My nitrIte has gone back up again

[Rob 28]

my tank cycled in the week - nitrAtes went up and nitrIte went down to nil - so i put some corys and ancistrus in and now my nitrIte has gone back up to 0.5 ppm.

So....have I messed up and put too many fish in too soon. Is this a mini-cycle that will sort itself out in a day or two or do i have a big problem here ?

 

[mrV]

How did you cycle your tank at first? Did you feed bacteria?

Change water to keep nitrite as low as possible. It takes time before there is enough bacteria to oxidize NO2- to NO3-. And if you can buy bacteria product, some product that really contains useful bacteria (Bio-Spira).

 

[Rob 28]

How did you cycle your tank at first? Did you feed bacteria?

I waited one week, added stress zyme and put the 2gouramis in until it had cycled before i added the others.

 

[tstenback]

Sounds like an ammonia spike created by increased bio load. What is your ammonia reading? Keep up the water changes and the fish should be fine.

 

[Rob 28]

What is your ammonia reading?

Ammonia is nil. SHould i only water change if the n02 goes upto 1ppm (in other words 0.5ppm might be low enough to be ok?)

 

[tstenback]

I usually do 10% per day while when niTRITES rise anyway but i am fairly cautious and the fish are the main priority right now. So what if we slow the cycle slightly. The best indication will be your fish. If they start panting (Do fish Pant?? ) , get real lazy, or if yu notice the gills getting redder than normal then do the water change regardless of the reading but i would do a change at 1 ppm for sure.

 

[mrV]

So you didn't cycle it first. Well, result is ammonia and/or nitrite in your water. If you have house-plants, take handful soil from flowerpot, rinse it in a pail with water and pour that water to your tank. Do it only, if you havent add fertilizers lately for your house-plants. (Soil contains also beneficial bacteria.)

If pH in your tank is lower than 7, then you don't need to be worried about NH3. If it's higher, then you should. You did say, that you don't have any NH3 in your tank, so probably there are enough Nitrosomonas sp. -bacteria or your pH is under 7 and testkit doesn't show any ammonia. You still need Nitrospira sp. -bacteria for nitrification (NO2- -> NO3-). Call your LFS and ask them, do they sell BioSpira (it contains Nitrospira sp.) or do water changes couple times daily that you can keep NO2- as down as possible (test your tap-water too!). Use water conditioner to keep stress in minimum.

 

[Rob 28]

thks for the advice. went to shop yesterday for bio-spira but they didnt have it.

Luckily though - i tested the nitrItes this morning and it has dissapeared again so looks like it was just a temporary spike becasue of the new fish i added until the bacteria caught up. Phew.

 

[Kribensis]

So you didn't cycle it first. Well, result is ammonia and/or nitrite in your water. If you have house-plants, take handful soil from flowerpot, rinse it in a pail with water and pour that water to your tank. Do it only, if you havent add fertilizers lately for your house-plants. (Soil contains also beneficial bacteria.)

If pH in your tank is lower than 7, then you don't need to be worried about NH3. If it's higher, then you should. You did say, that you don't have any NH3 in your tank, so probably there are enough Nitrosomonas sp. -bacteria or your pH is under 7 and testkit doesn't show any ammonia. You still need Nitrospira sp. -bacteria for nitrification (NO2- -> NO3-). Call your LFS and ask them, do they sell BioSpira (it contains Nitrospira sp.) or do water changes couple times daily that you can keep NO2- as down as possible (test your tap-water too!). Use water conditioner to keep stress in minimum.

emmmmm, what you mean if your PH is less than 7 you don't need to worry about nitrates, i beg to differ, you should worry about nitrates what ever the PH,

So really your saying that Discus who have low PH (for example) it doesn't matter if they have high nitrate's. I think you had better do some reading up.

 

[mrV]

emmmmm, what you mean if your PH is less than 7 you don't need to worry about nitrates, i beg to differ, you should worry about nitrates what ever the PH,

Hmm... Have I been writing something odd? I can't find it I wrote, that when pH is under 7, you don't need to worry about NH3.

 

[Kribensis]

ok but you are still saying that a PH of less than 7 means you don't have to worry about your NH3, yes you do.

 

[kribs mate]

there was obviously some confusion with no3 and nh3.

i would still say you should be concerned about ammonia though regardless of your if your ph is neautral or not. less dangerous but still a danger non the less

 

[mrV]

ok but you are still saying that a PH of less than 7 means you don't have to worry about your NH3, yes you do.

Yes Im saying. If pH is lower than 7, NH3 is mostly an ion, NH4+ (99 to 100% depending how acidic water is) which is not toxic to fishes. When pH is over 7, then there is "free" ammonia, NH3, in water a lot and probably causes ammonia-poisoning. The higher the pH the more NH3 in water.