Nitrate & Nitrite Spike

[mj98dakota]

I just did a water change last week. I have 30 gallon tank.
2 Blind Tetras
2 Mollys
4 Danio Zebras
2 Scissor Tail Danios
1 Guppy (he was aquired accidently)
2 Sunburst Tetras (not sure of the name, they are black with gold/yellow tails and nose)
2 Bala Sharks
3 Little Alge Eaters (also not sure the correct name, small guys)


I just added 4 more Danio Zebras and 2 more of the Sunburst guys. I just wanted to add a few more Zebras so they can have a bigger school and my wife wanted to add the 2 Sunburst because she said the two we have looked lonely. A silly as is sounds, the four of them hang around with each other where as when we only had two, they were kind of distant.

Anyway I tested the ammonia and nitrate before adding the fish. Amminoa was 0 and Nitrate was very close to Zero. Now two days latter one of the Mollys is dead. This Molly may of been going to begin with, lately it has been hanging around the bottom in the corner or just swimming from teh bottom to top and back down over and over again for a period of time and then settle on the bottom again. Not exactly sure what was going on.

Now after this death I checked all of the levels. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 2.0, Nitrate 10, PH 7.2. (PH has always been around 7.2)

Now was the addition of the fish the case of the spike? Was the spike the cause of the death? The levels do not look like they are that far out of range, are they?
Could the spike be a result of the death fish going unnoticed for a few hours? Fish was still alive at 10pm yesteerday and was found dead around 10AM the next morning.

I am still a newbie so any advice would greatly be appreciated

 

[rdd1952]

The nitrite spike would almost certainly be the result of adding more fish. Anytime you add more fish to a tank, the bacteria have to catch up so you have an ammonia spike and then a nitrite spike. Since the ammonia is at 0, the ammonia processing bacteria has caught up. The nitrite should drop in another day or so but I would do daily 25% water changes until it does go back to 0. I doubt that the ammonia spike would have been enough to kill the molly but it could have finished him off if he was already sick.

The bala sharks you have will get very big (10 to 12 inches) so they will outgrow your 30 gallon tank. Depending on what type algae eaters you have, they probably will too. If they are common plecos they will grow to well over a foot long. If they are chinese algae eaters or golden algae eaters they will also grow to a foot long. You may need to look at getting a larger tank or rehoming some fish soon.

 

[mj98dakota]

The nitrite spike would almost certainly be the result of adding more fish. Anytime you add more fish to a tank, the bacteria have to catch up so you have an ammonia spike and then a nitrite spike. Since the ammonia is at 0, the ammonia processing bacteria has caught up. The nitrite should drop in another day or so but I would do daily 25% water changes until it does go back to 0. I doubt that the ammonia spike would have been enough to kill the molly but it could have finished him off if he was already sick.

The bala sharks you have will get very big (10 to 12 inches) so they will outgrow your 30 gallon tank. Depending on what type algae eaters you have, they probably will too. If they are common plecos they will grow to well over a foot long. If they are chinese algae eaters or golden algae eaters they will also grow to a foot long. You may need to look at getting a larger tank or rehoming some fish soon.

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Thanks for the info. I do plan on getting a bigger tank in the future, right now the Balas are only about 2 1/2 inches. I am hoping I can wait until at least next year.
The Algae eaters I was talking about are called Otocinclus affinis, they don' tget very big.

 

[rdd1952]

Otos will be fine. I haven't had much luck with them though. They are almost all wild caught and they don't travel well. If you lose any shortly after you bought them, it is probably because of that. When you go to buy otos, ask the LFS how long they've had them. If they haven't had them for at least 2 weeks, hold off on buying. Usually, after 2 weeks, the weak and sickly ones have all died off and you can feel secure in buying what they have.

 

[wdrury]

check out hagen cycle

http/www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.c...=01076000020101

 

[rdd1952]

Cycle is pretty much useless. I used it on one tank during a fishless cycle and there was absolutely no difference in the time required to cycle without it. It may in actuality slow the cycle since it supposedly contains aome ammonia to keep the bacteria in the bottle alive. You are actually adding more ammonia when you add it.