Help With Ammonia, Nitrite, And Nitrate

[Octokitty]

I have a 15 gallon tank with 1 spaghetti eel, 3 danios, 1 tetra, and two anglefish. One of the anglefish died last night, and the other died this morning. I took a sample of the water to the nearest petsmart and they said it had an ammonia level of 1.2 when it should be 0.0-0.25, a nitrite level of 2 when it should be 0.0-0.5, and a nitrate level of 50 when it should be 0-40. i just had this water checked about 2 weeks ago and it was perfectly fine. the lady that did the water test suggested that i buy Prime concentrated conditioner for marine and freshwater. She said to put a cap full of it in today and a half cap full in a few days. So i bought it and put in a cap full when I got home. After doing so, a friend told me that it wasn't a good idea to use that and told me to try and siphon it out of the water. So i took some of the water out. Was this a good idea? Is the Prime conditioner a good product to use in this situation? How can I get these levels back down to a normal level?
Thank you.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Prime is a product that removes chlorine and heavy metals from tap water.  However, the problem lies with the nitrogen cycle - ammonia (NH3), nitrite (NO2), and nitrate (NO3).  These can only be dealt with by bacteria in the tank.
 
It seems as though your tank is not cycled - meaning it does not have sufficient numbers of the proper bacteria to do the required job.
 
 
The good news is that Prime will detoxify the ammonia and nitrite temporarily, but it is not a SOLUTION, it is a band-aid to the problem.
 
The only way to lower the ammonia, nitrite, etc, is water changes.  Lots and lots of water changes.  

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The only way to handle ammonia and nitrite is bacteria/archaea. Water changes will only remove them temporarily. Water changes are the normal solution for nitrate, but they have more purposes/benefits than this  However, you had/have more issues than this.
 
Angels do not really belong in a 15 gal. except when small and young, they can not be kept there permanently as the tank is too small.
 
Tetras should be kept in schools, i.e not ones, twos, threes etc. Some will say 6 is the minimum but I feel it is more like 10.
 
Your eel is not a fw fish, it can handle this when first born and as a youngster but it needs brackish as it grows from there. This assumes you have this specific species. Most so called spaghetti eels are sw.
 
Please read all 3 cycling related articles here: http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/forum/291-cycle-your-tank/
 

 

[Octokitty]

I have recently had this tank operating for close to 2 years now. Last week, I did a water check, and the results were good, with 0 for the nitrates. Then i fed the eel a square of frozen blood worms. 3 days later, my angelfish died, and my nitrates went up. Do you think it is because of the food, or the new eel in the tank that the nitrates could be so high, or is it something else?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Ammonia --> Nitrite --> Nitrate
 
Have you seen any ammonia in your tank recently?
 
Nitrite will only be seen in a tank when an there is more ammonia than the tank can handle. This is because the ammonia bacs reproduce much faster than the nitrite bacs. Have you had any nitrite in your tank recently?
 
1 ppm of ammonia turns into about 2.6 ppm of nitrite which turns into 3.6 ppm of nitrate. This applies to ammonia used by bacteria/archaea and not ammonia used by live plant. (The actual number for nitrite and nitrate will vary slightly depending on the pH and temp of the water being measured.)
 
And your store is wrong in what it told you. In an established tank, using hobby kits, you will always test ammonia and nitrite at 0. Anything accurate reading over 0 indicates something is wrong.
 
And here is a quote re your eel by Neale Monks:

 
Just as a quick aside, virtually no eels are truly freshwater fish; the only real exceptions are Spiny Eels (which are widely kept) and some very strange fish called Swamp Eels (such as Synbranchus marmoratus) which are very rarely kept because they're huge, insanely aggressive, extremely predatory, and fantastically good at getting out of aquarium (you literally need to place bricks on the hood to stop them forcing them open!).

In other words, if a retailer tells you "it's a true freshwater eel" and it's neither a Spiny Eel nor a Swamp Eel, be very, very skeptical.

Cheers, Neale

from http/forum.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87297
 
Who is Dr. Neale Monks? Check out his credentials here http/www.blogtalkradio.com/euphoricnetwork/2015/03/29/neale-monks-known-world-over-will-speak-on-brackish-and-oddball-fish-scenarios

 

[neilzomg]

From the advice i've had on here with dealing with high paramaters i'd do a large water change to remove the nitrate from the water. 
 
Do not clean the inside of your filters or the sponges until your cycle has finished.
 
I recommend using something like fluval cycle will decrease the time your tank will take to cycle, testing the water every day and keeping not of it on a piece of paper with the dates of the tests so you can always report back with the levels to see the progression of the cycle if something is going wrong. 
 
Do not use any other product in your water except for dechorinator and the fluval cycle. Using product like ammo lock will give you false readings for ammonia. 

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Just an FYI, I would not put Fluval Cycle into any of my tanks even if they gave it to me for nothing and then paid me something to add it.
 
I just watched the Fluval vid on this product and it had me laughing.
 
I suggest one of two products for this purpose- Dr. Tim's One and Only Nitryifying Bacteria or Tetra's Safe Start. These are basically same products with small differences. With these products you can read peer reviewed research on the bacteria they contain. Here is a quick set of guidelines one can use to make decisions about any nitrifying bacteria.
 
1. Does it contain live nitrifying bacteria? If it states it contains spores, run for the hills as the nitrifying bacteria do not form spores.
2. Does it identify the bacteria? If so it should state it contains Nitrospira. If it contains Nitrobacter, then is is the wrong type of nitrite oxidier. Nitrobacter is what is found in waste water treatment with much higher nitrite levels than occur in aquariums during cycling.
3. Does it say you need to add it more than once to get results? If it doesn't, be very wary as there is no need to add bacteria over and over unless you have done something to kill what is in your tank.
4. Does it state you can use it and then add fish immediately.
5. Does it warn against allowing the bottle to get to freezing or above about 100F (about 38C). These conditions will kill the bacteria.