Other than water change, what do I do? My Nitrite levels are now at 5.0!!!!! I dip-sticked the tank this morning and params were normal.
Nitrite Spike in Cycled Tank!
- Thread starter hondaman
- Start date
Find out why the Nitrites are spiking and fix the problem. Also right now you have to do water changes to get those Nitrites down or you get dead fish. Nitrite poisoning is comparable to carbon monoxide poisoning and the only way to reverse the damage is to remove ALL the nitrites from your water.
Didnt you mention you treated your tank with Maracyn-2 ? If yes - the antibiotic probably killed some/most of your bacteria and could be the cause of the spike.
Antibiotics are horrible for any bacteria. They say that nitrifying bacteria aren't affected by these antibiotics but if you read the fine print it says (nitrosommonas and nitrobacter have been shown to survive an antibiotic treatment) They mention nothing about nitro-spira. My view is to use anything designed to kill bacteria in a seperate tank including formaliln since that is designed to kill bacteria preventing decay. Good luck. One positive thing though is that your ammonia eaters are still alive and well that is why you have a nitrite spike.
Well I performed a 50% water change last night when I originally posted this thread and the tank seems fine now. Even better the fish show no signs of stress as a matter of fact they look hungry since I have altered their feeding schedule and amounts. Water clarity has also improved. I am on my way to the LFS to pick up a new water test kit since I have ran out of dip-sticks.
Sounds good. Try your best to keep Nitrites as low as possible until the filter kicks in. Nitrite poisoning is tough. The fish look and act fine until one day you wake up and see the fish in a corner gilling very heavily. If that happens, you need to get them in Nitrite free water immediately or they will die.