Nitrites out of control

[CBWMN]

Good day everyone,

I really pulled a dumb trick a couple of days ago.
I put new hoses on my XP 2 canister.
Here’s the dumb part, when I hooked them all up,
I reversed them. Intake water was through the spray bar
and return water was through the intake tube.
I noticed the water looked strange and tested.
Sure enough the nitrites were through the roof.
I did a 60% WC. Then yesterday the nitrites were still
above .25 mg/L. I did another 50-60% WC.
This morning the Nitrites were still elevated, did another 60% WC two hours ago.
I also cleaned the canister media in old tank water and replaced the polyfill floss.
Right now are still at .25 mg/L.

My question is: How many 60% water changes can I do in a day in order to bring the water chemistry back to normal?
I have four DD black angels and two LF ABN.
The angels seem OK but are hiding more than usual.
One in particular is staying behind a clump of Ludwigia.

Thank you
Charles


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[lucy42083]

I would say you can do as many as it takes, as long as your fish don't get super stressed out from water changes, and you wait a couple hours between each change.

[CBWMN]

Thanks Lucy.
One of the angels didn't look too good. He was hiding and breathing hard.
I moved him to a 24 gallon and he's back to normal now.
The other three are back to normal, even tho the Nitrite is at .25.
I may wait till tomorrow and do another SC.
Charles

[bitbot]

Any nitrite reading is bad, but .25 is not that bad.
Hope you're not stressing too much - it should come good soon.

[CBWMN]

Thanks Bitbot
I just got stressed out when the one angel started hiding and breathing hard.
DD blacks are very sensitive and that's why i moved him/her.
Charles

[Rbishop]

With DDs..do what it takes to get things back to normal.... .25 is detrimental to them, especially at a young size...

[CBWMN]

Thank you rbishop,
Mine are almost a year old now but are very sensitive to water chemistry changes.
They had a bad reaction when I left my DIY CO2 going all night once.
Several on this forum say it's not possible to OD them w/DIY but I now better.
I purchased some drop checkers and the one in the angel tank can get “into the yellow” if I’m not careful.

For some reason, only one of them showed any signs of distress today and I moved that one to a tank with more stable water.

Charles

[Draal5]

Charles

can you add a Hob to the tank from one of your other tanks even an hour at a time will help get the water back to normal faster.

good luck

[Riiz]

Also between water changes, salt or Prime will help with Nitrite poisoning.

[shawnhu]

Also between water changes, salt or Prime will help with Nitrite poisoning.

:iagree:

[CBWMN]

Also between water changes, salt or Prime will help with Nitrite poisoning.

I put the Prime in the one gallon bottles just before filling them.
Then I like to age at least three or four days.
Is that OK?

Charles