Low Ammonia - Extremly High Nitrite

[fishyyboy20]

Hi
As the title says
i have just done a water test in my tank and my levels are

Ammonia - 0ppm
Nitrite - 5.0ppm going to be honest its off the chart its extremly dark purple

HELPPPP

 

[Rickzayne]

Any fish in?

If there is do a 90% water change.

 

[fishyyboy20]

Any fish in?

If there is do a 90% water change.

i had 3 sunset platies in there and my grandad swapped them for one of his dalmation mollies because he said mollies are a more hardy fish and would be able to take the fishin cycle better than the platies will, so theres just the one molly in there at the moment so a 90% water change should sort it what should i do after it like the day after etc

 

[LilyRose Tank]

if you are doing a fishless cycle, congrats, you just entered the next phase...just add another dose of ammonia and get testing every day until the nitrite levels come down to 0ppm.whenever the ammonia level reaches 0, add another dose to bring it back to around 4/5 ppm. then you start testing every 12 hours, and when your ammonia and nitrite levels are 0 in 12 hours every day for a week, you are ready to add fish! good luck.
if you are doing a fish in, do a massive water change, and retest...may have to do another massive water change straight away and retest again....mitrites that high will kill your fish x good luck

 

[Rickzayne]

Keep testing it and do a 50% water change every other day until your filter has cycled.

Get some live plants as well to help keep levels down.

 

[LilyRose Tank]

ok, so theres a molly in there. water change every day to keep levels down. try not to put plants in as they remove ammonia and give the filter a false full reading. try not to put real plants in til after the tank is cycled. any chance your grandad has a cycled tank to house the molly until you cycle your tank?

 

[Rickzayne]

Ignore that post!

The plants will just help levels down in a fish in cycle!

Ask your grandad for some of his sponge out if his filter to jump start yours.

Search silent cycle on here

 

[fishyyboy20]

90% dropped the levels right down 0ppm for both readings, already got the mature media from my grandads tank and i have the molly in to do a fishin cycle because pure ammonia is a little hard to get in my area

only plants i have in is a small moss ball and a little bit of java moss on a piece of bog wood the rest of the plants are plastic

 

[Rickzayne]

You'll be fine just don't let the reading get past 0.5 on ammonia or nitrIte

 

[LilyRose Tank]

well done keep it up. And as for the ignore me thing, be my guest, its just advise after all. however, were you doing a fishless cycle, plants are a nono, as they take out ammonia, when you are trying to get your filter to do it

 

[waterdrop]

Agree with LRT, if you're able to rehome and get it down to a fishless cycle then doing it without plants will make it simpler to understand your results. If you can't rehome the last fish and need to continue the fish-in cycling then the goal is to try and figure out the percentage and frequency of water changes that will keep both ammonia and nitrite(NO2) (as measured by a good liquid-reagent based test kit) about 0.25ppm or below.

In a fish-in cycle you don't need to worry about the bacteria, they will slowly develop even a measured ammonia levels of zero ppm (the ammonia measurement, of course, which we measure with fully-functioning healthy biofilters!)

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miles_hot]

As long as the plants will be a long term part of the tank their presence during a fish in cycle isn't an issue and may help protect the fish however watch out if they subsequently die back as you'll get a double hit : production of toxins from their decay and removal of part of your filter system.

 

[mattyydunn]

hows the tank today mate?

 

[fishyyboy20]

hows the tank today mate?

did a test today the ammonia was 0.25ppm and the nitrite was 0.50ppm so i did a 50% water change knocked it strait back down to 0ppm for both

the plants are long term its only a bit of java moss and a small moss ball as previously mentioned theres no sign of and dead parts etc so i say they are still pretty much alive