Nitrites Through The Roof!

[VTDrew]

Hey All,
My nitrites are through the roof, above 5ppm according the API test kit.  I've never had a nitrite issue on any tank before so I'm lost.
New tank, running about 4 weeks.  Levels have been up high for about two weeks.  Been adding bacteria like a champ.
 
Here's the catch....there have been no deaths and the fish do not seem to be in any distress at all, quite happy.
Tested the tap and my other tanks, I get zeros (so its not the test liquid at issue)
Been using citric acid to drop pH....tested that in the tap....not causing interference.
Water changes have no effect.
Prime has no effect.
Bacteria has no effect.
 
The one interesting factor, I've been prepping this tank to be an aquaponic garden.  I'm wondering if the substrate is causing an interference, however nitrites are just as poisonous to plants so I doubt they are contributing nitrites.
 
Two questions:
1.  Any other ideas to drop these nitrites?
2.  Any known interferences/false positives to the API nitrite test?
 
Thanks!

 

[Ch4rlie]

What bacteria products having you been adding?
 
Doing water changes in tanks must lower the nitrite?
"Water changes have no effect." Does not make sense, doing water changes has direct effect on ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.
 
Not sure if nitrite is toxic to plants, but am not one to really comment on that.
 
And have you tested for ammonia?

 

[VTDrew]

Ammonia - Yes.  It is declining as normal.  Probably at zero right now as it was close a few days ago, but not testing daily as with the nitrites (because they are behaving normal).
 
Water Changes - As I said, water changes have no effect.  There are only two possible outcomes from that.
1. The test is maxed out at 5ppm.  If its really at 10ppm, a 50% water change will still read 5ppm.
2. There is a harmless (or harmful) interference in the water.  Concentration doesn't matter because it can't be measured on the scale.
 
Bacterial Products - 1, not sure, but it worked great for years and on other tanks.
2. Also tried "Nite-Out II" just to try something different.  Currently adding 25ml/day for 56 gallons. 
 
*Edit:  I'm at work right now.  I will do a full test tonight.

 

[Flash_Fire]

Citric acid kills off your bacteria. That's likely what is occurring here.

 

[VTDrew]

hmmm, I haven't added it in a while (3 weeks), but are you 100% sure?  I did a lot of research prior to adding it but found nothing to substantiate that it kills.  Being a chemist, and Citric being quite mild, I figured it would work great to get my pH down to 6.5 (tap is about 8.0).  If you say your 100% sure, I'm going to believe you due to lack of information out there otherwise.
 
Other then peat, can someone suggest a way to drop my pH....controllably.  I'm a chemist, like I said, I have access to anything you can dream up.
 
None the less....there is still no explanation as to why the fish seem 100% happy in their crappy death water.  No gasping, so weird swimming, no signs of illness, just happy stupid fish (serape and black neon tetras).
 
I'm super excited to get this tank rolling because on top will be a mini organic garden and I will hopefully never need a water change again.

 

[Flash_Fire]

http/theaquaponicsource.com/2011/02/07/starting-up-cycling-an-aquaponics-system-using-fish/
 
Look under the adjusting PH section.
 
I don't have an answer about the "crappy death water" but that made me laugh!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

You could try using 50-50 tap and RO to lower the pH.  This will also make the pH more susceptible to drop when the nitrate starts to increase.  
 
 
Peat would work, and you could actually just filter the water through the peat before adding it to the tank.  This would color the water, but a second filtration through activated carbon would remove the tannins.  The resulting water would have significantly lower pH.

 

[VTDrew]

So the official numbers:
NH4 - 0
NO2 - Purple (I'm not going to even attempt to give a number)
NO3 - 10ish (I'm going to let these get dangerously high for the plants to snack on)
pH - don't care, will adjust when the NO2 crisis is over.
 
I have a bag of peat in the filter.  Not doing RO water...if there is one advantage of my new place (and its the only one compared to my old one) is that I don't have to haul 50 gallons of water up a mountain to change my water in the tanks each week.
 
Flash - Nice find.  I guess its time to do bi-daily water changes.