Nitrite In Tank

[lgarvey]

Hi,

I added two fish to my 45L the other day and fed them garlic enriched brine shrimp. They appeared fine, and the tank parameters were good too. Last night one fish looked ill so I quickly retested the water, and found: -

Am - 0
Ni - 0.2mg/l
Na - 15mg/l

I was out of water at the time, and it was about 1am. So I have done a quick water change now and will continue to do them as needed. The fish looked fine this morning, even though the Ni was still elevated.

I am going to withhold feeding and perhaps try them with one small serving of marine flake, instead of the frozen food - which seems to have a more drastic effect on water chemistry.

I assume this is a "normal" mini cycle which results from adding live stock to a newly set-up tank?

But my question is - I had a skimmer running which also acts like a filter. The filter pad was dirty, but I doubted it was doing anything practical re's skimming, so I removed it. At the same time decided to mildly re-arrange the LR.

So perhaps 1) the filter had colonised with Nitrifying bacteria and now that it's gone a portion of the tanks filtering capacity was disrupted?
2) Perhaps disrupting the live rock was also a bad mistake?
3) I must overfed them

I am also going to do a head count on the snails as I haven't seen them for awhile, but I imagie a snail death would also heavil disrupt the tank.

Cheers,
L

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I think your probably spot on with the causes, could have been one or a combination of all the factors you listed.

Just cut back on the feeding for awhile and do a lot of regular water changes until it is under control.

How much LR and water flow do you have?

EDIT:
Just seen your other thread, 5kg of LR and the korillia nano should be fine for filtration. I'm assuming the two fish you are talking about here are the firefish and clown? If you have added two more to these two it is probably too much for the small volume of water there is.

 

[lgarvey]

Hi,

Thanks for the prompt reply!

Yes, it's just the fire fish and the clown. I have stopped feeding frozen or marine food, but fortunately I have a copepod and rotifier culture so I am feeding them these. It's funny watching them dart around the tank, and I'm assuming that as they are live there will be a minor impact on water chemstry as there's no rotting food?

I added two corals - a zooanthid culture and a small mini leather toadstool coral. This is the reason I started moving rock around, to find a decent place to seat them.

I'll do daily water changes if necessary and hopefully it'll be back to normal in a short while.

L

 

[xxBarneyxx]

With the live cultures are you straining off the culture water before adding them to the tank? if not this could be the source of the problem as I know my culture water always has high ammonia and nitrites.

 

[lgarvey]

With the live cultures are you straining off the culture water before adding them to the tank? if not this could be the source of the problem as I know my culture water always has high ammonia and nitrites.

Yeh, it's the first time I've tried adding 'pods to the main tank. I am using a strainer (aka piece of pipe with mesh at one end) to capture the pods. The problem I have is that the 'pod tank is loaded with algae, so small strands of it are also getting mopped up and then added to the tank.

I am wondering if my 3 crabs - emrald and two hermits might clean up the algae?

L

 

[-Nemo-]

Having an algae problem like that in a culture seems odd to me... What is your set-up, what are you feeding them? etc.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Wouldnt worry about the algae. If you run your pod cultures the lazy man way (like me) you will probably get algae in the cultures (I have multiple cultures in case one crashes but pretty much leave them to get on with it other then the odd small water change and top ups). It works for me but most people go down the ultra sterile root in which case algae would be odd.

 

[lgarvey]

Having an algae problem like that in a culture seems odd to me... What is your set-up, what are you feeding them? etc.

I have the copepod culture set-up from reef works. It's just a small 10 litre tank, with salt water (ro salt water) a copepod and rotifier culture and I regularly add doses of Phytoplanked (stuff I keep in the fridge) every few days.

There was a small air pump with a flow restricter running to keep some surface movement. I recently switched this off though, because it was loud.

The container was on the window ledge so it got a lot of light, but i have now moved it next to the tank which is generally darker but it will still catch some light off the tank itself.

Algae grew in it quite quickly! One thing, I hadn't been topping up with RO to control the salinity, so this is likely to be much higher. I'm adding small amounts of RO water to gradually bring down the salinity. The culture tank has been running for about 3 weeks, I think.

What would I have to do to avoid the algae? I have sifted out the biggest portion with a fork! but I still catch small pieces of it and end up introducing it to the main tank.

L

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I would put the airline back in or the water will go stagnant. Also need to make sure salinity is kept stable (as you are now doing).

Wouldn't worry about the algae that goes in the display tank. If the water parameters are fine then it wont grow (and something will probably eat it). It the water parameters are off then it will go but will help to stabilise the water (I prefer to have algae then bad water parameters).

 

[lgarvey]

I would put the airline back in or the water will go stagnant. Also need to make sure salinity is kept stable (as you are now doing).

Wouldn't worry about the algae that goes in the display tank. If the water parameters are fine then it wont grow (and something will probably eat it). It the water parameters are off then it will go but will help to stabilise the water (I prefer to have algae then bad water parameters).

Ah, that sound great.

Thanks for your help! There's so much to keeping marines compared to FW!

 

[lgarvey]

OK I have been testing the tank for nitrite daily. The nitrite -> nitrate process seems to have stalled completely, which leads me to believe that the filter pad in the well aerated protein skimmer had a good portion of the nitrite processing bacteria. The moment I removed it and juggled about the LR, bad things started to happen.

I have done some water changes and got the nitrite down to 0.05 ppm according to my test kit. I have also read that whilst nitrite is distressing, it does not prove to be as lethal as in FW because of the salt in the tank. Obviously I'm rooting for no nitrate, but from what I have read the fish should be able to struggle on for the next few days until the nitrifying bacteria gets going again.

Also, I'm wary of doing too many water changes and bringing the nitrite down to zero, as this may in itself hinder the bacteria recolonising the LR.

Am is still 0
Na is about 10ppm
Ni about 0.05

I am feeding the fish only copepods and rotifers from my culture tank for the time being.

I have a question re's frozen food - I read on a website that there's a lot of particles in the frozen food whichi can quickly turn water bad and that the best thing is to defrost the food then put it in strainer and run water through it to remove small debris which can fester in the tank. This seems to make sense, particularly with a 45L nano. Does anyone else recommend doing this? Would tap water be sufficient to rinse the food, or is that a bad idea?

I also have a small leather coral in there, which seemed to pack up for a bit. Its polyps retracted and it stayed like that for several days. Now it appears to be out in full force. And i have some zoos. ONly half of those have opened. I will have another light on the tank v-soon, whichi may help. The problem is, everything - from snails, to the shrimp and the crabs crawls all over the corals. Is this acceptable, or will it irritate or damage teh corals?

Cheers,
L

 

[lgarvey]

[Hmm, I re-tested today (the 11th day after noticing nitrite in the tank) and it's still registering about 0.02mg/l. How is this so? I feed the tank every day, and the levels are not rising, so some Ni reduction must be going on, but obviously it's not enough to remove it from the water. Unless my test kit is not working correctly!? Am is 0.

Also both of my hermits appear to be MIA, but everything else seems to be thriving - particularly the emerald crab.