nitrite levels will not drop

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britta6867

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May 27, 2004
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hi there
i started a second aquarium about a month ago.it's a 10 gallon size that currently houses 8 black mollies and 5 babies.my question is this:i used gravel and rocks out of my well-established 29 gallon aquarium and the amonia levels are 0.however,the nitrite level remain a constant 0.25 and i am doing a 50% waterchange daily which i have been doing for almost 2 weeks now.with the 29 gallon tank it only took a week before the nitrite levels read 0.why is it taking longer this time?
 
8 black mollies and 5 babies sounds overstocked to me.

Also, there isn't a very high concentration of nitrifiers in the substrate, unless you're using a UGF. If you're not, try sqeezing/rinsing off the foam from your established tank's filter into the new tank's filter.
 
That's a lot of fish for a small tank and, I presume, a fairly small filter. I agree that importing more benfeficial bacteria (via filter media, squeezings or whatever) may help.

Best solution, long term, would be to decrease the fish load.

Good luck,

Jim
 
Interesting.

I have a 16 gal tank that I'm doing a fishy cycle with 4 danios.

I'm at week 7, and only the last few days have my NitrItes finally hit zero. Since inception, my Nitrites were reading .25ppm.

My Nitrates ar in the 5.0-10.0 range.

It was my ammonia that was the killer and still lags. I had a huge spike about 3 weeks ago were I couldn't even measure it. Water changes everyday until I was sick of it, and only late last week did the levels become measurable again.

Now even after another 20% change last night and healthy vacuuming, my ammonia is stalled at 1.0ppm, and has been the last few days. That's still with daily water changes, 4 danios, and once a day feeding.

I feel your pain.:sad
 
Originally posted by jaysono
...Water changes everyday until I was sick of it...
Click to expand...
Do you have a "Python"? It's night and day for water changes. Definitely more expensive than the gavel vac and bucket method, but worth every penny IMHO. At least for tanks bigger than 10g.
 
britta6867, that really doesn't sound out of the ordinary for a cycle. The gravel and rocks probably didn't bring over much nitrifying bacteria, as someone mentioned earlier.

8 mollies and 5 babies is probably pushing it in an established tank but in a cycling tank its an awful lot. Those fish are making a lot of waste and putting a serious demand on a bacteria colony that's just trying to establish.

Rather than move rocks and gravel over from the 29, move some of its filter media over. There are a lot more bacteria in the filter media than in the gravel so it should help establish a bacteria colony much faster.

I started an 8g with filter media from an established 10g, then a 29g from media from the same 10g, then started the 10g up later with filter media from the 29g. Each time I simply put filter media from the established tank into the filter of the new tank and started off with a fish load a bit less than what was in the old tank. I have never had any ammonia or nitrites show up in those tanks.

Tom
 
Do you have a "Python"? It's night and day for water changes. Definitely more expensive than the gavel vac and bucket method, but worth every penny IMHO. At least for tanks bigger than 10g.
Click to expand...

Yes, I like the idea that it does look pretty convienent, however, how can you monitor temperature control? The water from my faucet may or may not be in range with tank temperature. Also, doesn't that inject tap water full of chlorine into the tank before you condition it? I usually let my water sit for an hour or so to get to room temp and have added water conditioner before hand as well, so when it enters the tank, it hopefully is chlorine neutral.
 
You can add your dechlorinator straight to the tank, then add water. Lots of us do it.

It's not hard to adjust temp by mixing hot and cold water from the tap. You don't have to be precise. Unless you have super-sensitive fish, you don't have to worry if the temp in in the ballpark.

Jim
 
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