Nitrite spike in a seeded tank.

[Joetoyc]

I recently started a 30 gallon tank using water and filtration media- bio balls- from my mature 45 gallon tank. I’m using a Marinland Penguin 200 HOB filter, which is suppose to turn over 200 gallons and hour. Until the bio wheel is establish I put the bio balls into the filter housing and assumed this would be enough, along with the water from my mature tank, to keep the water parameters normal. At first everything seemed fine. So after a few day I added fish, an angel and a blood red parrot- who were residents in my 45 gallon tank but became too large and are the reasons why I started the new tank to begin with, and everything seemed to be go along swimmingly (pun intended). Friday, however, I checked water parameters and found that the nitrites had rose to .25 ppm. Since then I’ve been taking water from my matured tank and doing partial, 5 to 10 gallon, changes into the new tank. As of yet I have not seen nitrites drop. Any suggestion?

Thanks
Joetoyc

 

[mfdrookie516]

Transferring water from another tank is just putting dirty water in your new one... When you seed a tank, you are doing just that... seeding it. The bacteria colony still has to grow and more than likely you are just going through a mini-cycle. Id keep doing pwc's, dosing with prime, and testing the water. Mine did the same thing after i thought it would be an instant cycle, 2 days later the nitrites dropped...

 

[spoonman]

I agree with rookie. Keep doing the water changes, but do it with fresh water and dechlorinator.

 

[Joetoyc]

Thanks guys. I will do a partial change with fresh water right now.