pinkdolphin_113
Sinclair Aquatic Systems
I have recently had some trouble with sky high nitrite levels. Thankfully all my fish survived, but it was just luck.
Chlorine is pretty much like bleach, you wouldn't put bleach in your fish tank would you. It kills germs, bacteria and your fish. Chlorine is added to water to do it's job and keep us healthy and germ free, however, when you go to the swimming pool, what does the chlorine do to your eyes when you keep them open constantly under water?
You may think thats not right because it's at a much higher concentration. True, but fish are alot smaller than us. Just imagine keeping your eyes under swimming pool water for the rest of your life. It doesn't just affect their eyes though, their gills are burnt away after a long period.
Another way to look at it is smoking. The first one and the last one won't kill you, but it's all of them in between that will.
Back to my problem, I hadn't ever thought dechlorinator was a needed thing in aquarium water so, since I got into fish keeping, I had been putting fresh, chlorine filled water into my aquarium everytime I did a water change.
What I was doing was killing off all the benefitial bacteria in my filter every week. This resulted in my fish tank doing a mini cycle everytime I did a water change.
Luckily for me, I bought a filter that is alot bigger than the recommended for my tank size. This allowed enough bacteria to survive water changes and manage to keep my nitrite levels down. My filter broke. This resulted in nitrite levels rising. Water changes, I thought, would help... it just made things worse because I was killing what ever good bacteria was left!
I went to my lfs and told him all about my situation because I didn't have a clue what was going on. He recommended that I do a 50% water change but fill the tank back up with dechlorinated water. This would allow my beneficial bacteria to build up again and convert the nitrite to nitrate. Thankfully, it worked! My fish weren't in the terrible conditions for too long to affect them and they're all alive and well!
I, now, will always use dechlorinator to treat my water before putting it into my fish tank. If I knew what it does to our poor fish, I would have used it since I got into fish keeping.
So for all the beginners out there who think dechlorinator isn't necessary... it is!
Chlorine is pretty much like bleach, you wouldn't put bleach in your fish tank would you. It kills germs, bacteria and your fish. Chlorine is added to water to do it's job and keep us healthy and germ free, however, when you go to the swimming pool, what does the chlorine do to your eyes when you keep them open constantly under water?
You may think thats not right because it's at a much higher concentration. True, but fish are alot smaller than us. Just imagine keeping your eyes under swimming pool water for the rest of your life. It doesn't just affect their eyes though, their gills are burnt away after a long period.
Another way to look at it is smoking. The first one and the last one won't kill you, but it's all of them in between that will.
Back to my problem, I hadn't ever thought dechlorinator was a needed thing in aquarium water so, since I got into fish keeping, I had been putting fresh, chlorine filled water into my aquarium everytime I did a water change.
What I was doing was killing off all the benefitial bacteria in my filter every week. This resulted in my fish tank doing a mini cycle everytime I did a water change.
Luckily for me, I bought a filter that is alot bigger than the recommended for my tank size. This allowed enough bacteria to survive water changes and manage to keep my nitrite levels down. My filter broke. This resulted in nitrite levels rising. Water changes, I thought, would help... it just made things worse because I was killing what ever good bacteria was left!
I went to my lfs and told him all about my situation because I didn't have a clue what was going on. He recommended that I do a 50% water change but fill the tank back up with dechlorinated water. This would allow my beneficial bacteria to build up again and convert the nitrite to nitrate. Thankfully, it worked! My fish weren't in the terrible conditions for too long to affect them and they're all alive and well!
I, now, will always use dechlorinator to treat my water before putting it into my fish tank. If I knew what it does to our poor fish, I would have used it since I got into fish keeping.
So for all the beginners out there who think dechlorinator isn't necessary... it is!
/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/16.../Water-Changes/
