Please Help A Very Confused Newbie!

[Salam]

Do at least a 90% waterchange now. Nitrite of 5ppm is lethal. You have to get it down to 0, but at least 0.25. So maybe two consecutive waterchanges are needed.

 

[rachcake]

a bit confused with the seachem prime, just wondering how much i should put in for a 35L tank?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Standard dose is 5ml per 200 litres, so for a 35l tank I make that 0.875ml of Prime (if you were completely changing the water or adding the Prime directly to the tank rather than to each bucket of new water).

If you wanted to add extra in an emergency to temporarily soak up some ammonia or nitrite (I cannot recall how much Prime can soak up per ml of product without checking myself) for upto 24 hours, you could add 5x the standard dose, which I make 4.375ml.

Generally, I add ~0.5ml to every 15l bucket of fresh water while the taps are running, so ~3x standard dose.

 

[4seasons]

a bit confused with the seachem prime, just wondering how much i should put in for a 35L tank?

I use a 1 ml syringe to measure my Prime. 1 ml treats 10 gallons so I use 0.1 ml per gallon. 35L is 9.2 gallons so you can use 1 ml for 35 liters as is won't hurt to overdose a little.

 

[rachcake]

Water changed today with seachem prime... tested the water tonight and the results
ammonia still 0ppm
nitrite gone from 5ppm to 0.50ppm
nitrate still can't tell whether its 40ppm and 80ppm?

literally as soon as i'd tested the water, one of my platys started jerking about then just died!

now i'm left with one very lonely platy in a 35L tank

HELP?!?

 

[phoenixgsd]

sometimes the damage is already done, those high nitrites could have been the cause of his death, so sorry

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Water changed today with seachem prime... tested the water tonight and the results
ammonia still 0ppm
nitrite gone from 5ppm to 0.50ppm
nitrate still can't tell whether its 40ppm and 80ppm?

literally as soon as i'd tested the water, one of my platys started jerking about then just died!

now i'm left with one very lonely platy in a 35L tank

HELP?!?

Sorry for your loss

While it has improved somewhat, 0.5mg/l of nitrite is still not good...

Time for another emergency water change ASAP.

 

[rachcake]

Water changed today with seachem prime... tested the water tonight and the results
ammonia still 0ppm
nitrite gone from 5ppm to 0.50ppm
nitrate still can't tell whether its 40ppm and 80ppm?

literally as soon as i'd tested the water, one of my platys started jerking about then just died!

now i'm left with one very lonely platy in a 35L tank

HELP?!?

Sorry for your loss

While it has improved somewhat, 0.5mg/l of nitrite is still not good...

Time for another emergency water change ASAP.

Thanks for the advice! What about the nitrate result? I can't tell whether its 40 or 80 so I'll assume 80, what should it be?

 

[phoenixgsd]

Thanks for the advice! What about the nitrate result? I can't tell whether its 40 or 80 so I'll assume 80, what should it be?

all cycled tanks have some nitrate, mine is between 10 and 20ppm do you have live plants they will help, although 80ppm is still high, maybe another large change? have you tested your tap water

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Most fish will not regard nitrtae as toxic until it reaches ~300mg/l levels, my tap water comes with 40-50mg/l in it before it even enters the fish tank, 80 is nothing to worry about (and with all the big emergency water changes you have been doing your tap water will be very close to the stats of your tank water).

 

[rachcake]

Most fish will not regard nitrtae as toxic until it reaches ~300mg/l levels, my tap water comes with 40-50mg/l in it before it even enters the fish tank, 80 is nothing to worry about (and with all the big emergency water changes you have been doing your tap water will be very close to the stats of your tank water).

Ok thank you! Would I be ok to get more fish now? If so what type would be ok for my 35L tank? Sorry to be a pain!

 

[Ruthc1985]

I too suffer with high tap nitrate so its a battle to keep mine under 50mg/L

I would only consider more fish if you have no ammonia and nitrite readings, but take care on numbers as 35L isn't a huge tank I've just had a tank mini-cycle (my tank was already established but had a hiccup) and am waiting a good week or so before replacing the fish that I lose when my nitrite spiked. Only add a few fish at a time so as not to cause a mini-cycle, and allows the filter to get used to the increased volume of waste being produced.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Most fish will not regard nitrtae as toxic until it reaches ~300mg/l levels, my tap water comes with 40-50mg/l in it before it even enters the fish tank, 80 is nothing to worry about (and with all the big emergency water changes you have been doing your tap water will be very close to the stats of your tank water).

Ok thank you! Would I be ok to get more fish now? If so what type would be ok for my 35L tank? Sorry to be a pain!

I would not be buying any more fish for any size new tank until I have a run of 14 days of zero ammonia and nitrite from daily liquid tests.

35l is an awfully small volume tank, as you have seen toxins can build up very quickly to horribly dangerous levels to the fish. Can you remind us what type of fish and numbers you now have in this 35l, please?

 

[rachcake]

Most fish will not regard nitrtae as toxic until it reaches ~300mg/l levels, my tap water comes with 40-50mg/l in it before it even enters the fish tank, 80 is nothing to worry about (and with all the big emergency water changes you have been doing your tap water will be very close to the stats of your tank water).

Ok thank you! Would I be ok to get more fish now? If so what type would be ok for my 35L tank? Sorry to be a pain!

I would not be buying any more fish for any size new tank until I have a run of 14 days of zero ammonia and nitrite from daily liquid tests.

35l is an awfully small volume tank, as you have seen toxins can build up very quickly to horribly dangerous levels to the fish. Can you remind us what type of fish and numbers you now have in this 35l, please?

thanks for the advice, I will definitely wait and continue the daily liquid tests to keep an eye on the ammonia/nitrite levels!
I now only have 1 platy left in the tank! 2 mollies died a couple of weeks ago (when i had crazy high levels of ammonia) and the other platy died yesterday after the nitrite has been 5ppm! now everything seems to have settled, the ammonia has been 0 for a few days now and nitrite is at 0.25 currently, so heading in the right direction at last

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Are you currently part way through a 24 hour time window since last overdosing Prime? If not, you need to do another big water change, 0.25mg/l nitrite is not desireable.

I have to be honest, I would never consider a Platy in anything smaller than a 3-foot tank (they are quite active and can be fiesty with one another and tankmates), but maybe that is just me.

Tankmates once things have settled down? Pretty limited in a 35l tank, but one possibility that springs to mind is perhaps a pair or trio of Peacock Gobies (Tateurndina ocellicauda).