I have a 10 gallon freshwater aquarium that is home to 3 zebra danios, 2 mystery snails, and 2 otos. A couple of weeks ago, my aquarium got a brown algae but my 2 otos did a pretty good job cleaning most of it, however now my nitrites are thru the roof. For the past 3 days I have done 30 - 50% water changes and 2 of the changes I added aquarium salt and still my nitrites are really high. Ammonia is 0.5 I think by looking at the test tube. Please help!!! What else can I do? Originally I had 4 zebras and a week ago one has gone missing. I looked in the filter and moved all the decorations around and I still don't see him. Could this be causing my problem? All help is appreciated.
Help Needed Desperately!!!!
- Thread starter CODEABBY
- Start date
How long has the tank been set up and did you cycle it before hand? Looks to me like your tank is going through a fishy cycle...
Now to adress the question of the missing danio, does your aquarium have a cover on it? Is there any way the danio could have jumped out and landed behind the tank or on the ground where you wouldn't notice it?
And just one last quick question, why are you adding aquarium salt when you do water changes? As far as I know(correct me if I'm wrong), there is no reason to add aquarium salt unless you are treating ich or some other disease.
Now to adress the question of the missing danio, does your aquarium have a cover on it? Is there any way the danio could have jumped out and landed behind the tank or on the ground where you wouldn't notice it?
And just one last quick question, why are you adding aquarium salt when you do water changes? As far as I know(correct me if I'm wrong), there is no reason to add aquarium salt unless you are treating ich or some other disease.
First off, how long has the tank been setup? It sounds to me you are still cycling. You can do a search on cycling, and its verious methods are described in the article section. If it has been up and running for a long time, what is your mainenance routine in detail? Possibly chlorine in your change water killed off the bacteria? I can only speculate at this point.
My tank has been running about 8 - 10 weeks. I do have a cover on it so I don't think it could have jumped out. I do weekly 20% water changes and gravel vacs. I added aquarium salt because I read on my test strip bottle that if my nitrites were high to add aquarium salt to help with the stress on the fish and I also read it somewhere on the internet.
If I had to wager a guess...I think that maybe the danio died for some reason and has polluted your water. I think that you should do a 50% water change everyday until this is over. Yes, salt is okay to add for nitrite poisoning but you still need to do your water changes. Also adding some ammo-lock, amquel+ or prime can help with the ammonia and possibly the nitrite as well.
Yeah, I'm betting your missing danio is the culprit. He's got to be in there somewhere....lol....happy hunting ! 
