tank with guppy fry spikes nitrites

[Wat2Go]

Ten gallon tank. One small pleco, 1 male (juvenile) guppy, two female guppies and about 20 babies. There is salt in the water (1 teasoon per gallon).
Moms and dad are not eating fry, so I fed all of them crumbled up flakes yesterday.

Noticed dad on the bottom this morning so tested water. Nitrates were above .25 so I immediately did a 50% water change. Tested again, still .25 so did another 50% water change. Tested and still very close to .25. Guppies are all swimming again, no more lying on the bottom of the tank.

Do I keep doing water changes till the nitrites go back to 0?

L.

 

[jyanagi]

I'm not an expert, but I think that 0.25 is ok, but, on the other hand, if you are using test strips, they are not that accurate.

Is this a new tank? Is it possible that you are not completely cycled? Or did you wash your filter in tap water, sending the tank into a mini-cycle?

Here's a page I found that is somewhat helpful http://www.algone.com/nitrites.php

And yeah, I think you need to keep doing water changes.

 

[Wat2Go]

Tank is about 2 months old.
Not using strips, but tubes and drippers test (sorry, don't known the word for these kind of tests).
Did not rinse filter under tap, but in old tank water

Did another water change and since the fish are all very happy, decided to wait till tomorrow morning to see what the levels would be. Left the tank at 3pm with a trace of nitrite.

L.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

the number to shoot for is zero. you want zero ammonia and nitrites. what kind of pleco do you have? why are you adding salt?

when was your last water change? how often do you do them and how much water do you change?

 

[jm1212]

you dont have to add salt, first of all.

your nitrite problem was probably caused by the hike in your tank's population. babies may not seem like they add much to the bioload, but when you have 20 or more it can start to add up

 

[Wat2Go]

It is a common pleco, about 3 inches tall. He/she will move to a bigger tank soon, but that tank is still cycling... The pleco has been in the tank for about 5 weeks and is very calm and friendly.

I added salt about 4 days ago to treat ich. I had been treating ich for 4 days with malachite green, but fish died, so I stopped and used salt/raised temp. instead. No fish died! I will slowly take the salt out in the next few days, with water changes.

I change water at least once a week, about 40%. I have been changing water more often than that because of the ich. Maybe once every two days, about 20%.

Like I said, when I noticed the spike, I changed 50% and then 50% again. Tested and still .25. Changed water again, last change was about 30% and I still found a trace of nitrites. So three major water changes in about an hour! I also added some TLC (the bottle says these are healthy bacteria, whatever that means. LFS recommended it). I will test again, and do another water change if there are still nitrites in the water. Amnio is 0, nitrate is 0. Both were 0 when I noticed the spike in nitrite.

I took out 5 danios once I noticed the guppy was spawning. I can't take out the babies, as I do not have a tank to put them in (The danios were supposed to come out anyways, as they are now happily cycling a bigger tank). Moms and dad are still not interested in the babes as food.... I guess I will have to do many more water changes the next few weeks to keep up with the fishy waste! I might actually buy another - smaller - tank.

I guess this is how it goes: you give your daughter a ten gallon tank for her birthday and before you know it you have a small fish world in your house!

I found a LFS (PetSmart) who will have the fry in about 6 to 8 weeks (if any survive) so that is nice!

By the way, thanks for all your advice, I appreciate it a lot!! I am certainly enjoying all these adventures (even though I don't get ANY work done...)

L.

 

[dixienut]

i believe the meds you used for the ick, killed your bacteria and now your starting your cycle all over again, as to salt, i have read that at small amounts salt lessens the effect of amm, and nitrite on fish by %'s can't remember the #'s but there was a chart i copied and put somewhere about 6 months ago..
ammonia and nitrite poisoning shuts down oxygen absorbtion in the fishes blood..thats how they die

if your water reads 1ppm amm when there is salt in there the 1ppm actually read alot less, so the effect is not as great..
i used this method when i first got my tanks, and i never lost a fish from the cycling..
has anyone else read this? and where did i find it? senility when will it stop:huh:

also maybe your over feeding and that is adding to the problem?, i know i've got fry everywhere and the make such a mess with their food that you sometimes have to add more so everyone gets some and the rest goes to the gravel so vac time every other day, just in case..just enough to get most of gravelyou can tell when you vac if your overfeeding, a mess will come out of there..

 

[Wat2Go]

I am trying to look up answers to my newby questions in a book...but no luck.
So, here is another question.

The other female guppy spawned today and luckily she ate quite a bit of her fry. However, she looks terrible. Her fins look pale and she doesn't have ich, but she does have some white residue on her back fin.
I am afraid the constant water changes (needed to keep the nitrite under control, and now with even more fry even more important) and the fact that she just gave birth stress her out beyond healthy.

I did another 30% water change yesterday, still a trace of nitrites (under .25 though) and did not do a water change today as the level of nitrites was the same, and amnio 0 and nitrate 0.

Should I take some fry out of the tank? Which means I will kill it as I have absolutely no place to put them.. Or just leave everything as is and see if things stabilize?

L.