Nitrite problem

[boosmoke]

I had a tank up and running for about 2 months with African cichlids and a pleco. I added an undergravel filter and changed out my existing filter sponge. All of the cichlids died within a few days, but the pleco is fine. Did I create new tank syndrome or what? I tested the water, pH was fine, ammonia fine, nitrite was high. I added some nitrazorb and it seems to have helped the nitrite levels. It's been about a week now, so I added new fish, this time danios and algae eaters. The danios are hanging around at the top of the tank. Should I be worried they're not getting enough oxygen or is this normal behavior? The algae eaters are acting normal.

 

[jams.alaskan]

to the forum! You've got a tough one there. May I ask why you added an Under gravel filter(ugf)?
I think that you must have really disturbed the benificial bacteria in your substrate when you put the ugf in so those colonies were outta commision, then when you cleaned out your other filter at the same time you disturbed or killed off the ben. bacteria there as well so you sent your tank into a cycle. (you can read about these cycles in the pinned topics) Your nitrite levels, if high are lethal - frequent water changes even to 30 percent till it is back down are critical right now. I'd not use the nitrite blocker as it really dosen't remove it from you water and may give you false readings. Just get those water chances going and try to disturb those new colonies as little as you can while they take hold again. Borrowed substrate, or filter media from an established tank can help if you have a friend willing to lend it. Danios are tough buggers so keep an eye on them, if they are in trouble - so are you.
Hope this helps, there are many others here that do a much better job at this than I but you'd not been answered yet so I thought I'd drop you a line.

ALASKA

 

[kgrehm]

Question Alaska,

When setting up a new tank, can you use the filter thats already in the established tank and float it or put in in the new tank to promote the beneficial bacteria?

 

[boosmoke]

to be honest the tank was looking cloudy, so I was going to buy a stronger filter. Also, I wanted bubbles. Stupid, huh? I worked it fine in the long run. I really wanted a community tank, but my pH wouldn't go down, so I settled for African cichlids. Once everything died it encouraged me to attempt to lower my pH. So far, so good. Thanks for the advice. I used to live in Anchorage, by the way. Also have friends at Eilson.

 

[jams.alaskan]

You can add your old filter to the new tank and run it side by side with the new one to really jumpstart the process. Otherwise you can put the filter floss or other medium from the old filter right into the new one and this works too.
Opcn and Jessiefish are from Anchorage - tell your Eilson friends I say hi!

ALASKA

 

[Nina7777]

Hey there,
Alaska gave you great advice. THe only thing I would like to mention is...I hope you are feeding your new algae eaters as well as pleco with algae tablets since there wont be enough algae to feed them all.

How big is your tank?