Betta Tank Crash?

[betta_nitrite]

Hi All,

I'm back and after a stable few weeks it looks like my tank has crashed! (see the saga here)

I have a heater in there keeping it at 78F excatly and every water change is cold tap water with water conditioner and added hot water from kettle to get itto exactly 78F (I'm getting quite good at it now). But for some reason my Nitrite has spiked - seriously spiked - checked it last night and it had gone up to 0.25ppm so planned a change for this morning. I've come down to a terrifying 2ppm!

A rapid 70% change and it has come down to almost 0ppm and almost 0ppm ammonia but I have no idea how it happened. The only thing I am doing differently is that I changed brand of water conditioner. I was using stress coat+, but due to the terrible advice I've had from the fish store I have changed shops and they don't carry the brand, andinstead advised me to use AquaCare Water conditioner. They said it was exactly the same, but I seeing as my cycle seems to have crashed I am worried that it hasn't been as effective and now all my bacteria is dead from chlorine (or worse!)

Any advice?



PS Bamboo shrimp seemed quite happy but I restricted the flow of air bubbles to reduce the current while his fins heal and now they are not happy. They are molting about once every 2 weeks (I have no idea whether that is good or bad) but I assume if they are getting bigger then they must be getting food. They are however, now picking at the bottom for scraps and I will ask the shop if they want them. They have grown quite considerably since going into the tank (now about 2 1/2 inches).

If I've got tank issues should I hold off on replacing them and leave the Betta on his own?

 

[OldMan47]

Simple advice from me. Each 1 ppm of ammonia that is processed will give you about 2.7 ppm of nitrite, so yes the rise will be dramatic. Enormous water changes, properly dechlorinated, are your friend. Whenever I think I may have a chemistry problem, I do a water change by draining until the present fish barely have enough water to cover them, then refill with dechlorinated and temperature matched water. I call this a 90% water change but doubt that I ever really leave behind 10% of the original water. By watching the fish, I have decided that they prefer this to small changes.

 

[betta_nitrite]

Thanks for the response. I measured the levels again in the evening and although the ammonia was still low (under .25) the Nitrite had risen again to 2ppm. But I didn't realise you got so much nitrite from a small ammount of ammonia, so I guess it makes sense. I did another 70% change (I won't do any more than that as it is a biorb and he has a history of digging under the smooth pebbles into the sharp filter media and I don't want to encourage this with very low water levels.)

This morning the water readings are just under .25 ammonia and as far as I can tell with the colour 0ppm nitrite. So I guess another change to get rid of the ammonia? Or should I leave it and see if my bacteria is doing it's job and converting it to nitrite?

 

[OldMan47]

If you are still getting a build of ammonia, there is a surplus of production and you will always have plenty present to grow out your ammonia processors. When they can keep it at zero, they will only be getting a maintenance dose, not a growth dose. We would call that cycled for ammonia. Until you reach a point where you are cycled for both ammonia and nitrite, keep up the water changes.