Nitrite 5Ppm! In 6 Year Old Tank!

[emilythestrange]

I have recently moved my tank a week ago, from a 45 litre to 110 litre, moved the filter over and one piece of mopani wood, a tiny plant, and all fish. I also added black fine gravel after rinsing (the tank previously had no substrate)
 
I had to add in 90% new water, i added de-chlorinator matched temp etc.
I checked my water stats and ammonia was 0ppm, but nitrite 5ppm!!!! its always been 0ppm in the past, and i test regularly with freshwater master kit.
 
 
what can i do?  im now worried that im doing a fish in cycle!!
 
 
i have:   3 male guppies, 2 male platies, 2 amano shrimp, 3 corydoras and 1 tetra.

 

[fluttermoth]

It's probably what we call a 'mini cycle'; your bacteria have died back a bit from being moved.
 
All you can do is loads of extra water changes to keep the nitrite low until your bacteria bounce back, I'm afraid

 

[ech0o]

It looks like you may have a mini-cycle going, I see a bit of cloudiness consistent with bacterial bloom.   In my experience (not much but enough to say this pretty safely) the fact that your using the old filter as well as the decor, this mini-cycle should not be long, but 5ppm is INSANELY high for your fish, at the fear of losing fish I would do a PWC, although not doing one will end this short cycle faster.   Are you using the old filter as well as a new one?   What kind of flow rate does the currently running pump have?  

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Before you panic make sure you did the test right and that the kit hasn't passed the expiration date.
 
I find it hard to believe in the space of 7 days you had a big enough ammonia spike to produce this much nitrite and saw no ill effects or signs of it. If you have 5 ppm of nitrite now some or all of the fish should be at the surface gasping. The amount of ammonia it would take to produce that amount of nitrite should have killed the shrimp. Google "Caridina japonica + ammonia"
 
I would suspect, though I can not be 100% certain, that you might have tested some small amount of ammonia to see 5 or more ppm of nitrite.
 
Generally the bacteria will rise or fall together in terms of the ammonia and nitrite oxidizers. Inhibiting one and not the other is not something that should happen in a tank from natural causes. It takes the addition of specific agents to inhibit one and not the other.
 
I suggest you double check everything and if you are certain the kit is OK and you did it all correctly, then change the water and retest.

 

[emilythestrange]

i have retested quite a few times, even tested my tap water! it seems to turn dark purple slower than it used to.
the fish all look fine, no differences, one platy is hanging around the filter, but he hasdnt looked 100% since i put him in 4 months ago.
 
I expected to have lost my beloved shrimps, but they have stayed with me for a long time and are over an inch long! they have gone through a few moves, meds etc.
 
5ppm is shocking though, its a very dark purple, although on the api test card to indicate the difference in ppm, the 2.5 and 5.00 doesnt look much different!!
 
 
I have only used the old filter, not squeezed the pads or anything.. i just feel as though it was my fault for the amount of time it wasnt in water when i was filling up the new tank. 

 

[ech0o]

Well if the filter was for your smaller tank, you very well could have an issue with not enough filtration for the size of the new tank.   As long as it stayed wet, it shouldn't have killed much bacteria off though!

 

[emilythestrange]

its a U3 filter, bubbles are on and its set to the top spray.  the little tank was just a temporary thing at my mothers house, as i just moved myself. i used the same u3  filter + pads in the little one, as i wanted to keep the media alive.
 
would purchasing some more plants help at all?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Doubtful Emily. The bacteria are hardier than you think, some would have had not trouble surviving a few hours out of water. If there is any moisture at all they can manage for some time.
 
I am amazed you see no signs of anything from any of the fish or shrimp, this makes no sense to me. That you never saw ammonia also puzzles me. If you moved the other media (besides the pads) over with the filter, you should have moved most of the bacteria.
 
What I have learned over the years is when the facts of a situation seem to contradict each other, take a deep breath and try to figure out why. If you had/have the levels the tests seem to indicate, why are neither the fish or shrimp showing the sort of signs such levels should produce? If you expect the shrimp to have died, why do they not even appear to be in distress? Why do the fish seem to be acting normally? Have they done so since you moved them or have they shown some signs of being distressed? You sound like a conscientious fish keeper to me, so I believe you would have noticed if anything in your tank was behaving out of the ordinary.
 
On the other hand, could you possibly have used a wrong bottle or test card? Might the test kit be out of date? Did you rinse the tubes and then collect the water from well below the surface? Could there be something in the water now that affects the test results? Any cloudiness would change how the results look for example. Finally, did you do a water change and retest? If so what was the result? I have been testing tank water for over a decade and every now and then I still catch myself grabbing a wrong bottle or card now and then.
 
I can not resolve the two opposing sets of information here- high nitrite (indicating earlier high ammonia likely as well) and no ill effect on anything in the tank.

 

[ech0o]

TTA correct me if i'm wrong.   The nitrite producing bacteria seems to be a bit hardier than the nitrate producing bacteria in my experience with my micro tank.   When I do filter cleanings and things like that, I generally get a small bloom, and have had trace nitrite readings while never seeing ammonia, so that was the conclusion I had come to at that point.   Also, the reproduction rate of the ammonia cleaning bacteria from what I have read is about 4x faster, so the Ammonia spike during a cycle it seems is generally shorter than that of a Nitrite spike.   Anyways, that being said, and at the advice of everyone who responded, the best thing you can do is do water changes and keep the nitrites below 1ppm, 2.5 or 5 ppm is WAY to much!!!

 

[emilythestrange]

I changed 25% of the water and then tested a couple of hours later again, with the same result! (just taking longer to turn dark) i have checked the bottle and always rinse the tubes,  the date is 2017...  I kept one piece of mopani wood in the little tank and moved that to the larger with filter, and added 2 more mopani wood i hvae used previously (in my sig pic)> 
I was very shocked to see the results, as i didnt suspect a thing, especially from the behaviour, they were loving the increase of space and the cories digging in the substrate. If anything the shrimps look hungry as they are trying to find anything with a scrap of algae on -( the heater ).
Im afraid to feed them more than once every couple of days,. as i dont want to make the water quality worse.

 

[emilythestrange]

 
 
Just done - Nitrite (left) Ammonia (right)

 

[misterpro]

You lost some bacteria from having the filter outside of water I guess.  Then again that shouldn't make a big difference unless you really let the media dry out...
 
Did you by any chance start up the filter in the new tank before adding the dechlorinator (pulling chlorine throught the filter)?  (sorry for the stupid question)
 
Also, you say the little tank was at your mothers house and this new one isn't?  Are you using a dechlorinator that removes chloramines as well as chlorine.  The water supply as the house where your new tank is might have chloramines in it (unlike the water at your mother's house that was chloramine free) in which case the dechlorinator that does chlorine only won't cut it.
 
Those are the only options I can think of, because what little bacteria that were living on the glass panes etc of the old tank shouldn't really make a difference.

 

[emilythestrange]

This tank has been used be myself previously from new.  im using Tetra aqua safe. 

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Sure looks to me as if you have ammonia? Hard to tell w/o the card in the photo. That is not what you reported earlier. That changes things.
 
Change more water.
 
If you can find either DrTims One and Only or Tetras SafeStart, you can help faster. Otherwise, a lot of water changes are in your immediate future.
 
There would be bacteria on the sand and wood in the sig. photo.
 
 
echo- no the AOB are not more hardy, the can just double in less time than the NOB. But we are not talking anything along the order of 4 times. Think maximum for AOB under best of conditions about 8 hours and for NOB 12 or so. Tanks do not provide the ideal conditions normally. The AOB also get a headstart too.

 

[emilythestrange]

Sorry, the sig confuses things, this was taken early this year.  the little tank had nothing in it other than heater,filter, 1 piece of mopani wood and fish
 
 
when i was just adjusting the flow of the filter to see if it could get stronger (not very clear on u3)   the water has gone murky from the filter! and i noticed slight little brown spots on the glass. 
 
 
the ammonia is showing a yellow colour, it there was any present it would change to a greeny colour, that what i understood from the colour chart?