Hello all I am new here and I must say you have a nice site. The problem I am having is I had 2 live plants in my 77 gal brackish water tanks my scat fish thought that he needed some more plant matter in his diet so he started to eat the one however the stuff that was not eaten was just sitting on the bottom, I was away for 2 days so when I got back I noticed this and did a water change and cleaned the dead plant matter out, at that time the nitrite was at about .3mg/l. I check the levels again in 24 hours no change so then I checked again in 24 more hours and it got a little higher. So I figured that some of the plant matter was in my filter and that was contributing to my high levels. So I cleaned out my filter and but some cycle directly in the filter and I now realize that I changed too much media in my filter but all the plant matter is gone. The nitrite levels are now around0.5 or0.6 mg/l. the water was starting to get a little cloudy so I did a water change last night and the water is not cloudy this morning but levels are still around 0.5 or0.6 mg/l. Is there anything else I can do until the tanks settles down? Thanks for any help you can give me.
sudden spike of nitrite please help.
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How long has the tank been running and do you know if it has already run through its cycle? What readings have you got for ammonia and nitrate?And, how much water and how often are you doing water changes?
The tanks has been running for 4 months and yes it did do it's cycle when it was started. I tested ammonia and it reads zero. I do water changes about every 5-6 weeks and I take out about 25% of the water. I don't have a nitrate testing kit so I can't tell you what the levles are there.
It sounds like you started a mini cycle when you cleaned the filter. The water changes are the best way to keep the levels low until the tank cycles again.
Are you getting any ammonia readings? Generally a mini cycle will result in both ammonia and nitrite but maybe the ammonia processing bacteria have already caught back up.
would it be ok if I were to feed my fish wile this goes on? I have been putting in some freez dried krill and the reason I have been putting that in is because it all getts eaten by my scats. I feed my sharks shrimp pellets and they scatterd about and the odd crumb gets left behind. If I feed them the pellets now and some food does not get eaten right away I will just make my situation worse right?
If your fish are messy eaters do water changes maybe twice a week to get the food thats not eaten.
You know my tank has had those crazy high nitrite levels for over two weeks now with water changes meds nothing I have donen all I know My fish are doing the best they ever have. No deaths no strange behavior. Every other test is in a safe condition. This is so woerd. I am jsut going to keep doing water changes like i do and well I guess if the fish are happy and maybe they have adjusted to whatever is making it so high. Tank has never looked better 
Do I dare do anything to change it? I tapped in here becasue you usually give me good advice.
30 g 1 clown loach, 4 red eye tetras, 1 chinese algae eater, 1 green barb and two fat belly guppies.
Do I dare do anything to change it? I tapped in here becasue you usually give me good advice. 30 g 1 clown loach, 4 red eye tetras, 1 chinese algae eater, 1 green barb and two fat belly guppies.
rdd1952 said:
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