Nitrite

[skipper]

Hi

I have a Juwel Rio 180l (UK) tan, which is fully cycled and about 5 months old now. I have the following fish: 3 platys, 2 guppies, 2 Otos, 2 Zebra Loaches and 2 Golden Rams.

I monitor the levels in the tank each week and change the water as necessary. I've never really had any problems with the levels in the tank until this week when it's gone mad!

At the weekend I gravel vac'd the tank and changed some of the water - 10%. Then I noticed one of my Rams has small cut on the side of him, so I added some medicine (an allround fungus/ fin rot treatment) as prescribed on the packet... Stupidly, I left the carbon filter in, but to be honest it's been in there for months so I assume is just like another piece of mechanical filter now? I used this treatment before a few months back and had no probs. Anyhow, on Monday morning, the tank was cloudy as hell and the fish were all gasping for air.

So I tested the water and the nitrites always zero, had lept up to 5.0! ... I changed another 10% of the water that morning and that evening, I rinsed the filter out in old tank water and did another 10% water change.

Since then I've changed 10% of the water morning and night and whilst the cloudiness has gone the nitrites are still high and the fish are still gasping all the time. The inured Ram finally died as well.

Does anyone have any idea why this has happened?? Could it be something to do with the medicine/ carbon filter? Has my filter given up the ghost? Did I vac too much bacteria out?? It is a massively delayed cycle??

I'm struggling to see why this has suddenly happened... any ideas appreciated!

S

 

[Galaxy]

Sounds like you need to change a bigger quantity of water to bring the nitrites down. Try changing 40%+ for a day or two and hopefully nitrites will go down.

 

[tstenback]

The bacteria has been killed off by something. Either the med or a water change without dechlorinator but at only a 10% change i would lean toward the med. and all of this in conjunction with a very thorough cleaning would create the situation you are in now which is a cycle. Keep doing the water changes a couple of times daily until things settle out and if the fish are still stressed or gasping then up the volume of the changes. I think the cloudiness was most likely a bacteria bloom and that this cycle will hopefully be over in a short amount of time. I think everything will be fine but the fish will need lots of clean water to make it through safely. Keep us posted

 

[skipper]

Thanks for the advice. I'll change more quantity of water than I have been and hopefully it'll do the trick...

I do use dechlorinator for my water changes, but I wonder - is it possible to add too much to a tank? I do tend to be a touchover generous thinking that too much is better than too little.

Cheers

S

 

[tstenback]

I dont think being generous with the dechlorinator is a problem. If it was i would have several tanks that had great problems right now.

 

[Aquascaper]

Too much de-chlorinator won't cause any problems to your tank, so no need to worry there
As for the fish gasping for air, a lot of meds drastically reduce the amount of saturated o2 in the water. Do you have an air-stone or an agitator on your filter or anything that disturbs the water surface? If not i would get something as this will help increase the o2 levels and should help with the gasping.

HTH

 

[Dragonslair]

If Terry's advice which is sound doesn't help then I would suggest you invest in a product made by API called Nitra-Zorb. I don't know where you are in the world but in the UK it will cost around £10 for a pillow.
These pillow are resin filled bags which scour and absorb nitrites and nitrates, and the good thing is, when full they don't dump the chems back into your tank. The pillows are also rechargeable. In the short term it will bring down the nitrities, but you need to find out why it went pear shaped in the first place.

 

[hermitpermit]

change about 65% of the water every day it will slowly change back to normal but leave a bit of nitrite in so the filter can deal with it. i recently had this problem and my nitrite was around 6.0 but its backk down after around a week of water changes be sure to vacuum the gravelas his is probably where the problem has come from hope this helps

 

[xXMrBonesXx]

go out and grab yourself a product called "cycle" , its a nitifier from what it says on the bottle, it also helps build up your fishes slime coat, i use it and ive never had to wait a month or longer to cycle, i put it in wait a day and everything is as it should be

 

[skipper]

Thanks

Did another big water change last night and added some of that Stress Zyme bacteria stuff as well to kick-start the filter again.

Anyhow, much better news this am - the fish are seemingly all back to normal and swimming around much happier.

I reckon, going on the advice above, that the I must have added the wrong quantity of medicine, which killed the filter bacteria and reduced the O2 in the water (I don't have any extra airstones or anything but have plants). Hence, I guess the tank basically had to start cycling again, but with a load of fish...hence the Nitrite surge.

Thank God it's getting better!!

Cheers

S

 

[ajhainey]

Check the notes on your med btw - my fungus/finn-rot and metylene blue generic both say they will adversly affect plants and filter bacteria, even at correct dosage. They say you should avoid feeding 24hours before and 48hours after application (to avoid extra waste?) and avoid 'disturbing the substrate' beforehand and during treatment...I guess thats to try and minimise the mini-cycle....I only use them in the quarantine tank (no filter/low bioload/no problem)