New to fish and have a high nitrite

[Mary Billo]

I have been attempting to cycle a 20gal tank "without". I have been cycling for about 3 weeks now and I have a ? for anyone that can help. I checked today and everything is good and in safe zone except for the "nitrite" it is at 10.0 what do I do? HELP

 

[Baker]

If you are doing a fishless cycle (which I presume is what you mean by "without") then the correct action is to do nothing. Let your beneficial bacteria process it for you until you have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and a spike of nitrate. From this point water change the nitrate out and wait for any more spikes in am, nit. If you see no other spikes then you're tank is ready for a few fish, don't add too many fish all at once because your BB are going to need to compensate for additional waste again. If you add everything at once you will likely get more toxin spikes and kill all your fish.

 

[Mary Billo]

Awe thank you, Yes my tank is fishless. Do I change a 1/4 or 1/2 of the water and do I need to de-chlorineate the water before I add to the tank

 

[Essjay]

Yes, always dechlorinate the new water first if you use buckets to put the water in. Add the amount of dechlorinator for the volume of the bucket to each bucketful. For example, my dechlorinator dose rate is 1 drop per 4.75 litres so I put 9.5 litres (2.5 gall) water in a bucket and add 2 drops, then put it in the tank. Then repeat and repeat till the tank is filled up again. With a 180 litre (48 gall) tank that is quite a few buckets of water.

 

[Mary Billo]

Thank you, Everyone is very helpful. My grandson is soooooo excited to get his fish.