cloudy, high nitrite!!!

help!!
1 molly, 2 platties, 6 snails and 1 male betta. cycle was going great! (i was one of the newbies that didn't understand cycles until i started up my tank and started reading websites) so i have those fish. they are doing GREAT!!!
a couple days ago i got high nitrite. its 10 gallons. no ammonia. gh/kh is perfect. pH is fine. nitrite has risen to about 0.8...plus or minus a reading. I did a water change the other day...MEGA CLOUDY!! i know that that will probably go away once the tank is doen cycling. I did another water change today, put new and improved more concentrated cycle in it, waste control, and aqua plus. I haven't done another nitrite check,i am going to wait 24 hours so that the liquids can settle in.
my fish still seem to be perfect. no signs of stress, eating, swimming, sleeping, everything is normal. besides the cloudiness, you wouldn't know anything was wrong.
errrr whats happening!
tank been set up for 2 weeks

I have a six gallon tank and I had the same problem with high nitrite/nitrate you are having. This is what I did:

1) Went to Petsmart (first huge mistake) and told the guy who then sold me a bunch of chemicals that didn't do anything, but made my tank cloudy.

2) Started asking people on this site what I should do (first smart step). They recommended a 30% water change every day along with vacuuming out the gravel on the bottom of the tank. I have a siphoning vacuum which means it takes water out of the tank while it sucks the crap out. This is very convienent because then you can add your new/dechlorinated water to the tank and your water change is already done.

I tested my water after one week of this and the water had made a huge improvement. You must realize what works for one tank doesn't always work for all others, but I hope this advice helped you. Good Luck reviving your tank...been there done that!

thanks for the tidbits
i did a water change like i said and i will test it tomorrow...
i hope this doesnt harm my betta..
i know it wont to my molly and platties.. they have been throughe verything!!! from being cramped in a 3 gallon tank with neons and a pleco causing high high high (8) ammonia!! water changes of 100%, changing of tanks into this 10 gallon tank. i lost the neons and pleco. and now this high nitrite! they are tough. i just worried about the betta.

No problem. I'm always glad to be of help.

I have noticed a huge difference even in my fishes' behavior. Before they used to sulk around the bottom, but now they are swimming around in almost as if in a school.

Keep your results posted, if you don't mind, I'd like to know how everything turns out.

with high nitrite i would bet that the cloudy water is a bacteria bloom that will go away all by itself. The concern is the high nitrites. As mentioned by biggrigg22 do daily water changes until the nitrite goes back to zero. HTH

hi
i just did about a 25% water change. i tested my nitrite before i did the change it was still very high... 0.9 or more.. i'm scared!!!
i will do it again tomorrow

no need to be scared. with proper water changes your fish will be OK. IF you feel like you have to do something else then do a couple of water changes a day. But as long as you keep the nitrites below 1ppm then your fish should be ok. Of course there is never any guarantee but IME that has been the case. Although i have never cycled with a betta before. HTH

IME? HTH? lol fill me in..

my betta seems to be fine. i know some of them are "lazy" fish and some are active. mine seems to be alright. he seems to camouflage himself with one of the trees i have. i couldn't find him after work today but he was in the tree lol was cute. i hope he survives the high nitrite. what would make the nitrite high?

IME - in my experience
HTH- Hope that helps

High nitrite can happen if you are cycling a tank or if something kills off a portion of your bacteria colony in an established tank. Chlorine can do this and some meds. HTH

it must be my tank cycling then. nothing else has happened in my tank. my ammonia went up a little bit when i started the tank but then went down. how long will this nitrite last? any ideas?

Be very, very carefull. If you add too many fish too quickly to a tank that's cycling, you will probably lose fish. Daily water changes of 10-20% should keep you out of trouble. The ammount of water you should do in a change should depend on your toxicity readings (as I call them).

oh yeah, for sure. i will be diong a water change every day until i get my nitrite levels down. everything else seems to be alright. i will test everything again tomorrow probably. and i dont plan on adding any more fish until everything is settled.

good to hear that your fish are still alive! keep up the water changes...you may even do a little more than you have. the biggest difference i noticed was after i finally did about a 50% water change. i know it seems like a lot, but thats prob what it's gonna take.

maybe i will do a 50% water change tomorrow before i go to work. yup still have all 4 of my fishies.
my betta is pretty active, and then he hides.. in a spot that i didnt know existed... inside one of my decorations there is a hole that i never knew before.. i thought he escaped from the tank (imposible) or went see-through cause we couldnt find him... all of a sudden he came out of the treasure chest .. pretty weird. but cool.
hope i can get this nitrite down before i lose my fish... i dont want to lose them!

just keep up the water changes and your fish will be fine. be careful about what chemicals you are adding because some that say they remove nitrate/nitrite/ammonia like the ones i was using actually add other harmful chemicals into the water. and thats never good