Nitrite shocker...am I doing the right thing?

I'm currently battling nitrites myself and have been doing daily water changes of 30-50% to keep it down to 0.25ppm. it's a lot of work right now but it'll be worth it when they finally drop to 0ppm... not sure what I'll do with myself once I reduce water changes to once a week! :thud:

you should be able to reduce your changes to once a day if you do bigger changes. I would reccommend doing 5 gallon changes (this is a 10 gallon tank, right?) instead of the 3 gallon ones. it may make a big difference for you :)
 
speede1 said:
found it thanks. I see where I am still off the chart even after this mornings change....likely will be changing water every 12 hours for a week or two! I will stay on top of it...good thing I am only working 2 nights day a week right now!

Time soon for the bigger tank I wanted to begin with... I have a small fry tank waiting for a maternity patient... I think I should start it up and cycle it without fish and start looking for a nice 29 gal to move the angel, tetras and kuli loach too...
Click to expand...

If you're still off the chart for nitrites, then you'll want to change water more frequently. Do back to back water changes if you have to. You need to get those nitrites down to a safer level before you start losing fish.

Consider getting a bigger tank than 29 gal. According to thespecies profile for Angelfish, they need a minimum of 30 gal. Also consider how much space you'll need for keeping optimum group sizes of the other fish. You're better off going bigger.
 
Temp bumped to 84- 86 from 82-84 previous

1/2 fizzy tab in water now...should I abandon the fizzy tabs for salt? thinking after reading the ich article that I should just bump the temp and try the salt for a week...I only have 2 full tabs on hand now anyway.

how about this:

I continue water changes but bump interval to 5 gal every 6 hours and put a 1/4 fizzy tab in each change until 2 full tabs are gone then switch to salt for a week?


I am still amazed at how quickly the level rose.. I was checking it alot and was told after the fish were sold to keep an eye on the nitrites. My Bad for not being up to date and not having all the reading done prior to my purchase. Now I am amazed at how NORMAL the fish are swimming around and constantly at the glass wanting food when I go in the kitchen. I would have never guessed there was anything wrong!

Can the fish go from a state of apparent normalcy to death without any indication? I mean should I do a back to back H20 change now? I know they cant be "fine" with that level of Nitrite, but they are just swimmming all over the place!
 
Personally, I'd go with the salt and heat treatment first, and then use meds as a second (backup) option. Expect to keep the salt and heat treatment up for a minimum of 1 week after the last spot is gone. I'd expect that your loaches would likely fair better with the salt than with the meds as well.

Yes, your fish could die without showing symptoms. Likely you'll see them hanging out at the top or bottom of the tank though. But it's better to take care of the nitrites before you see symptoms. The damage to a fish's health may not be apparent, but it's there, and may cause health issues down the road too.

I'd be less concerned about changing water on a timetable, and just get those nitrites down as soon as possible. Once you have them down to a safer level, then keep any eye on a regular basis, changing water as needed. Because you have so many fish in there already, you may need to change often to keep on top of the nitrites.
 
Should I NOT be cleaning the gravel real deep? I have read that maybe it is bad to do this...something about the bacterial cycle...This really confuses me as I thought the debris and poop were going to cause the nitrites to go up and the ich to worsen.... anyone able to clarify?

I stopped cleaning the whole tank, but the last time I did was a week ago when I removed all the ornaments and large rocks and went to town on the gravel deep cleaning all the way across the floor of the tank and now comes the nitrite spike....any correlation?
 
I don't think it could build up that much in the gravel in only a month. Unless you are overfeeding crazy amounts.

You're just cycling and water changes will be the only way to lower and control the nitrites, ammonia and nitrates when they appear. The large fishload coupled with the small tank just increases the readings ( having a brainfart, I know there is a better word).

A larger tank with the same load wouldn't read as high.
 
I'm going to continue the 50% water changes... one last night and 2 today so far... the Nitrite reading has went from shocking purple red to deep violet to medium violet as of 10:30 pm...


Here's a question:

I took the spongy charcoal filter out and set it, un-washed ,on the kitchen counter for now...isn't there some good bacteria in it that I need? I have a brand new replacement, but I had already replaced the insert once in this first 30 days....was that a bad idea? and what of the one I have sitting out now? (I took it out to do the Ich fizzy tab stuff) and so there is none at the moment... My guess is that I should abandon the fizzy tab stuff as someone else mentioned and resort to the salt treatment so that I may replace the
"as is" filter and at the same time some bacteria???? I guess i just don't get the filter cartridge and how it relates to the bacterial cycle

And I have no idea where I am in the cycle now or what to do next, to keep what good-bacteria I did have...

I think I might be confusing thing more but I am determined to learn from this and get things back on track so all this help appreciated

Please advise
 
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Bump! Still wondering about question above...anyone able to clarify for me?
 
is your temp up around 83ish? part of the saltwater treatment is to raise your water temp to around 83 and between the heat and salt the ich should die off eventually.

if you have 0 ammonia but are seeing nitrites, you are in the second stage of the cycle where your ammonia eatring bacteria are established but not the nitrite eating ones. keep making water changes until your nitrite tests are showing up a pale purple (which should be around 0.25ppm), then basically do water changes (once a day or every other day) to keep it there. eventually your nitrites will drop off and you'll start seeing nitrates rise, which means the cycle is ending.
 
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