Hi!

[Shaman]

Argh!!!

Carried out my regular water tests today. Ammonia 0 nitrite 0.25!! Nitrate 20. A flaming nitrite spike! Carried out an 80% water change and used 2x seachem which showed up 0 on the next test.

Going to wait til I go back home later and retest. What causes nitrite spikes? I've no dead fish (counted them!) and the pH is still the same (6.8).

 

[waterdrop]

The thing to do when you see this is to keep logging your tests over time in an attempt to determine whether its just a blip (likely) or the symptom of some ongoing problem (which in rare cases could be insufficient biomedia volume compared to the bioload or simply poor design in the filter, such as excess "bypass.") WD

 

[Shaman]

Hi

I think I got to the bottom of it! Some of the Java Fern that I'd bought hadn't got a Rhizome and hadn't taken root. I removed this "loose" leaves and the Nitrate cleared up in about an hour!

Shaman Dan

 

[waterdrop]

Good.