Need help with Nitrite

[dismantle me]

I suggest you get plants, they look nice, oxygenate (sp?) the water, and they (from what I've read) turn ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into nitrate. Then you can simply change the water to get rid of the nitrate. If you get plants dont get the ones in plastic containers, the containers dont look good. One thing that I found was a good value is to get plant seeds. All you do is drop the seeds in and wait for them to sprout.
Good Luck with fish keeping!

 

[JSchmidt]

Plants are nice, but by the time plants grow from seed into something large enough to consume ammonia, his problem will have passed. The pressing issue here is to reduce nitrite as quickly as possible because it is so toxic to fish. Until there are enough beneficial bacteria that naturally consume ammonia/nitrite, they must be removed from the tank to avoid poisoning the fish. Water changes are the cheapest and surest way to accomplish that.

HTH,
Jim

 

[RTR]

To expand on Jim's comments, many of us with planted tanks do larger volume water changes in our planted tanks than in non-planted tanks.

 

[lark]

Salt is important to prevent Nitrite from damaging the gills of your fish.

 

[RTR]

Ammonia damages gill epithelium, nirtite blocks the blood's capacity for transporting oxygen - but you are correct that sodium chloride is specific for blocking that action of nitrite.