High Nitrite And Nitrate Reading

[kjharve]

Hi all,

I've just performed a water change on my 120l tank with sand substrate. I also cleaned up some of the filter media, removed any messy bits in the tank and disturbed the sand a bit. I've now done my water tests and I'm getting high nitrite and nitrate readings. There's never been a problem with that before.

Could it be because I have disturbed the sand? If so, will it be dealt with ok by the filter or should I act?

Advice much needed,

Kev

 

[Fillet 'O' Fish]

I assume that you cleaned your filter media in some mature tank water and not under a tap

If you clean the media well, a lot of the helpful bacteria that break down the Nitrites and Nitrates can become washed out to. If I give mine a good clean, I always put some bacteria replacement fluid in the water to help with the re-establishment. Something such as Bacterlife is good.

 

[kjharve]

I assume that you cleaned your filter media in some mature tank water and not under a tap

If you clean the media well, a lot of the helpful bacteria that break down the Nitrites and Nitrates can become washed out to. If I give mine a good clean, I always put some bacteria replacement fluid in the water to help with the re-establishment. Something such as Bacterlife is good.

Hi,

I have some Ehfi Substrat in there which I left alone, I replaced some of the carbon and some of the cotton-wool like stuff (whatever that's called) so there's still a lot of the original media in there. The cotton-wool stuff I didn't remove was washed in aquarium water. So, as far as I know, I've followed all the correct procedures as far as that goes.

 

[kjharve]

I've now changed more of the water, around 25% in total and will leave it for today. I'll check again tomorrow and if necessary do another change. The fish don't seem too bothered at this time so hopefully there's no urgency.

 

[kjharve]

I've just had a thought - do dying plants produce ammonia? There are a couple of plants in my tank (brackish) that are starting to die. I was going to leave them in there as I am getting a CO2 fermenter early next week.

Could they be the problem?

 

[BigIan]

as plants rot they do produce amonia and other nastys and deal leaves should be trimmed as they also get in the substrate and rot producing a whole hoast of nastyness...

do you have the readings from before you started playing with your tank?