Currently in my 15 Gallon Aquarium i only have a chocolate chip starfish in it, with 2in of crushed coral with 1in of live sand on top of it. The filter is a penguin 190 biowheel. The PH was kinda low at around 7.8 and the nitrites where 0 and the nitrates ranging from 40-80. Then after i raised the PH to 8.3 there was a sudden nitrite spike, and its almost up to 30, i been doing water changes and it lowers it slightly, but i dont know what would cause such a dramatic increase in nitrites. The aquarium has been running for a little over 2 months.
Sudden Nitrite spike
- Thread starter Gealcath
- Start date
Welcome to Aquaria Central! The thing that seems kinda strange is at 30ppm of Nitrite the Starfish would be dead. They can't handle ammonia and Nitrite. Are you sure the star is still alive? And are you sure your test kit is not out of date and that it is accurate? Also what product did you use to buffer the pH? If you raised the pH too quickly then that could have easily killed the star if he is dead. If not then I don't have a clue with the given info as to why it happened. Anyway, if you can give us some more info we can help you a little bit better. Hope this helps.
The starfish is still alive and still eating, i used the mardel 5 in 1 test strips and the nitrite was colorless before i added the ph increase, which was Kent Marine PH Buffer powder. 1 day after i tested the water again and the nitrite started to turn pink, but the Chocolate Chip starfish is still alive. Also small animals started to appear on the glass, thier around no more then 2mm or so, and thier concentrated in the areas with algae.
I might be off a little but I was under the impression that certain chemicals such as a PH buffer could affect certain tests such as Nitrites. I would check the PH buffer as well as the test strips instruction to see if they can possibly affecting the reading.
Jc
Jc
The starfish has been in the aquarium for 5 days and its still alive, yet the nitrites still read as high, its real odd.
Its testing the correct one, and now those little bugs are begining to be a plague, and are starting to crawl on on the starfish, mostly from the mucus type stuff thats hanging from it after it eats. The tiny bug like things started to appear after the ph buffering as well, they look like transparent slug like things about 2mm or so long, and what looks like 3 antena in front. Also the star fish is starting to have some of its tentacles curled all the way up, which isnt a good sign i dont think.
The 'bugs' are copopods and amphipods, most likely, and they are not a bad sign. Healthy tanks have them in droves.
Curling legs is not healthy, and may indicate that internal lines have broken--how was the starfish acclimated to your tank?
Nitrites of 30 ppm is lethal--anything above 1 ppm can be deadly. The starfish and the pods would all be dead if that was accurate. Take your water and have it tested at your LFS. How did you raise the pH?
Curling legs is not healthy, and may indicate that internal lines have broken--how was the starfish acclimated to your tank?
Nitrites of 30 ppm is lethal--anything above 1 ppm can be deadly. The starfish and the pods would all be dead if that was accurate. Take your water and have it tested at your LFS. How did you raise the pH?
Here is a picture of a marine copepod, they are the most common marine phytoplankton, and will come as hitchhikers if you have live rock. I'm not sure if they will harm your starfish though?
![003x[1].jpg](https://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/data/attachments/0/769-f95cb4799ff500d60b88a5c82f0876fd.jpg?hash=-Vy0eZ_1AN "003x[1].jpg")
Pods are generally harmless. There are parasitic isopods, which look like a flattened roly-poly, much smaller, and are seldom seen away from a fish or coral. Like most parasites, they are host specific and can not survive for long without a host.