Nitrite - Help!!!

[natzback]

I have a 30 gallon tank I set up about 1 week ago..... I had tested the water everyday and the Ammonia and Nitrite levels were normal, my PH has been hish and I have been treating that and finally had it down to where it should be however yesterday I did my first water change - took about 2 inches of water out...
Treated the new water with de-chlorinator before adding it and let it set a little while - now tonight when I checked it, PH is back up but what scares me is Nitite is now reading about .50 - what do I need to do? Should I do another change? All stores are closed now so I can't run out and get a quick fix..... I added some Aquarium Salt too to try to help the fish until I can do something for them.
I have 3 mollies (adults - 12 dalmation and one balloon all female) 33 babies, one male swordtail (the female died this morning, 2 Bumble bee cory's and to be honest 2 little fish that I can't for the life of me remember what they are
Also the day after I put my Mollies in one of them had over 30 babies - could they be causing this problem or will they probably die as a result?
I feed a flake food at 6am and at night anywhere from 6pm to 8 pm, the babies get a pinch of baby food (powder) at the same times as well as around 12 noon - could I be overfeeding the tank? Oh - I have wafers for the Bumble Bee's that I was giving 1 a day to but they told me to give 1-2 at night.
I have live plants which the Mollies do a great job destroying as well as plastic - I also have 3 snails - I had 5 but 2 have died....
I feel horriable about this I knew I should have waited to cycle the tank before adding fish but the woman at the store told me that I needed fish in the tank to help "speed up" the cycle.... Now I am breaking my son's heart having to "flush" his beloved little fishes (he's 4 years old)......
Please if you have any suggestions please let me know ASAP - I suppose if I don't hear form anybody soon I will go ahead and do another water change and hope for the best (can you tell I'm a bit anxious?)
Thanks everybody!

 

[Hound]

At least you know what nitrite is. You don't say what your ph level is, but if its not above 8 it might be best not to mess with it in any case. The biggest issue you have is that your tank hasn't cycled fully. With a new 30 gallon tank I wouldn't start with more than 3 fish for the first 6-8 weeks and build up slowly from there. Given your situation keep doing water changes in the 25% range. That is you need to remove a bit more than a 5 gallon bucket of water at a time. If need be you may have to do that daily. You don't say how much flake food you are feeding. If it takes more than 5 mins for your fish to eat the flakes its too much food at once. Also I have 8 peppered corys in my tank that I feed 2 wafers daily. Usually agae wafers, but every 3rd or 4th day I use fishmeal based or shrimp based wafers. They will also eat any flake food that hits bottom, but usually excess flake food ends up in your filter. The flake food I give my fish I do so 3 times a day, but in small amounts. Generally maybe 3 minutes worth of food at a time.

If its possible you can find someone who has an established fish tank and borrow / get from them a decoration or some of their filter media and transfer it to your tank. That way you get some of their bacteria.

8 fish in an uncycled 30g tank is a pretty heavy load to cycle with, but I'm sure the spawning didn't help. That being said I don't think the babies add too much to the bio load of the tank because of their small mass.

I guess overall what I'm saying is consistant water changes and monitoring are your best bet. I'd say try taking the fish back to the LFS and start slower, but I'm sure your 4 year old wouldn't understand.

 

[natzback]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly - I'm going to ask the pet store tomorrow if I can either get a plant or something out of one of their tanks like you suggested or ask them if they could take the fish back - I don't know if they will do that but there is a feed store down the road that I think may - that's a good idea
The flake food - I take 2 little pinches and grind it up a little bit, I was doing just one but the mollies eat it up before anybody else gets a chance so that may be a problem there.
The Ph test kit I have is just regular - I should have gotten an expanded one because it just shows 6.0 - 7.6 and my tank has been in the blue - high end - it had started going down but I do need I think a strip that shows exactly what it is.
I did another water change and now my Nitrate is at .25 but I'm sure it will go up again - would you suggest daily water changes until it is normal?
Thanks again - I hate to loose more fish - I knew I should have listened to my gut, I think my son would rather see them go back than them dead

 

[Hound]

Yeah, unfortunately my kid screams his head off if something happens that he doesn't like. Anyway as to your question, yes you will probably have to do daily water changes while the fish are in the tank in order to keep your nitrite levels down. Do you also have a nitrate kit? One more thing is that I'm not sure what sort of bacteria would be on pet store plants and also most people sanitize store bought plants before adding them to their tanks. I've heard too many stories of snail outbreaks happening after people added live plants to their tanks without looking into it first. I'd have a tendancy to trust someones home aquarium more for a transfer of bacteria than some pet superstores. If its a LFS they will probably be better.

 

[natzback]

Thanks again for getting back to me - I had to work this morning but was able to take 2 mollies to that feed store this morning - I figure that since they eat everything up - including my plants I should start with taking them out out the picture - too much load - at least that is the thought behind that.... I just checked the water again and nitrite is back up, ph still same so I figure must be off the charts, haven't checked ammonia yet - had to get the kids in the tub. I'm gonna do another water change but the woman at the store told me to add back in distilled ot bottled water instead of water from the sink - ever heard of that?
ok well better go
Thanks again

 

[kveeti]

Until you know your exact PH reading, and what you may or may not want to adjust it to, I would stick with the tap water. People do use RO (reverse osmosis) water to bring PH down, but just adding random amounts without proper readings isn’t the way to go. A big PH change could shock your fish. A steady PH, even if it is a bit high, is better than a fluctuating one.

Your biggest concern and concentration right now should be on ammonia and nitrIte readings. Worry about your PH (if you need to at all) after your tank is cycled.

 

[Hound]

Yeah, adjusting ph is not worth the effort many times. What will eventually happen is that your ph level will teeter. That is you will reach a point at which your waters buffering capacity is shot to heck and you can have large spikes and dips in ph fairly easily after that. I'd say if your fish seem happy with it don't screw with it. My neon tetras seem to do fine with a ph of about 7.5 even though they supposedly prefer one that is about 6.8.