Nitrite off the chart - advice needed

[Katrinag]

Sorry, I just got back from a backpacking trip. How are things going?

hi, hope you had a nice trip. Well today is the day that I finally hit 0 ppm for Nitrite! Yeah! The rest of the readings are ammonia 0, PH 7.0-7.2 (color is close), and Nitrates 0.

I did a 50% water change yesterday, cleaned and vacuumed the tank again. At this point how often and how much should I change the water?

Also I think my MM Platy has dropsy. She doesnt seem to be bothered by it but there is definately something going on with her scales and color. She is pregnant but I dont think that has anything to do with it.

 

[Mebbid]

hi, hope you had a nice trip. Well today is the day that I finally hit 0 ppm for Nitrite! Yeah! The rest of the readings are ammonia 0, PH 7.0-7.2 (color is close), and Nitrates 0.

I did a 50% water change yesterday, cleaned and vacuumed the tank again. At this point how often and how much should I change the water?

Also I think my MM Platy has dropsy. She doesnt seem to be bothered by it but there is definately something going on with her scales and color. She is pregnant but I dont think that has anything to do with it.

Aside from getting trapped on a beach and forced to trudge 8 miles through sand it was a great trip!

Congrats on the nitrite. It looks like your cycle should be done. Although, the nitrate reading is a little scary. The only time there should ever be a 0 nitrate reading is in heavily planted tanks and brand new water. Are you sure you're performing the test correctly? Assuming it's an API test you need to add 10 drops of the first bottle, shake the test tube for 5 seconds, vigorously shake the second bottle for 30 seconds, add 10 drops from bottle 2, and then shake the test tube vigorously for an entire minute. Most of the times I have gotten a 0 reading on nitrate from my non planted tanks was because I didn't shake it enough.

That sucks about the dropsy, from my experience there just isn't much that can be done to treat it. You can attempt some medications that might relieve the problem but there isn't really any guarantee. Pregnancy of the fish "could" be the cause of it but there's not really any way to tell because if that was the case because it would be some strange internal defect in their organs that they were born with.

 

[Katrinag]

Aside from getting trapped on a beach and forced to trudge 8 miles through sand it was a great trip!

Congrats on the nitrite. It looks like your cycle should be done. Although, the nitrate reading is a little scary. The only time there should ever be a 0 nitrate reading is in heavily planted tanks and brand new water. Are you sure you're performing the test correctly? Assuming it's an API test you need to add 10 drops of the first bottle, shake the test tube for 5 seconds, vigorously shake the second bottle for 30 seconds, add 10 drops from bottle 2, and then shake the test tube vigorously for an entire minute. Most of the times I have gotten a 0 reading on nitrate from my non planted tanks was because I didn't shake it enough.

That sucks about the dropsy, from my experience there just isn't much that can be done to treat it. You can attempt some medications that might relieve the problem but there isn't really any guarantee. Pregnancy of the fish "could" be the cause of it but there's not really any way to tell because if that was the case because it would be some strange internal defect in their organs that they were born with.

wow 8 miles through sand, I am sure you won't forget that experience!

I am using the API master kit and believe I have been doing it correctly. The color is a dark yellow and I think its closer to yellow than orange. I do not have any real plants. I will retest again and be extra careful and see what I get.

The fish was pregnant before, she had some fry 3 weeks ago and didnt look like this. I think its dropsy because you can really see her scales. They are not completely pinecone looking and its not all over her body but after reading about the diseases they can get, dropsy is the closest.

What can I do to get the Nitrate up if my readings are correct?

Thank you again for your help. I cannot wait to get this going in the right direction!

 

[Mebbid]

wow 8 miles through sand, I am sure you won't forget that experience!

I am using the API master kit and believe I have been doing it correctly. The color is a dark yellow and I think its closer to yellow than orange. I do not have any real plants. I will retest again and be extra careful and see what I get.

The fish was pregnant before, she had some fry 3 weeks ago and didnt look like this. I think its dropsy because you can really see her scales. They are not completely pinecone looking and its not all over her body but after reading about the diseases they can get, dropsy is the closest.

What can I do to get the Nitrate up if my readings are correct?

Thank you again for your help. I cannot wait to get this going in the right direction!

They will raise naturally as the ammonia is converted. They aren't something you want unless you are raising live plants since they use nitrate as a fertilizer. It just takes a lot of water changes to get it below a 10ppm concentration. Assuming a 40ppm nitrate reading it will take 3 50% water changes to get it to 5ppm.