Nitrates And Nitrites.

[Nepherael]

Hi there. I'm pretty new to the forum so forgive me if this is a regular question. I have a pretty new tank which is halfway done with its cycle. My ammonia is at 0 and I have just had a huge spike in nitrites. It killed two of my fish and I had no idea based on my previous research that halfway through a cycle this would occur. I have started trying to rectify it and have changed some of the water as well as used some nitrite neutralizing chemical.

My question is what should my nitrAte be at? I know my nitrite and ammonia should be at zero and my current water testing equipment doesn't have a test for nitrates. I would assume it is because nitrate is good? It is what helps take care of nitrite and ammonia is what I've heard. So is there a reason to test for it at all once my aquarium is fully established?

Please correct any inaccuracies I may have just spoken and any help is appreciated. Thank you very much

 

[Nepherael]

I would also like to add that had I even known about a fish less cycle I would have done one. I did A LOT of reading when I started and I read multiple sources that said it was not possible or was a sketchy and unreliable process. I now know otherwise.

 

[paulyoung666]

I believe anything less than 40ppm is fine , weekly water changes should take care of it no problem ...

 

[Nepherael]

Thank you. I will be getting a master test kit in a few days I've just been using the test kit that came with the tank (ph, nitrite, ammonia). I bought it second hand but there had to have been at least $500 worth of stuff that came with it

 

[Essjay]

Nitrate doesn't take care of ammonia and nitrite. The ammonia from the fish is turned into nitrite by the bacteria in the filter and that nitrite is turned into nitrate by another set of filter bacteria. Nitrate is the end of the chain. Once the filter is finished cycling, you will remove the nitrate by doing weekly water changes.
The aim with nitrate is to keep it at or below the level in your tapwater plus 20. There is nearly always nitrate in tapwater, sometimes as high as 40 or 50 depending where you live. This is as low as you can get in a tank unless you have a lot of live plants. When you get your new test kit, test your tapwater nitrate as well as your tank nitrate. You should be doing a lot of water changes at the moment to keep your nitrite below 0.25 so the two nitrate readings should be about the same. Once your filter has cycled you can use the nitrate reading to make sure your water changes are big/often enough - it shouldn't get higher than tap+20.

 

[Nepherael]

Thank you very much. That was very enlightening. I will be getting the master test kit on Monday I think and I will definitely be on top of that. I'm still pretty upset that the nitrite level slipped by me. I had been regularly testing the water and then my ammonia bottomed out. I was so happy it had and was due for a water test today to make sure everything was still good but yesterday all that stuff happened. It happened so fast.

Anyway, thank you again.

 

[Essjay]

Ammonia is the first thing to appear in tank water after you add fish, because the fish make it. That ammonia stays in the water until the ammonia eating bacteria have grown or until you do water changes to lower it. Once the bacteria start growing, they make nitrite. Nitrite can't appear in the tank until you have grown enough bacteria to make it from ammonia. The ammonia level will eventually drop to zero because the bacteria in the filter are eating it as fast as the fish are making it. Once you have enough nitrite eating bacteria, the nitrite reading will drop to zero as the nitrite eaters are eating it as fast as the ammonia eaters (that is the nitrite makers) are making it.
But because the nitrite eaters can't even start to grow until the ammonia eaters have made some nitrite, the nitrite eaters always lag behind. As a general rule of thumb, it takes twice as long for the nitrite reading to drop to zero as it took for the ammonia reading to drop to zero. So I'm afraid you are going to need to do a lot of water changes over the next few weeks - you must keep the nitrite reading below 0.25 by doing water changes.

 

[gforce17]

Ammonia is the first thing to appear in tank water after you add fish, because the fish make it. That ammonia stays in the water until the ammonia eating bacteria have grown or until you do water changes to lower it. Once the bacteria start growing, they make nitrite. Nitrite can't appear in the tank until you have grown enough bacteria to make it from ammonia. The ammonia level will eventually drop to zero because the bacteria in the filter are eating it as fast as the fish are making it. Once you have enough nitrite eating bacteria, the nitrite reading will drop to zero as the nitrite eaters are eating it as fast as the ammonia eaters (that is the nitrite makers) are making it.
But because the nitrite eaters can't even start to grow until the ammonia eaters have made some nitrite, the nitrite eaters always lag behind. As a general rule of thumb, it takes twice as long for the nitrite reading to drop to zero as it took for the ammonia reading to drop to zero. So I'm afraid you are going to need to do a lot of water changes over the next few weeks - you must keep the nitrite reading below 0.25 by doing water changes.

This says it all very succinctly. I think it should be pinned (is that the phrase they use?)

 

[bayo]

That was very enlightening.

 

[OldMan47]

Maybe you will benefit from these simple relationships.
Fish produce ammonia and we all know it is toxic. Each 1 ppm of ammonia will be converted to 2.7 ppm of nitrite by ammonia processors unless you have adequate nitrite processors present. If you have enough nitrite processors also present, each 1 ppm of ammonia shows up as 3.6 ppm of nitrate. Nitrate is not a good thing but it is far less toxic to fish than ammonia or nitrite. Ammonia at higher pH values is toxic at as little as about 0.25ppm. Nitrite is toxic a lower pH values at levels of around 0.25 ppm. Since we do not want people to try to chase pH values to reduce nitrogen toxicity we have simply assumed a standard that we accept nothing but less than 0.25 ppm of both ammonia and nitrites as barely good enough water. As far as nitrates, relatively low values are more desirable but often cannot be achieved. What we use as a standard is that you never let your nitrates get to a value more than 20 ppm above your tap water nitrate value. The reason is simple. Although we have decent enough tests for nitrogen, that is not all that can affect our fish. We treat the nitrate value as the canary in the coal mine. If you see a value more than 20 ppm above tap water, chances are that some of those other poisons may be present in concentrations that might be affecting your fish. Since we do a water change to reduce the value, all poisons are equally affected by the water change and your tank becomes safe for your fish again.