lowering nitrites...or detoxifying them?!

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Snowgrrl83

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Dec 22, 2005
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Ottawa, ON
salt to help nitrite??

OK, so my new tank is getting rid of its ammonia and they are going down dramatically in the past 2 days...my nitrites are now THROUGH the roof and some of my fish seem to be a lot less active or pacing the aquarium's walls. Ive been doing 30% water changes twice a day for my 7 gal with only 3 small fishies in there and the nitrite still seems to be at 2ppm or more...

I heard table salt could help....like just regular salt that sits in my kitchen?? true??? anyone know how to do this?
 
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Yes, it can help detoxify the nitrites and you should add 1 tsp. table salt per gallon, SLOWLY, over the course of a day. Best way to do it is to set up an airline drip. Take some water out of the tank and put it in a jug. Mix in the salt until it is all dissolved. Set the jug on top of the tank and run an airline hose from the solution to the tank. Tie something around the hose that you can use to adjust the drip. Suck on the end of the hose to get the fluid running <-- fun part! :) Tighten the string or whatever on the hose until it's dripping slowly into the tank. Leave it.

I would recommend that, along with the salt, you do 50% water changes twice a day instead of 30%. Just replace the salt per volume that you remove from the tank with the change.

What kind of fish are they? Some produce much more waste than others will.

Roan
 
shrug....

I have a red eye puffer in there, a small pleco and a feeder menow for the puffer to eat (which the puffer seems to have lost his appetite..hope he doesnt die poor fella). I heard plecos werent too good with salt... maybe ill just transfer him to the 10 gallon tank that is also cycling if i put salt in the 7 gallon...?? Ill keep the puffer since most puffers do well in some salt......

Im about to pull my hair out... oh... just another 2 weeks...i hope!
 
Snowgrrl83 said:
I have a red eye puffer in there, a small pleco and a feeder menow for the puffer to eat (which the puffer seems to have lost his appetite..hope he doesnt die poor fella). I heard plecos werent too good with salt... maybe ill just transfer him to the 10 gallon tank that is also cycling if i put salt in the 7 gallon...?? Ill keep the puffer since most puffers do well in some salt......

Im about to pull my hair out... oh... just another 2 weeks...i hope!
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Ah, this explains why you are having problems.

http://www.pufferlist.com/puffer/puffer2.php?puffid=2

"These puffers are sensitive to nitrites and ammonia and should only be introduced into a fully cycled aquarium. They do not require any salt in their water to live a healthy and happy life. Due to their messy eating habits, overfilatration is highly recommended"​

You really should be feeding him snails, bloodworms and brine shrimp. Not feeder fish. This may be why he's not eating. Puffers need to have snails at least once a week to help keep their teeth from growing over.

No, brackish water puffers do well with marine salt. You're using table salt as a medication. Freshwater puffers don't need salt at all. Get the puffer out of the tank and put him in a cycled one if you can. If you don't, you're going to lose him.

Roan
 
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my distressed puffer

I know I made a boo-boo. Ive done my research on the type of fish I have after I bought them of course... i guess this is a lesson well learnt.

I dont have a tank that is already cycled to put my puffer into... :(

He ate the live feeder fish when I originally got him over a week ago... and thats what they fed him every day at the lsf. I tried feeding him a pond snail a few days ago and he just spat it out so i put the snail back into the 10 gallon... The lsf also fed him meal worms?!..



Ill just do a lot of water changes and hopefully a bit of salt will help out my distressed tanks.
 
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Snowgrrl83 said:
He ate the live feeder fish when I originally got him over a week ago... and thats what they fed him every day at the lsf. I tried feeding him a pond snail a few days ago and he just spat it out so i put the snail back into the 10 gallon... The lsf also fed him meal worms?!..
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A lot of LFS don't exactly do what's best for the fish, but what's convenient for them. He should not be eating feeder fish. Not only are they not part of his normal diet, but they aren't even good food for fish that are supposed to eat them.

Keep trying to feed him snails. If he doesn't eat them his teeth will overgrow and he won't be able to eat at all. Maybe someone in the brackish water forum will have an idea on how you can get him to eat.

Does your LFS carry Bio Spira? See if you can get your hands on some. If not, see if they will give you some gunky filter material or gravel from one of the tanks to help you cycle this ASAP.

Roan
 
also the mucky nappy water u get from a gravel vac session out of an established tank will help u jump start ur tank. i have used this method several times and it seems to work very well
 
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