Nitrite Rise

[richiej1979]

Hi there, I've had some trouble with a few fish getting ill, I managed to save them but I tested the water to find out that for some reason my nitrite has spiked?

I've done about a 50% water change and the nitrite is now down a bit to 0.2 but I know its still harmfull.

Tell me if I am wrong but I think I need to do 50% water changes daily until the spike goes, is that right?

Readings b4 water change. Ammonia 1.0ppm, Nitrite 0.2 ppm and after water change ammonia 0.6 and nitrite 0.2.

Its a 75L tank with 2 x Platys, 1x dwarf Gourami and 3 x pygmy cory's. They are ok but I also have a clown plec who was added yesterday.

All advice is appreciated.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

daily water changes should help your fish get through it, however you should look at why you've got the spike to make sure it doesnt happen again.

was there anything you did that could have triggered it, heavy clean of the filter, change the substrate etc?

if not when did you last clean the filter, have you checked it's working properly, try cleaning out all the impellors, moving parts etc as there could be something wrong that's affecting performance.

 

[richiej1979]

daily water changes should help your fish get through it, however you should look at why you've got the spike to make sure it doesnt happen again.

was there anything you did that could have triggered it, heavy clean of the filter, change the substrate etc?

if not when did you last clean the filter, have you checked it's working properly, try cleaning out all the impellors, moving parts etc as there could be something wrong that's affecting performance.

thanks miss wiggle, there are a couple of things that could have caused it.

1. I left the filter off for 4 hours by mistake once which I am totally ashamed of myself for!
2. I had neon tetra disease in my tank 2 week ago which left me with only 3 pygmy cory's and that was it, perhaps they didn't give off enough ammonia.

I will do water changes everyday, I presume I will be doing daily water changes for a few weeks now.

Poor fish having me look after them!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

filter bacteria will only start to die off after 12 hrs so although it's obviously not good practice to leave it off it shouldn't kick start a cycle.

so all the fish except 3 pgymy cories died and it was like that for at least a couple of days then you stocked again right? that's probably caused it, the pgymy cories will have only given off enough ammonia to keep the bacteria for the three of them going, then the filter can't cope when you add more fish so it starts to cycle.

yes you may find you're doing daily changes for a week or so.

don't blame yourself though, it's a learning curve and we all make mistakes.

 

[richiej1979]

filter bacteria will only start to die off after 12 hrs so although it's obviously not good practice to leave it off it shouldn't kick start a cycle.

so all the fish except 3 pgymy cories died and it was like that for at least a couple of days then you stocked again right? that's probably caused it, the pgymy cories will have only given off enough ammonia to keep the bacteria for the three of them going, then the filter can't cope when you add more fish so it starts to cycle.

yes you may find you're doing daily changes for a week or so.

don't blame yourself though, it's a learning curve and we all make mistakes.

I think the Platy's will be ok but my clown plec might suffer. Anything I can do to help him?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

got another cycled tank or a friend with one? could put him in there for a few weeks until it's done, or return him to the lfs, other than that keep your fingers and toes crossed and keep upt he water changes. resist the urge to medicate to help him through as any antibacterial medication will stop your tank cycling. only medicate if he gets quite poorly, if the situation arises then post in emergencies and say that the tanks cycling so don't want to use antibacterial meds.

 

[richiej1979]

got another cycled tank or a friend with one? could put him in there for a few weeks until it's done, or return him to the lfs, other than that keep your fingers and toes crossed and keep upt he water changes. resist the urge to medicate to help him through as any antibacterial medication will stop your tank cycling. only medicate if he gets quite poorly, if the situation arises then post in emergencies and say that the tanks cycling so don't want to use antibacterial meds.

Hang on I added waterlife Protozin when the neon's had the disease.

could that have been part of the cause?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hard to say

an antibacterial medication can kill off some of your good bacteria too, however a mature filter should be able to handle it. Obviously it would be a bit rubbish if fishtank meds killed all your friendly bacteria.

but when a tank is cycling the bacteria colony is already fragile and you are wanting it to grow so putting something in that could kill even the smallest amount of your bacteria colony is a pretty bad idea unless it's strictly nescessary and will just prolong the cycle.

so if there was some other reason that your bacteria was fragile like if you'd recently changed some filter media or had done a very thorough clean then adding meds could cause a problem, but if the initial problem was just the NTD and the bacteria colony was fine then it's highly unlikely that adding protozoin did any damage

 

[richiej1979]

hard to say

an antibacterial medication can kill off some of your good bacteria too, however a mature filter should be able to handle it. Obviously it would be a bit rubbish if fishtank meds killed all your friendly bacteria.

but when a tank is cycling the bacteria colony is already fragile and you are wanting it to grow so putting something in that could kill even the smallest amount of your bacteria colony is a pretty bad idea unless it's strictly nescessary and will just prolong the cycle.

so if there was some other reason that your bacteria was fragile like if you'd recently changed some filter media or had done a very thorough clean then adding meds could cause a problem, but if the initial problem was just the NTD and the bacteria colony was fine then it's highly unlikely that adding protozoin did any damage

Ok got first victim today, one red cherry shrimp.

Or could it be that my new Clown Plec went for him?

Thanks again!