What do I do to lower Nitrites

[Jan Cavalieri]

I have never had a rise of nitrites except when I was cycling a tank. I know they are bad for your fish. Ammonia is zero, Nitrites is 1.0, Nitrates are 0, and PH is 7. How do I get Nitrites to zero. Before the water change they were .25 and I told my assistant, don't worry that should go away after your next water change - well instead it increased to 1.0 so I guess water changes aren't helping on this one. Any ideas? (oh my other tank shows zero's arross the board with a 7 ph)

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Should I just keep adding capfuls of Prime every 2-3 days tp get rid of the nitrites = seems expensive.

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Is the tank already cycled?

Have you tested your water source? Does your tap or water source have nitrites?

Other than water changes, only things I can think of are adding plants (if you don't already have) and adding some Tetra Safe Start bacteria in a bottle which should start to consume the nitrites. But I believe you need to wait 48 hours after adding Prime to add Safe Start so it has something to feed on and doesn't starve.

 

[Colin_T]

Normally I would say do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the ammonia and nitrite are on 0ppm and the nitrate is under 20ppm. However, it's a bit hard for you to do that so reduce feeding to a couple of times a week, increase aeration and add some salt.

Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water. Keep the salt in there for a couple of weeks or until the nitrites come back to 0ppm.

Maybe add some beneficial filter bacteria (bottle filter bacteria) to the tank. It will help the filter recover.

Check the tank for dead fish, uneaten food or rotting plants.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Sounds good Colin I will give it a try.

 

[the_lock_man]

Are you sure you're not getting confused?

Most tapwater has a background level of nitrate in it, so it would be usual to see 0ppm nitrite and some nitrate.

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

I'm used to seeing low levels of Nitrates in my water, I'm used to seeing low levels of ammonia in my water (not lately thankfully), but I've never seen nitrites in my water unless they were accompanied by ammonia (indication an uncycled tank). I my case just one of two tanks is showing any level of nitrites in it. We did finally find a dead fish stuck under a decorative piece and hope that's what caused it - but normally we'd see higher levels of ammonia with a death. So we've changed the water again - no salt added and the nitrites appear to be gone. So we'll say it must have been the dead fish and continue to monitor it. Thanks for everybody's help on this!