Irritated With Life

[TemStar]

So the nitrite levels are off the chain, and I did my research and found out that I have to do daily water changes until it goes back down. Then I found out each water change is supposed to drop it to zero, and if it doesn't, increase the amount of water change. Well after a week of doing 25% changes and still says dangerously high on the strip, I  did a 50% percent change and nearly killed my fish. Still no lower reading of nitrite either. Even went out and bought Start Zyme last night, and still no change of nitrite levels. No I don't have a real ph kit, no i don't have an ammonia kit. I just bought a car and wasn't expecting to have to pay for all of this (even a bigger size tank) just for a hobby. Any ideas?

 

[KittyKat]

Why would a 50% water change almost kill your fish?
 
What nitrite reading do you get from the water that you are using for your water changes? Are you dechlorinating it?

 

[Fishmanic]

do yourself a favor and buy a liquid test kit like the one API offers---those strips are expensive per test and are not as accurate as the liquid test kits

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Depending on your fish, the best plan to deal with the nitrite is to add SALT to the water.
 
 
 
Problem is that salt won't undo brown blood syndrome, just keep it from getting worse.
 
 
 
Its simple math though TemStar.  If your nitrite is sitting at say 2ppm... then a 25% water change will only drop it to 1.5ppm.  And in the meantime, the fish are producing more ammonia (and at elevated levels because of the stress) which will replace the removed nitrite rather quickly.  Even a 50% water change will only drop 2ppm down to 1ppm. 
 
 
If you dechlorinated the water, and had it matched to your temperature, it would not be responsible for any fish deaths during a fish-in cycle.  That said, when fish are dealing with toxins like nitrite, they are more susceptible to other illnesses and stresses.

 

[TemStar]

Depending on your fish, the best plan to deal with the nitrite is to add SALT to the water.
 
 
 
Problem is that salt won't undo brown blood syndrome, just keep it from getting worse.
 
 
 
Its simple math though TemStar.  If your nitrite is sitting at say 2ppm... then a 25% water change will only drop it to 1.5ppm.  And in the meantime, the fish are producing more ammonia (and at elevated levels because of the stress) which will replace the removed nitrite rather quickly.  Even a 50% water change will only drop 2ppm down to 1ppm. 
 
 
If you dechlorinated the water, and had it matched to your temperature, it would not be responsible for any fish deaths during a fish-in cycle.  That said, when fish are dealing with toxins like nitrite, they are more susceptible to other illnesses and stresses.

@ A@;
Dechlorinate? Okies.
But whats this about people making tanks chem free?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Dechlorinator is actually necessary to remove chlorine from the water - in other words, the dechlorinator is designed to neutralize unnatural chemicals in your tap water.
 
 
A chemical free tank means not adding 'algeafix' when algae arrives, not adding 'invert killers' if snails occur, etc.   It does not mean that you can just ignore what's already in your tap water. 
 
Incidentally, 'water' is a chemical by definition also.

 

[KittyKat]

Dechlorinator is actually necessary to remove chlorine from the water - in other words, the dechlorinator is designed to neutralize unnatural chemicals in your tap water.

 
And chloramine, which takes about a week to dissipate otherwise. Both chlorine and chloramine can kill filter bacteria if present in high enough quantities.