new to the fish world

[snig5]

Hi, I got a 55 gal tank for xmas. Everything was going good until I got ich. So I went out and bought rid ich and cured that. I lost some fish. Now my nitrite is in the stress level the other day. I bought ammo lock and used that last night and I check the water today and now the nitrate is in the high safe and the nitrite is higher then on the chart.
Before I put in the ammo lock I changed the water and bought new filters. I dont know what to do. Please help

Lori

 

[WILDER]

Water changes if your nitrite are high,new filters do you mean in sponges as you no need to touch them.
http/www.aquariumcorner.com/cycling.html

 

[snig5]

I changed the white pads. When I was treating the ich I took out the pads for a week. It said to take them out when doing the treatment. Is that maybe why the nitrite and nitrate high. They were, nitrate 0 and nitrite safe 0.

 

[WILDER]

Only sponge you should take out is the black carbon, do you have a black carbon sponge and how long have you had the white sponges out, sorry black carbon removes med from your tank water, that's why you remove them.

 

[newfishies]

have you read about cycling your tank? if you just got it for christmas, the tank is probably going through the natural bacteria cyle. ammonia will spike first and then get broken down into nitrite (which then spikes) then the nitrite is broken down into nitrate, which is a much safer substance for your fish. i am not an expert, so i can't give you an exact timeline for these changes to happen. check the pinned topics at the top of the beginner's forum for more help!

also the ammo-lock probably wont help the nitrite level...best to do more water changes to help bring it down...this may slow the cycling, but your fish will be happier!!

if you kept the filter media/cartridge out of water the bacteria will be dead in a few hours, so the whole cycling process will start over!

 

[snig5]

I took out the carbon pad for 7 days when I was treating the ich. I left the sponge in the filter. Before I put the carbon pads back in the filter I washed them out with hot water because I thought the ich would come back. So after putting the carbon back in I checked the water about 4 days after putting in the carbon pads and that is when the nitrite was in the stress zone 3.0 and the nitrate was 20 on the chart. So at that time I changed the water about 1/3. I checked the water 2 days later and the nitrate and nitrite still the same. So yesterday I put in the ammo lock and changed the carbon pads and this morning the nitrate is 40 and the nitrite is pasted 10.0

 

[newfishies]

i would keep doing daily water changes to get he nitrite down...i also wouldn't add any more ammo lock, because that might slow your cycling down more (i think, would be good to get some other opinions on this one - hint, hint! come on guys, i know you're out there!) good luck!

 

[snig5]

thank you newfishes for your help. I hope somebody can give me more ideas. Thanks again.

 

[paulthegreat]

If you are getting strong readings of nitrate then the bacteria is doing is job and the nitrite should disappear soon also be sure not to overfeed.