel to sand about a week or so ago. I've never done that before so I didn't know you were supposed to change it little by little over a course of a week. I think I threw the tank into a mini cycle.

 

[butterfly_koi]

Bare with me on my numbers, I ran out of the liquid testers was supposed to pick up some more a couple of weeks ago but my local lfs charges almost $60 and my husband said to wait till this payday. All I have is the test strips which I kept as backups
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 3.0
GH: 300
KH: 300
PH: 8.4

Up till now my levels have been ok now it seems that everything is off the chart. This has been so aggravating to try and figure out why

 

[Starka]

Sounds like a mini cycle to me as well specially with those nitrites. I lost a cory and a platy when I changed mine from gravel to sand and didn't realize that I threw it into cycle. Doing a 50% pwc daily should help and in a couple of days you should be fine.
Sorry for your losses.

 

[butterfly_koi]

Sounds like a mini cycle to me as well specially with those nitrites. I lost a cory and a platy when I changed mine from gravel to sand and didn't realize that I threw it into cycle. Doing a 50% pwc daily should help and in a couple of days you should be fine.
Sorry for your losses.

Thanks, will it get through the cycle ok without the fish in the tank? when I first cycled it I had done it with fish. this is so frustrating I feel like I'm starting all over again with this tank

 

[Starka]

Thanks, will it get through the cycle ok without the fish in the tank? when I first cycled it I had done it with fish. this is so frustrating I feel like I'm starting all over again with this tank

It will only last just a couple days to get enough BB to handle the tank again. I did mine with fish did 50% for three days and besides the two fish at the beginning, everyone came out fine. I don't know about without fish. I guess you could just wait it out for a couple of days and test daily to see if the nitrites go down.

 

[butterfly_koi]

It will only last just a couple days to get enough BB to handle the tank again. I did mine with fish did 50% for three days and besides the two fish at the beginning, everyone came out fine. I don't know about without fish. I guess you could just wait it out for a couple of days and test daily to see if the nitrites go down.

Thanks for the advice, cycling is something I don't know much about lol