Nitrite in tap water and sick Endlers:(

kalabreeze

kalabreeze

AC Members
Sep 11, 2008
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Hi everyone, I have some problem, and I know you guys can give me some advice. I do not know what to do in this situation.
I had 10 gal tank with 5 happy Endlers. I bought them about 1 month ago, tank was established since Nov 2008, previously it housed guppies and platies that went to another tank.
Everything was fine and Endlers lived happily for 1 month until I decided to do some replanting, pulled a lot of plants and rearranged a lot. Substrate in this tank is kitty litter with sand top layer. With all this digging and stirring clay caused very murky water. Next, I rinsed filter pads several times withing 24 hours, because they got relly clogged with that clay, and aparently that caused mini cycle.:duh:
Yesterday all Endlers looked stressed, laying on the bottom, or staying at the surface gasping, clamped fins. I tested water, Nitrite 0.5, I immediately did 50% water change, added some salt, even though I have live plants, fish is more important.
Several hours later measured nitrites, and it is up to 1.0! and it is after large water change:confused:
I checked tap water for Nitrites and it is 1.0 ppm:mad:, checked all my other tanks, all parameters are fine. So I took some water from 12 gal, poured into spare 2 gal tank and put endlers there.

What do I do? Does your tap water has nitrites? Usually it is advised to do water changes if nitrites spike, but my tap water has nitrite already so it is no use!

Two Endlers are lookng better this morning, pregnant female is still staying at the top, other female is hiding behind clay pot that I put in there and one male can not swim because his tailfin is clamped. Is he a goner or it can get unclamped?

Please, offer me some advice, I feel so sad and tired, stayed up til 4 AM doing all the testing.

Sorry for the long post, I am just so frustrated and feel really guilty for making my happy Endlers sick.

My questions would be, what to do about 1.0 ppm Nitrates in tap water and how can I help my Endlers? Is 1.0 ppm high enough to cause nitrite poisoning or they have some other problem that was caused by stirring the substrate? This tank also had flukes, when it had guppies, but it was long time ago and I got rid of it.

Thanks in advance.
 
Just checked on Endlers, the poor little guy with clamped tail has hard time staying afloat, he seem to want to stay by the surface and trying really hard but keeps sinking to the bottom. I also noticed one endler is trying to scrape against clay pot but do not see any ich spots. Could it be because of nitrite poisonong. I also forgot to mention that I put Jungle anti-parasite med in the tank last night, because Endlers tank had flukes before.

thanks
 
Yes, it is too high. You have no choice other than to use Prime or some other type of nitrite detoxifier IMO, although if your filter has enough beneficial bacteria in there it might be able to handle it quickly if you don't do too big of a water change.
Not sure about the safety of substrate...are you sure there aren't any harmful ingredients?
 
Reframer, thanks a lot for your reply. I am not sure about substrate, I was also starting to think it might be not safe. It is the only tank that I have problems with. Guppies who lived there before had some clamped fins and breathing problems too, I added Jungle anti-parasite and they got better, I only lost one guppy. It was new guppy from P*co and I thought it brought parasites. Now it is Endlers....maybe it IS the substrate. Hmm..It is plain kitty litter (no additives) from Wal-mart and the sand is "general purpose" sand from Lowes. Kitty litter was recommended on some of aquatic plants forums.
I really feel like dumping all out and starting over with this tank:(
 
kalabreeze said:
Reframer, thanks a lot for your reply. I am not sure about substrate, I was also starting to think it might be not safe. It is the only tank that I have problems with. Guppies who lived there before had some clamped fins and breathing problems too, I added Jungle anti-parasite and they got better, I only lost one guppy. It was new guppy from P*co and I thought it brought parasites. Now it is Endlers....maybe it IS the substrate. Hmm..It is plain kitty litter (no additives) from Wal-mart and the sand is "general purpose" sand from Lowes. Kitty litter was recommended on some of aquatic plants forums.
I really feel like dumping all out and starting over with this tank:(
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[FONT=&quot]I agree about Prime when I used to have fresh water tanks. When things get wonky with parameters I used Prime and Stability at the same time. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I do believe you kicked up some bad stuff stirring that substrate. Disturbing it can release some very nasty things into the water column as you discovered. We actually had talked about this in marine section this week. How disturbing the liverock could release some nasty stuff trapped under it in substrates. Amp the admin actually was schooling us about it.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Your water problem can be handled by getting some filtered water from like “water to go” stores or your local grocery chain that has those fill up stations. Using RO water is great stuff but it is stripped of all things…good and bad… to replenish the good you should pick up that pink milk carton salt thing at petco. Fresh water salt stuff. Add some of that to the RO water before changing it out. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The starting over Idea isn’t a bad idea. This time you can set things up differently. I forgot the substrates name for freshwater..but its supposed to be great for plants. Petco and petsmart sells it here locally for me…you may have to inquire with them about it. I forgot its name.[/FONT]
 
Reframer said:
...use Prime or some other type of nitrite detoxifier
Click to expand...

x2

Since you have nitrite in your tap water, you need to neutralize it for at least a little while so your bio filter can take care of it. I'm sorry you're having trouble. Endlers are pretty tough little guys, though, so they may very well pull through. Good luck!
 
I never heard Tap with nitrite in it. Is this your well water by any chance. If so, and since Dont know your location, I dont know if your well water is somewhat bio active (warmer regions).
Can you retest with clean vial? Adding salt to reduce to NO2 toxicity was good idea.

BTW, how is your pH?
 
I honestly wouldn't toss in chemicals or meds. I think you probably disturbed some anaerobic gas pockets. Your benefical bacteria should be able to handle the tap nitrite, just do smaller 10-20% WC'S rather than larger ones spaced out a bit. I would not scrap the tank, nor blame the substrate if it was fine prior to the plant rearrange. I would recommend adding prime, doing small frequent water changes, and base your decisions on the fish symtoms.
 
Thanks for your replies and support, guys:)
3 Endlers pulled through and doing fine today, eating and swimming around, unfortunately I lost 2, pregnant female and young male, he just started getting colors:(
I keep them in 2 gal bare bottom tank, I change 50% water every 24 hours using water from my other tanks. I do not know where to put them now, I am sure they hate bare tank, but their home is not safe, nitrites are still 1.0 and I can't add tap water because it also has high nitrites in it.

Answering your questions:

Yes, I use Prime, I started using it right after trial packages of Terta conditioner run out. I was fortunate to find this forum 2 days later after I started my first fish tank, so I took all the recommendations on which products are the best to use.

Our water did not have high nitrite before, I tested it in December. We called water company and according to their last testing in our area it was only 0.04 mg per liiter. They are coming to test our water, hopefully today.
I did 25% water change in 3 gal Betta tank day before yesterday, hoping that bacteria would be able to handle tap nitrite but it didn't. It was 0.5 ppm next morning and Betta was looking stressed and he even refused eating his favorite food, bloodworms. I am not adding any more tap water to my small tanks, until we figure out what is going on with tap water. Big tanks seem to handle it without problem.

Cerianthus, you are correct, it is well water. I retested it with clean vial as you recommended, it is still 1.0 mg/l. We have very soft, alkaline water. PH from the tap is 8.4, in the tanks around 7.8

cellodaisy, thanks for your support:) I see that you also keep Endlers. Beautiful little fish, very energetic. Their tank is close to my computer and I keep watching them all day as I work.


msjinkzd, thanks for your advice, since it all happened after I disturbed substrate it is looking like they got sick because of that. Nitrites could have been elevated for a while. I never test tanks after water change, only before. It seems though as nitrite is causing some distress also since my Betta got sick right after water change. When do you think it is safe to move Endlers back to their tank? I will wait until nitrite is at 0, but how do I know when anaerobic gas is gone?

One more question. I went to the store yesterday and bought drinking water for temporary water change solution. The problem is that PH of this water is 6.0 and my fish is used to my tap water PH which is around 8.0
Would such a drastic PH change hurt my fish?

Thanks!
 
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