Nitrite Problems

B

BSweets

Registered Member
Jun 2, 2006
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0
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Hi all, I'm having some problems with my nitrites and would appreciate any help.

We started our tank about 2 months ago. During the 4th week of cycling the nitrites went off the charts so we had to do many water changes and ended up having to use bio-spira. It worked great and the tank has been doing well since then... that is, until this past Monday when we did our monthly vacuuming, 20% water change and filter change. We replaced the regular filter (it's a Top Fin Power Filter 10) but have a Bio-Chem Star filter thing too that we kept in there to hopefully keep some of the good bacteria (doesn't look like it helped). Everything looks good except the nitrites again. Right now, they are only at .25ppm but I'm worried about them rising and want to get them back down. I just read that in the future we should just rinse our filter pad and put it back to keep the good bacteria but it's too late for that now. Also, how do you keep the good bacteria in there when it comes time that you have to replace the filter (after it gets too worn to reuse)? Does anyone have any ideas on how to bring the nitrites back down? Should we use the bio-spira again? Does keeping those little stars in there really help at all? Okay, sorry for so many questions. We just want our fish to be okay. Thank you in advance for any help.

Tank specs:
10 gallon
1 Betta
2 Rasboros
2 Dalmation Mollies
7 Molly Frye (they're in a net and we plan on moving them to another tank when a little bigger)
 
nitrites

BSweets said:
Hi all, I'm having some problems with my nitrites and would appreciate any help.

We started our tank about 2 months ago. During the 4th week of cycling the nitrites went off the charts so we had to do many water changes and ended up having to use bio-spira. It worked great and the tank has been doing well since then... that is, until this past Monday when we did our monthly vacuuming, 20% water change and filter change. We replaced the regular filter (it's a Top Fin Power Filter 10) but have a Bio-Chem Star filter thing too that we kept in there to hopefully keep some of the good bacteria (doesn't look like it helped). Everything looks good except the nitrites again. Right now, they are only at .25ppm but I'm worried about them rising and want to get them back down. I just read that in the future we should just rinse our filter pad and put it back to keep the good bacteria but it's too late for that now. Also, how do you keep the good bacteria in there when it comes time that you have to replace the filter (after it gets too worn to reuse)? Does anyone have any ideas on how to bring the nitrites back down? Should we use the bio-spira again? Does keeping those little stars in there really help at all? Okay, sorry for so many questions. We just want our fish to be okay. Thank you in advance for any help..

Tank specs:
10 gallon
1 Betta
2 Rasboros
2 Dalmation Mollies
7 Molly Frye (they're in a net and we plan on moving them to another tank when a little bigger)
Click to expand...
yea sounds like a mini cycle. you may have killed off some bacteria when you clean your filter.don't have any experience with top fin filters.but what i do is pre-filter all my intakes with filter floss and fill my a/cs with bio media and rarely ever clean the media.just change the intakes.bio-spira would help.or you could wait it out and keep close watch of your water perimeters.good luck
 
Just change 50% a day until it goes down, and make sure you don't overfeed. Sounds like just a mini. Should be over in no time.
 
Thanks all, yeah we figured it was cycling and I guess we were just looking for info so we wouldn't have to go through all this every time we change the filter and vacuum. We'll probably start pre-filtering our intakes as well. Thanks again everyone!
 
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