Nitrite Reading

[HazardousBlue]

I am using the API master test kit, and find it very hard to tell if nitrite is 1 or 5. I showed each member of my family what they thought and got a 50:50 split. Others have this issue ?

So whilst I am at it, I have a reading of zero Ammonia, and 1 or 5 for Nitrite , 40 for nitrate. No matter what I do, water changes etc.. I can't bring down the nitrite. I have a 35litre BiUbe, which has been fish in cycle for about 1.5 months. Total 5 fish currently (Zebras (2) and White Cloud (3))

Any suggestions, or am I doing something wrong ?

Cheers

 

[alchemist]

Sounds like you have off the chart nitrite - how often and how large are your water changes?

 

[HazardousBlue]

Sounds like you have off the chart nitrite - how often and how large are your water changes?

I have been doing 30-40% twice a week.

 

[alchemist]

Ok - you can need to be doing 30-40% twice a day during a fish in cycle.

It would be interesting to know your nitrate level as well.

I would do a nitrate test - followed by a large (60-70%) water change now - wait an hour and then do a nitrite and another nitrate reading.

What dechloronater do you use?

 

[waterdrop]

To me this seems kind of a hard one to trust that I know what's going on from way out here on the internet, lol. A few zebras and white clouds in what's almost a 10g aquarium doesn't seem like it would build up that much nitrite that fast, but maybe I'm wrong on that count. The fact that its been going on for a month and a half makes me wonder if there's some problem we're not seeing. I wonder if somehow the biomedia volume in this tube aquarium is somehow not enough or not working correctly, like media being bypassed and going unfiltered or something? I'm not at all familiar with these filters so it'd have to be someone else to kind of analyze whether the filter/media sounds ok, without being able to look at it directly.

One observation I can make, that doesn't help much unfortunately, is that fish-in cycles in these sorts of smaller tanks with pretty small numbers of fish do seem to crop up more often in our cases here in the beginner section as not giving very good cycling feedback. What I mean is that perhaps they are indeed very slowly cycling (having little A-Bac and N-Bac colonies gradually build up) but they somehow don't provide us with as clear feedback of that fact via our looking at them periodically with our liquid test kits and all.. I don't know, just feeling in a speculating mood this morning I guess

~~waterdrop~~

 

[HazardousBlue]

To me this seems kind of a hard one to trust that I know what's going on from way out here on the internet, lol. A few zebras and white clouds in what's almost a 10g aquarium doesn't seem like it would build up that much nitrite that fast, but maybe I'm wrong on that count. The fact that its been going on for a month and a half makes me wonder if there's some problem we're not seeing. I wonder if somehow the biomedia volume in this tube aquarium is somehow not enough or not working correctly, like media being bypassed and going unfiltered or something? I'm not at all familiar with these filters so it'd have to be someone else to kind of analyze whether the filter/media sounds ok, without being able to look at it directly.

One observation I can make, that doesn't help much unfortunately, is that fish-in cycles in these sorts of smaller tanks with pretty small numbers of fish do seem to crop up more often in our cases here in the beginner section as not giving very good cycling feedback. What I mean is that perhaps they are indeed very slowly cycling (having little A-Bac and N-Bac colonies gradually build up) but they somehow don't provide us with as clear feedback of that fact via our looking at them periodically with our liquid test kits and all.. I don't know, just feeling in a speculating mood this morning I guess

~~waterdrop~~

I have done another water change (50%)- there appears no change in the values (or colour) Nitrate is at 20. I am using API Stress Coat.

Cheers, HB.

 

[Geoff1991]

Do the drops immediately sink and turn purple when you put them in the test tube?

 

[HazardousBlue]

Do the drops immediately sink and turn purple when you put them in the test tube?

pretty much !

 

[Curiosity101]

Then chances are you aren't seeing a change after a 50% water change as they are more than double the highest level measured on the test result card.
Ie. if it goes up to 5 then your actual level before the change was 10 or more.

If you see your nitrates have halved, so the nitrites must have aswell. Personally I'd recommend another 50% and keep going till you see a good clear change when you re-test.

 

[afishdude]

Check your tap water for nitrite, that might be what is causing it.


I don't think 30-40% twice daily is necessary. I think once a day would be sufficient. Any more and your putting too much stress on the fish.

 

[arobinson1984]

I DO think several water changes a day are necessary even as much as 50/60%, especially on a tank as small as 35L as the nitrite levels will increase at a much faster rate than they would in a large tank. The effect of stress on the fish is is no where near as much as the damage the high nitrites will be causing so I dont see you have much option to be honest.

If you are using the API master kit, when you put the 5 drops in for the nitrite test, if they sink to the bottom and go immediately purple and then go back to blue then your reading is off the scale.

Andy

 

[afishdude]

If your changing the water 50% twice a day your taking all of the ammonia out of the tank. How is your filter supposed to cycle if you keep taking out the ammonia? That is why the nitrite is spiking.

 

[Curiosity101]

No it isn't...it's taking out the ammonia and nitrite that the filter is currently incapable of processing quickly enough for it to be at a safe level for the fish.

Slowly the filter catches up, and then the test results dictate you need to do less and less frequent water changes.

I agree it gives for a slower cycle, but when it's a fish-in cycle the health of the fish has to come first.

 

[arobinson1984]

Your bio filter only needs trace amounts of ammonia to be able to perform the cycle, albeit slower than if ammonia levels were high but as curiousity said, when fish are in the tank, their health has to take priority and ammonia and nitrite levels should both be kept <0.25ppm

Andy

 

[waterdrop]

Right, I agree, you don't need amounts of ammonia that are showable by a liquid testing kit to grow a bacterial colony. The mental test for understanding that this is the case is just to realize that when the biofilter of a heavily stocked tank is running properly, the ammonia and nitrite tests will always read zero ppm, and yet we all know the large stock of fish is putting out a lot of ammonia and that there are large colonies of bacteria in the filter eating it, so we know that a significant "flow" of ammonia can be transferred from our fish to our bacteria without our test kits ever showing it!

~~waterdrop~~