Nitrite "Eater" Failure?

Roan Art

Roan Art

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Oct 7, 2005
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What exactly can cause nitrite "eaters" to fail?

I've had a couple of instances now where my tanks, after adding new fish and Bio Spira, were constantly at:

0 ammonia
.25 to .5 nitrites
0 to 7.0 nitrates

for an entire week or two. Water changes didn't help much. I would get it down to .1 nitrites or 0 and the next morning it would be at .25. That night .5 and it would hold steady at .5. Never goes over that.

All this would continue until I added more Bio Spira, ignored the .5 reading, and left the tank alone for three days. It would stay at .5 for a day or so, drop down to .25 for a couple of days. Then 0. It corrected itself.

Obviously something was messing with my nitrite eaters. Could it be something in my tap water? Could Prime, after all is said and done, cause problems with Bio Spira or established nitrites eaters?

Roan
 
Don't know about Prime but from what I have read the bio-spira needs time to set in and water changes will actually remove some of it before it gets the chance to attach to a surface.

Nitrite eaters are also much slower growing than the ammonia eaters so that woudl account for some spikes.

In the future if you are worried and see a spike, 1 tsp of NaCl per gallon will help to block the toxic effects of nitrites for awhile until the bacteria can grow. The remove the salt through regular water changes.
 
TKOS said:
Don't know about Prime but from what I have read the bio-spira needs time to set in and water changes will actually remove some of it before it gets the chance to attach to a surface.
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That's correct. I need to clarify that in those recent cases where this has happened, I did not try to bring down the nitrites until at least 48 hrs after I added the Bio Spira.

Nitrite eaters are also much slower growing than the ammonia eaters so that woudl account for some spikes.
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Are they? I wonder what, if anything, could slow them down even further? Or even prevent them from multiplying?

In the future if you are worried and see a spike, 1 tsp of NaCl per gallon will help to block the toxic effects of nitrites for awhile until the bacteria can grow. The remove the salt through regular water changes.
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Oh, definitely. That's what I've been doing and why this isn't a panic post ;) As long as I add salt only a couple of bows will get a thread or two, and that disappears the minute the nitrites drop down to 0.

Roan
 
Sounds good.

As for what would slow down the nitrifiers even more, temp and acidity are the only one si know of. Low pH and low temp slow things right down. There may be other reasons as well.
 
Nitrite nitrifiers are much slower than ammonia nitrifiers because they get less energy per molecule of nitrogen than their ammonia consuming cousins. Consider ammonia (NH3), each oxygen (O) added is still more energy, so ammonia nitrifiers get energy from 2 oxygen atoms added to the nitrogen. Nitrite nitrifiers, by comparison, only get to add one oxygen atom to form nitrate (NO3). Add to that the fact that nitrite nitrifiers are entirely dependant on ammonia nitrifiers to produce their food, and consequently they have far fewer advantages than the ammonia nitrifiers.

That said, look to the basics first. Oxygen and surface area. Try increasing surface agitation or the amount of filter media. Also, ensure that your filter media isn't gummed up with mulm.

Other than that, warmer temperatures should speed metabolic activity. Changes in pH can potentially affect the bacteria (acidic solutions are oxidants), but I doubt that there will be much effect of pH within the operating range of our aquaria.
 
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