Please I Am Having A Panic!api Nitrite Test Looking A Darker Blue

[pdludbrooke]

glad to hear it's turning around and that your oto's will eat the wafers. I wish mine would

I forgot to say my otocinclus only seem to eat at night, only very occasionally during the day, so I put a third of a wafer in, split in to two bits, either end of the tank near the front glass. They seem to be able to smell or taste where it is, and before long they come out and start to feed, when they do it feels really special to see them, they are cute little fish

Here's my two eating the wafer split in two and the other pic is at night with the moon lights on.

 

[pdludbrooke]

Glad to read things are looking better, its amazing how often a sizeable water change can improve the look of sick looking fish. I would keep an eye on readings at least every other day until a week has gone by with perfect stats, just in case another emergency water change is required.

As to what caused the spike, did you add new fish recently? Another possiblity is that perhaps the new Hikari micro pellets contain more protein than the Aquarian flake, so if you were feeding roughly the same amount by weight, more protein is being added to the tank which will produce more ammonia and nitrite.

One final thought could be the gradual reduced efficiency of Fluval U-series filters, I gently squeeze the pads/sponges pretty much every week in removed tank water plus drain the central biomax box several times in the same water, while about once a month I completely remove the filter from the tank to clean the impeller magnet and the cavity it fits into with wet cotton buds.

For goodness sake, it's happend again!! The NitrIte test is coming back a darker blue again AAAHHHHH!!!

I have Cleaned out the tank again and removed some plants that just seem to rot, I had to suck up a great deal of sand too, I noticed it had gone a grey colour just underneath the surface about 5mm, when it went in to the bucket it smelled really off like rotten eggs, I don't know how that happend

I also cleaned out the filter, quite a bit of junk came out, looked like bits of flake food and rotten plant matter, I really do hope this has sorted it now, after taking all that time fishless cycling to start getting problems really has worn me down, so fingers crossed

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

At least you have spotted the issue and dealt with it promptly.

Usually fishkeeping is a very rewarding hobby, but I've been pulling my hair out over the past week, I've lost fish from three different tanks and most of them I cannot explain. The most concerning one that is still ongoing is my tank containing my Ilyodon youngsters plus two different species of Microsynodontis, I've lost half of the 10 strong Microsynodontis sp.1 group over the last few days and another is not looking too clever, yet I have no idea what is wrong (just the Microsynodontis "treading water" just under the water surface, either completely vertical with head up or sometimes diagonally with their belly upwards).

 

[pdludbrooke]

At least you have spotted the issue and dealt with it promptly.

Usually fishkeeping is a very rewarding hobby, but I've been pulling my hair out over the past week, I've lost fish from three different tanks and most of them I cannot explain. The most concerning one that is still ongoing is my tank containing my Ilyodon youngsters plus two different species of Microsynodontis, I've lost half of the 10 strong Microsynodontis sp.1 group over the last few days and another is not looking too clever, yet I have no idea what is wrong (just the Microsynodontis "treading water" just under the water surface, either completely vertical with head up or sometimes diagonally with their belly upwards).

I hope you manage to find out what the problem is, it is very frustrating when things go wrong, but to get the solution is a great.
I wish I could help, but I have no idea, I really hope you find out what the problem is, let me know how you get on.......right now I am going to google the names of your fish, as I have never heard of them.