High nitrite - bad advise from pet shop!!

[Gainsville]

Hi guys first time posting so not sure if I’m in the right place here but here we go.
I’m new to fish keeping and recently moved house and we decided to get a tank. We were maybe a bit naive and listened to the local pet shop who told us we could buy a tank then come back the next week for fish, which I now realise was a bad idea! I didn’t know much about cycling was only really aware that people left the tanks for a few weeks before adding fish so this is what I did. I set the tank up with what they recommended at the pet shop then went to get fish about 2 weeks later, got 4 male guppies and 2 Amano Shrimp. One of the guppies died after a couple of days which I just assumed was down to stress from moving to a new tank. After this I purchased a testing kit (very shocked the pet shop didn’t recommend this!) everything seemed fine after this so just carried on as normal until one of the guppies began bullying the others so on advise from a friend added 3 more male guppies (again not sure if this was sound advise or not) anyway it’s been another week now and all fish seem fine but the nitrite levels in the tank have started climbing to between 0.5 and 1 if not more, I immediately did a 50% water change and have since done another 20% a couple of days later but they’re still hovering around the 1ppm mark.
Am I right in thinking this will be the tank starting to cycle properly?
And if so I’m just after some advice going forward to keep this down to a minimum.
My plan was to do another 50% water change and gravel clean tonight then maybe a water change every other day?

Been browsing the forum for the past couple of days for tips but though best to just ask as you all seem very knowledgeable
Thanks

 

[Byron]

Welcome to TFF.

Since you have fish in this tank and it is obviously still in the cycling phase, there is only one option (aside from taking the fish back of course).

Get a bottle of a bacterial supplement; this acts as a "seed" for the nitrifying bacteria. Tetra's SafeStart is the best in your situation, but if you cannot find that locally (check around by phone) use any other.

Get a small bottle of Seachem's Prime and use that as your water conditioner until the cycling is finished. Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrite, but only temporarily (24-36 hours) after which it will revert back to the toxic form if still present. Both will still show in tests whether toxic or not. Alternate or every day water changes of half the tank volume until ammonia and nitrite are both zero consistently.

You may or may not lose the guppies. The effects of ammonia and/or nitrite poisoning are permanent even if fish live through it initially.

Lesson learned...do not rely on advice from any fish store employee unless you know the qualifications of the individual. Good luck.

 

[Gainsville]

Hi Bryon thanks for the reply!
I have pure aquarium balls which I’m sure they gave me as a bacteria supplement is that right?
I’ll order some prime tonight and keep doing water changes till it arrives.
Yes lesson definitely learned, they all seemed to keep fish and knew there stuff but clearly even if they did know they must have been more interested in sales!

Edit: also shall I clean the gravel every time along with the water changes?

 

[Guppylover3x]

Hi Bryon thanks for the reply!
I have pure aquarium balls which I’m sure they gave me as a bacteria supplement is that right?
I’ll order some prime tonight and keep doing water changes till it arrives.
Yes lesson definitely learned, they all seemed to keep fish and knew there stuff but clearly even if they did know they must have been more interested in sales!

Edit: also shall I clean the gravel every time along with the water changes?

Hi and welcome to the forum

If you are referring to evolution aqua pure aquarium balls then yes these are supposed to provide bacteria, and break down ammonia and nitrates in water.

I don’t know if this is true or not, I used them for a short while before switching to tetra safe start bottled bacteria.

Best of luck.

 

[Byron]

Hi Bryon thanks for the reply!
I have pure aquarium balls which I’m sure they gave me as a bacteria supplement is that right?
I’ll order some prime tonight and keep doing water changes till it arrives.
Yes lesson definitely learned, they all seemed to keep fish and knew there stuff but clearly even if they did know they must have been more interested in sales!

Edit: also shall I clean the gravel every time along with the water changes?

Guppylover answered the aquarium ball question, I have no experience with those.

As for substrate (gravel) cleaning, yes, do this at every water change. In the open areas. If you have live plants the organic buildup is beneficial, but still needs to be kept in check. Without live plants, definitely do the substrate vacuum.

 

[Guppylover3x]

Guppylover answered the aquarium ball question, I have no experience with those.

As for substrate (gravel) cleaning, yes, do this at every water change. In the open areas. If you have live plants the organic buildup is beneficial, but still needs to be kept in check. Without live plants, definitely do the substrate vacuum.

I apologise, I didn’t catch the cleaning question. But what Byron said is correct. Gravel cleaning is an important part of tank maintenance and should be done with every water change.

Good luck.

 

[Gainsville]

Thanks guys. I’ve been doing a gravel clean every week but now I’m going to be doing frequent water changes wasn’t sure if I should do gravel clean every time on top of the weekly.

I’ve just done a bit more than a 50% water change and a thorough gravel clean I’ll test again soon and see how it’s looking.

Would you guys recommend topping up on the bacterial treatment now? Baring in mind I added some 2 days ago after doing my weekly changes

 

[Byron]

Would you guys recommend topping up on the bacterial treatment now? Baring in mind I added some 2 days ago after doing my weekly changes

I don't know what product you are using, but follow their directions. It likely can not do any harm.

 

[Guppylover3x]

Thanks guys. I’ve been doing a gravel clean every week but now I’m going to be doing frequent water changes wasn’t sure if I should do gravel clean every time on top of the weekly.

I’ve just done a bit more than a 50% water change and a thorough gravel clean I’ll test again soon and see how it’s looking.

Would you guys recommend topping up on the bacterial treatment now? Baring in mind I added some 2 days ago after doing my weekly changes

After referring back to this product as I have quite a few of these left, the instructions state that you should add 2 of these per 25 litres of water.

This should only be done once a week, add according to your tank size.

If you only added these two days ago I’d follow the instructions and add again in another 5 days.


Best of luck.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

Bigger water changes are better for diluting nutrients like ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

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When doing a fish in cycle I recommend feeding 2-3 times per week. Don't worry the fish won't starve. And do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate 4-8 hours after feeding. This removes most of the ammonia that is produced by the fish eating.

You should also monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels in the tank and do a 75% water change any day you have an ammonia or nitrite reading.

Make sure any new water is free of ammonia before it's added to the tank

 

[Gainsville]

Thanks Colin. I have cut back on feeding and only doing a very small amount every other day. I usually feed on a morning before work and do water changes after so I’ll maybe follow that tip and clean sooner after feeding!
I’m testing twice a day and things seem to have cleared up a bit this morning but not fully so I’ll do another 75% water change tonight.
I have tested my tap water and that’s all clear for on all fronts
Thanks