Can't Get Rid Of The Nitrite!

[Lizzie71]

Tank is 34 litres. Added some mature filter media, then a few days later added 3 platys. That was 8 days ago.

Ammonia is consistently zero, but nitrite is always 0.5 to 1. I'm doing daily water changes (well I missed yesterday as I was away but did a big one today) but the nitrite never goes below 0.5.

The platys seem happy and healthy at present - swimming around lots, eating everything they can etc.

What can I do to bring the nitrite down to nil? I want to add more fish next week but I don't think that's appropriate if the nitrite still won't go down.

 

[SJ2K]

It would appear you've stocked too fast, reduce feeding, dont stock anymore for a while and keep up the large water changes

 

[Mikaila31]

You should of added the mature media and the fish at the same time. When you let it sit for a few days most the the bacteria died. So the best thing would be to do lots of water changes.

good luck
mikaila31

 

[Lizzie71]

Stocked too fast? I only have 3 tiny fish! How can that be too fast?

Oh well, I'll keep going. Hopefully it will work out soon

They didn't get fed for 2 days at the weekend, and the nitrite still went up. Maybe I'll cut them to once a day until things are more settled.

Oh, and I did put some fish food in each day whilst the mature media was in, to try and 'feed' it, it wasn't possible to get the fish on a weekday unfortunately.

 

[SJ2K]

You should of added the mature media and the fish at the same time. When you let it sit for a few days most the the bacteria died. So the best thing would be to do lots of water changes.

good luck
mikaila31

What?! No no no, adding the mature media doesnt guarantee an instant cycled tank. She should of waited atleast a week, feeding the bacteria each day with ammonia and if the results are good, THEN start to add fish. To add fish and an old sponge to a new tank instantly is asking for trouble.

 

[afishdude]

adding mature media guarantees a complete cycle.

he is right, you should have added the mature media the same time as the fish, without food the bacteria would have all died.

 

[Lizzie71]

Am I allowed to swear on here?! This is so frustrating, I'm trying so hard to get this right and it's all going horribly wrong.

Why did I let my son start us off with all this? Muggins here is the one lugging buckets of water around every day

 

[SJ2K]

Well then all I have learnt here is wrong, you can have a fully cycled tank instantly...

 

[Mikaila31]

You should of added the mature media and the fish at the same time. When you let it sit for a few days most the the bacteria died. So the best thing would be to do lots of water changes.

good luck
mikaila31

What?! No no no, adding the mature media doesnt guarantee an instant cycled tank. She should of waited atleast a week, feeding the bacteria each day with ammonia and if the results are good, THEN start to add fish. To add fish and an old sponge to a new tank instantly is asking for trouble.

If she got the mature media from a tank with a larger bioload it most often will instantly cycle the tank. I always let my quarantine tank uncycle when I'm not using it. When I bring home new fish I start acclimating them to the uncycled tank. Then I go over to my 55gal pull out some mature media from the filter and put it in the quarantine tank and it is cycled. Then I release the new fish and feed them about 30min later. I have never had any problem with water stats from either tank.

 

[Lizzie71]

OK, so I should have put in the fish straight away - I didn't realise! But I did put in some fish food as the kind person who donated the media told me that would help until the fish went in.

There must be some bacteria as the ammonia is consistently reading 0, mustn't there? Is there anything else I can do to speed things up apart from the water changes?

 

[SJ2K]

Whats your temperature? If you've only got 3 platy's they should be happy to tolerate the higher ranges and your bacteria will multiply faster in these conditions.

 

[Lizzie71]

Temperature is 27 to 28 at present. Will the fish be OK with a bit higher?

Would adding more fish help to build up the bacteria more quickly?

 

[Lizzie71]

It gets worse.

I bought a liquid test for nitrite today (I had been using strips) and it came up that nitrite was at extremely dangerous levels I have done an immediate 75% water change which has brought it back down to about 0.5, and turned the heater up too, as well as using warm water for the water change. I added some nutrafin cycle to the water when doing the change.

I'll probably do another big water change this evening, but I'm really worried what effect this is all having on my platys. They still seem perfectly happy at the moment thank goodness.

Any more advice anyone?

 

[littlest]

Only advice I can give is keep testing regularly and carry out water changes regularly.
Definately do not add more fish. This will increase the nitrite levels and mean more water changes for you and more fish being exposed to the nitrite.

If your ammonia is constantly zero, you are right you do have some bacteria, but the bacteria needed to process nitrite is a different type, and that is what you are lacking at the moment.

Someone prob mentioned it, but if you can get your hands on any mature filter media, that will speed things up a lot.

 

[shockshockshad]

To make the nitrite less toxic, add some freshwater salt. Platies should have it in the tank anyway.