High Nitrite Levels - Please Help!

[N30n T3tr4]

I'm quite new to tropical fish keeping. I've had a 35 Liter tank running for almost 8 weeks. The last 6 weeks I have had fish in the tank, generally just Neon Tetras - small and cheap while I become a little more experienced with tropical fish keeping.

These Tetras have been dying off 1 by 1 over time. At first I thought it may have been the place I was buying them from - dirty place which often has dead fish in the tanks. So I decided to try some where else. Little more expensive but they have a great setup, haven't seen one dead fish in any tank and everything looks very clean an professional. That said, my fish keep dying.

I went out and bought Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate test kits.

Ammonia was perfect. Nitrite on the other hand was extremely high, as was Nitrate. I did a 50% water change right after discovering the high Nitrite levels. I didn't feed the fish for three days either and each day changed 25% of the water. I have done this for almost a week and feed the fish a bare minimum once a day - all food gone within a minute or two.

Although the fish look a lot more healthy, and a lot more active, Nitrite levels seemed to have dropped but are still very high.

What more can I do to reduce the Nitrite levels?

One other thing I have noticed is that during the day, the water is crystal clear however, during the night when the tank light turns on, the water seems to turn slightly white/grey underneath where the light sits. Is this normal??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[richchappy]

you are best doing regular water changes, i presume you are addin dechlorinater etc when doing waterchanges. Apart from that cant really help sorry

 

[N30n T3tr4]

Ok, I will continue doing the water changes and hopefully things will slowly get better.

Yep, always adding dechlorinator etc.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[rockerBOO]

Along with the water changes, I would also try adding a little bit of beneficial bacteria product into the filter chamber if possible. Some products are like Hagen Cycle and others which add the bacteria to your tank to help break down the nitrates/nitrites. This may help speed it up a little.

 

[Shaun]

Another thing i would add is that neon tetras are not 'hardy' fish and from my experience it is best to add them in a group of 6 minimum when the tank has matured i.e ammonia and nitrite both stay at 0.

 

[goldfishgeek]

Have you tested your levels out of the tap?

they can be pretty high to start with sometimes?

GFG

 

[Underwurlde]

Unless Hagen Cycle is refridgerated (and of not the bacteria therein supplied some food, i.e. ammonia) and aerated then I can't see how this product could keep the nitrifying bacteria it claims to have alive.

Other products such as BioSpira are refridgerated, but it is expensive and users on this forum have AFAIK reported mixed results.

Read the pinned topic on cycling (with fish).

Basically, on a daily basis, keep doing at least (guess time) 30% water changes. You'll of course see the levels drop, so monitor levels on a weekly (or daily if you're worried) basis. The good Nitrifying bacteria are sessile (that is to say permanently attached to, or established on something and not free to move about); they don't live in the water but rather live stuck to things like your filter media, rocks, walls, plants and so forth - hence water changes should not impact on the growth or speed of your cycle as long as there is SOME ammonia (and hence nitrite) for the bacteria to munch.

Andy

 

[N30n T3tr4]

Have you tested your levels out of the tap?

I have yep and it's pretty much perfect.

Looks as if regular water changes is the way to go.

I went out and bought some live plants today. Apparently they help as well? The fish seem to like them as well.