Nitrite concern

[Jafis]

Hi everyone. My 50 gallon tank is in it's 5th week of cycling and the ammonia levels are 0 but for a while now my nitrite level has stayed the same, it's at 2.0ppm. I'm not concerned but as usuall when you talk to various people, either friends or pet shop workers, I keep hearing different things.

What I was hoping to ask all of you was should I start doing water changes daily? I've done a few but the amount i've changed has been about 20% and perhaps I should change more water like 50%?

I'm asking you all this because i'm being told 2 things by different people...
1) changing the water won't allow my tank to cycle (personally I don't believe that one)

2) That I should start daily water changes because it will help bring the Nitrite levels down more quickly.

Any advice any of you have would be greatly appreciated.

 

[scuba_jez]

The thing is, your tank should be able to get rid of the ammount of nitrite in your water as is comes in much like ammonia.

If you change the water you will be removing the nitrite hence when you fully stock your tank your nitrites will spike again.

My advice is to keep going and an if nothing changes then think about adding a product like cycle.

Have u been thorough removing the chlorine and chloramine from the water when adding it to the tank?


also, what filter do you have?

 

[lee8040]

whats this dechlorinating thing i hear about ?

 

[Jafis]

Have u been thorough removing the chlorine and chloramine from the water when adding it to the tank?

Yup I made sure the water was good to go.

also, what filter do you have?

I'm using a Penguin 350. I did think about adding another filter, not another 350, but a smaller version just for good measure.

Oh and i'm using fish for the cycle. I had 10 Danio's in there but i'm down to 2 now.

I've been told it should only take 6 weeks for my tank to cycle but I honeslty think mine will take alot longer. I guess some tanks just take longer than others.

 

[rdd1952]

Hi everyone. My 50 gallon tank is in it's 5th week of cycling and the ammonia levels are 0 but for a while now my nitrite level has stayed the same, it's at 2.0ppm. I'm not concerned but as usuall when you talk to various people, either friends or pet shop workers, I keep hearing different things.

What I was hoping to ask all of you was should I start doing water changes daily? I've done a few but the amount i've changed has been about 20% and perhaps I should change more water like 50%?

I'm asking you all this because i'm being told 2 things by different people...
1) changing the water won't allow my tank to cycle (personally I don't believe that one)

2) That I should start daily water changes because it will help bring the Nitrite levels down more quickly.

Any advice any of you have would be greatly appreciated.

[snapback]900543[/snapback]​

The first question is are you cycling with fish? What you need to do depends on that. If you have fish, you definitely should be concerned about nitrite at 2.0 as that is very toxic.

If you are cycling with fish, you should be doing daily water changes to try to keep the nitrite under .5 until it finally cycles to zero. It may slow the cycling somewhat but will keep your fish alive.

If you don't have fish, there isn't any need to worry but you should be adding more ammonia every day to keep the bacteria already developed fed. Otherwise, the ammonia eating bacteria will die off and you'll be back to square one.

As for lee8040's question about dechlorinator, most all water companies add chlorine and chloramine to the water supply to kill bacteria. You need to add dechlorinator to your tap water when you add it to your tank or it will kill the good bacteria in your tank AND your fish (a slow death as their gills are burned by the chlorine).

 

[big mick]

after 5 weeks your tank should be well cycled, it wont 'fully mature' for 6-8 months but cycling should only take 2 weeks or there abouts.

 

[scuba_jez]

sorry i thought you were doing a fishless cycle )


Lee,

unless you add a product that removes chlorine and chloramine (sometimes reffered to as water ager) then you will kill your bacteria and your tank will constantly be cycling, no doubt getting massive ammounts of ammonia.

 

[rdd1952]

after 5 weeks your tank should be well cycled, it wont 'fully mature' for 6-8 months but cycling should only take 2 weeks or there abouts.

[snapback]900575[/snapback]​

Cycling with fish is a very slow process and takes much longer than cycling without. The more fish you have, the longer it will take too. Starting with 10 danios isn't a super heavy load and but would take a while to cycle.

The high nitrite (and probably high ammonia too during that 5 weeks) is most likely what killed the 8 danios. Anytime ammonia or nitrite gets over 1 ppm it is deadly although ammonia isn't as bad at lower pH. My advice would be to rehome the 2 danios you have left and do a fishless cycle. Since you probably have quite a bit of bacteria laready present, it shouldn't take long to do.

 

[annka5]

You're 2 danios are not adding as much ammonia to the water as a group of 8 would.
Have you a nitrate reading? Compare it to your tap-water. If it is higher, that at least shows there are some bacteria present converting nitrite to nitrate, and they are jsut not at a high enough number yet.

 

[Jafis]

Have you a nitrate reading? Compare it to your tap-water.

My Nitrate reading is 5.0ppm and my tap water is 0. I suppose I could add a few more fish as I have 10 in my 10 gallon tank that i'm using to cycle that one. I started cycling both tanks at the same time. Do you think a few more fish adding waste in the 50 gallon tank would help speed up the bacteria build up?

 

[rdd1952]

Actually it would only add to the amount of toxic ammonia and nitrite ou have. The bacteria can only develop so fast. Things that speed cycling and bacteria growth are higher temperatures (upper 80s but you can't do that with fish in the tank) and aeration. Have you checked the reading on the 10 gallon tank? I would think you would have very high reading in that tank too as there aren't many fish small enough that you can put 10 in a 10 gallon tank.

 

[Jafis]

I would think you would have very high reading in that tank too as there aren't many fish small enough that you can put 10 in a 10 gallon tank.

Yeah the fish in the 10 gallon are very small and thankfully al 10 have survived so far. The Nitrite reading is the same for both tanks.

I'll just be more patient and wait a few more weeks for the bacteria to bring my Nitrite levels down. Thanks for all the great info everyone.

 

[rdd1952]

Under the circumstances, I probably would move some of the ones from the 10 gallon to the 50 gallon if for no reason that to relieve the load on the smaller tank. If you do, just be sure to take your time acclimating them to the new tank as changes in pH and temperature can have very bad affects on them if the change isn't gradual. Also try to do water changes of about 20% twice a day until you have the ammonia and nitrite levels under .5. that will give all your fish a fighting chance to make it through.

 

[ctack2]

Since you are cycling WITH fish, you have to do the water changes to keep the fish from being poisoned with the waste that isn't yet being taken care of because the bacterial bed isn't completely built up.

When you cycle with fish, there are some species that are strong enough to handle a cycle, danios being one of them. They are sturdy enough to live through the spikes, but they still need to have the levels somewhat controlled with the water changes.

If I'm not mistaken, if you do fishless cycling, you just let it take care of itself until it completes the cycling.

Carol B