Nitrite Shoot Up - Help Please Asap!

[a.spaceman]

Hi all, new to the forum and alas won't use my first post to introduce myself as a pretty severe emergency has just happened in my tank.

I have a 120 litres tank (should be about 40 gallons, if you're not familiar with litres) dwelled by four silver dollars and, since today, a bristlenose plec.

All the fish are juvenile and small, the biggest dollar being about 2/3 inches long at present.

I started the tank with a relatively slow maturation but with the aid of the Tetra safe start chemicals and been checking the water conditions few times after introducing the first two dollars. I then added another couple and, after few days, tested the water again and all was spot on.

When I introduced the bristlenose today I checked the water once again after a couple of weeks and the Nitrites shoot up to well hazardous levels. Lucky wanted it that I bought the fish late in the afternoon, and as I realized, every fish shop was closed.

I performed a large water change (of the 120 litres I'd say between 40 and 50 litres), along with the aqua safe (to make tap water safe) and safe start (to add the bacteria so usefule especially in this kind of situation). Problem is that, not expecting such a major change, the latter wasn't enough for the ml/l indicated. Will obviously buy more tomorrow first thing in the morning.

Doubting that the situation is due to sudden overcrowding (fish are small and the tank is big, aided by two filters - an inside one by juwel and an undergravel with powerhead) I do believe the cause to be over feeding: the bottom of the tank is full of uneaten food.

I'm pretty sure, to make it short, that since the introduction of the second pair of dollars I raised the amount of food given way too much.

The dollars are showing clear the nitrite intoxication symptoms, brething through the gills quickly and, since this evening, by dwelling the top of the tank grasping for oxygen on the sufrace.

Needless to say, I'm incredibly worried.

What should I do to save the tank?

I have a small tank (one foot) which i thought I'd use temporarly by putting new water with aqua safe and safe start (or, even better, buying water from the fish shop, hoping the option will be available - I know some shops do). Not 100% sure about what to do with the 120l tank though.

Performing another big water change adding the bacteria and changing a good deal of the gravel (and dirt that comes along) seems to be the best option at the moment? Keeping some of the old gravel would help keeping part of the matured bacteria and algae, but introducing new, clean gravel, would, well.. help cleaning i guess.

Do you think it'd be a sensible way to deal with the situation?

I'm really sorry for the incredibly wrong post, but I guess in these kind of situations providing every information is more than useful.

For the record, I'm an unexperienced keeper and I know, I should have checked the water much more often. Feel incredibly bad about how the situation turned out.

Any kind of input is more than welcome.

PS: since the beginning a few snails appeared - small, cone shaped ones. Lately they've been multiplying quite noticeably and I say white things on the glass, looking like tiny anemonae. I guess it was the snails' babies? Are they harmless? I explain the radical increase that happened lately with the increase of algae due to the tank getting even more mature - is it correct?

Thanks a lot!

Alex

 

[a.spaceman]

to give better informations i'll fill the grid given a bit...

Tank size: 120 litres, a bit more than 1 meter is lenght
pH: 6.5
nitrite: way too high, about 20
tank temp: 27/28 celsius

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): brething through the gills frantically, now grasping on the surface for oxygen

Volume and Frequency of water changes: just performed a 40 to 50 litres change today, giulty of not having done a proper change in about 3 weeks/ a month

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: added aqua safe as indicated and a bit of safe start (ran out not having expected such a big change, shops were closed by then)

Tank inhabitants: 4 silver dollars (all juvenile, a pair about 3 inches, another pair about 2/2.5) and 1 bristlenose plec (young as well, about 2 inches)

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): been adding plants constantly, about one a week and just added today the bristlenose


As suggested by scot on the chat, I will perform very frequent vacuuming and water changes in the next few days while keeping the nitrite testings monitored.

Any other kind of advice, please don't hesitate. I'm sure my little friends will be thankful!

 

[taffy1]

If you have any products that can help absorb nitrites or nitrates, that can help. Amquel + does a fairly good job of removing the chlorine/chloramines, as well as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. (Do not use if you have used other meds recently in this tank).

If you do not have anything like this, then frequent water changes are essential....absolutely vital if the fish are already showing signs of distress. The water change you did may or may not be enough. After you do a water change, wait 1 to 2 hours after resuming filtration and test again. If the levels are still high, do another major change, at least 50% to 75% if levels are still toxic. Check again after 1 to 2 hours; and repeat as necessary. Of course most of your good bacteria is living in the filter, gravel and ornaments; so frequent water changes will only be minimally stressful - assuming of course the new water added is exactly the same temperature as the tank. (Take a thermometer to measure the temperature of the new water before putting it in, if at all possible, when doing a major change).

 

[a.spaceman]

If you have any products that can help absorb nitrites or nitrates, that can help. Amquel + does a fairly good job of removing the chlorine/chloramines, as well as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. (Do not use if you have used other meds recently in this tank).

If you do not have anything like this, then frequent water changes are essential....absolutely vital if the fish are already showing signs of distress. The water change you did may or may not be enough. After you do a water change, wait 1 to 2 hours after resuming filtration and test again. If the levels are still high, do another major change, at least 50% to 75% if levels are still toxic. Check again after 1 to 2 hours; and repeat as necessary. Of course most of your good bacteria is living in the filter, gravel and ornaments; so frequent water changes will only be minimally stressful - assuming of course the new water added is exactly the same temperature as the tank. (Take a thermometer to measure the temperature of the new water before putting it in, if at all possible, when doing a major change).

thanks a lot.

in the last 24h i performed 4 extensive vacuumings and changes of water (during the water changes i changed, altogether, over 100% of the water) and now the fish are back to the bottom areas and breathing far far slowlier.

will keep checking the water and perform other vacuumings with the water changes that come along and hopefully the situation will be back to normal.

i've also trimmed the plants eliminating the bits that looked worn and were softer, too and kept the light mostly off to let the fish relax after a stressful day.

im a happy fish keeper again

 

[taffy1]

Great, glad to hear that your fish are happier again! That must be a relief

 

[WILDER]

I think 120 litres is 27 gallons not 40 gallons.


What test kit are you using?
How long has the tank been set up?

Rrmove uneaten food.
Water changes and increase aeration.

Once the internal filter cycled I would remove the undergravel filter. There outdated and more trouble than there worth.
Also not recommended with meduim sized fish. Or massive waste producers like plecs.
There well known for blocking up and stop working.

 

[wastegate]

Is it not about 32 gallons? I use this link http/www.firsttankguide.net/calculator.php

 

[WILDER]

Ask in tropical discussion if members can work out how many gallons is your tank.

 

[taffy1]

Is it not about 32 gallons? I use this link http/www.firsttankguide.net/calculator.php

120L is about 31.5 US gallons, or 26 Imperial (UK) gallons. (1 US gal = approx -.8327 Imperial gal).

 

[me499]

not an expert but i would deffinately say the rise in nitrite is due to over feeding. i feed my fish a pinch of food every 2 days. it should say on the pot somethinglike remove what is not eaten in 2 minuites. if you vaccume all the food out and keep up the water changes this should be fine.

i also use tetra safe start this should really do the job (it does 4 me).

just to let you know the rise in alge is probably due to the nitrite since this is what algea lives off of....allong with ammonia. also i wouldnt reccomend removing gravel. good luck

 

[waterdrop]

Hello a.spaceman and welcome to the beginners section!

Nice to see that taffy has encouraged you to do water changes and that this has obviously helped. As you've discovered, water changes using good technique (use of conditioner to remove chlorine/chloramines and rough temperature matching) are the most powerful tool when ammonia or nitrite are present in the tank. In fact, the presence of these toxins "trumps" any concern about shock from water changes or other such minor subtleties -- both ammonia and nitrite are a major concern and should always be addressed immediately and in a large way.

You likely are in the midst of an ongoing situation and should assume it may stay that way until your testing proves otherwise. We like to call it a "Fish-In Cycling Situation." We have an article in the Beginners Resource Center about it and regardless of whether one is starting a new tank or whether the situation has just come up on a running tank, the actions are the same (although one should of course attempt to find a cause when its happened on an established tank.)

In a Fish-In Cycling Situation, you need to do some detective work and figure out a percentage and frequency of water changes that will ensure that your ammonia and nitrite(NO2) are both below 0.25ppm until you can be home to test again and potentially change water again. So testing every 12 hours is usually considered essential. A good liquid-reagent based test kit must be used, paper strips are not trusted. The gravel cleaning aspect of the water change is important as many of the chemicals you hope to remove may be hanging in greater abundance down in the gravel, due to weight and molecular charge characteristics.

Its also obvious now I'm sure that the information you were given about bacteria and the filter was insufficient. Its much more ideal to do the hard work of establishing a "working biofilter" --prior-- to introducing fish to the system. The two bacterial species we need are very slow growing and need certain conditions if their biofilm production process is going to be speeded up. The vast majority of our members have unfortunately found the "bottled bacterias" to be quite useless. These bacteria need a filter running with "biomedia" (sponge, ceramic gravel etc.) that has high surface area and both fresh oxygenated water and an ammonia source (ammonia in the right concentration range) flowing past their media surfaces. It usually takes between one and two months for them to establish their colonies (build their biofilms) and be present in sufficient numbers to handle what we call a "full bioload" (a reasonable set of fish for the beginner) in the tank.

In your fish-in situation, you will know when the filter has cycled when it can go for two days without any water changes but still not show any traces of ammonia or nitrite at any of the 4 (on the 12-hour) tests during those two days. If that happens you can then just watch it repeat that for the rest of a week's time and then consider the tank normal.

Good luck and I'm sure all the great members here will be ready to help you out with questions!

~~waterdrop~~