Drum4JC
New Member
I've had nitrite readings around 1PPM for about 2 months now. Thinking I may have a bit too much load on my biofilter, I added plants to my tank over a period of about 3 weeks. It's been two more weeks and my nitrite readings are still high. I can't believe my fish haven't died or shown any ill effects yet.
Here are my tank particulars:
26 gallons with Aqueon 30 filter.
about 20" of small fish.
ph readings typically between 7.2 and 7.6.
Kh between 50 and 90 maintained with Seachem alkaline and acid buffer products.
trace amounts of ammonia
nitrate 10-20 ppm.
I tried 20% water changes daily for weeks at a time, then 10% water changes every other day. I vacuum weekly (although not as much digging deep around the planted areas). I used copious amounts of Amquel+ during this time, and then switched to Prime to see if Amquel+ interfered with the API test kit. I get the same readings with Prime. The plants are Wendtii's, java ferns, corkscrew vals, anacharis, and sagitarius peru. I use DIY CO2. The lights are two 15-watt compact flourescent at 6400K.
I figured by now, the plants would use a lot of the ammonium leaving less for the bacteria to convert to nitrite resulting in less nitrite/nitrate. The only thing I can figure is that the Wonder Shells I keep in the tank put in a lot of Gh components and the minerals/salts are protecting the fish from nitrite poisoning. Or I'm just getting screwy readings.
Thoughts???
Here are my tank particulars:
26 gallons with Aqueon 30 filter.
about 20" of small fish.
ph readings typically between 7.2 and 7.6.
Kh between 50 and 90 maintained with Seachem alkaline and acid buffer products.
trace amounts of ammonia
nitrate 10-20 ppm.
I tried 20% water changes daily for weeks at a time, then 10% water changes every other day. I vacuum weekly (although not as much digging deep around the planted areas). I used copious amounts of Amquel+ during this time, and then switched to Prime to see if Amquel+ interfered with the API test kit. I get the same readings with Prime. The plants are Wendtii's, java ferns, corkscrew vals, anacharis, and sagitarius peru. I use DIY CO2. The lights are two 15-watt compact flourescent at 6400K.
I figured by now, the plants would use a lot of the ammonium leaving less for the bacteria to convert to nitrite resulting in less nitrite/nitrate. The only thing I can figure is that the Wonder Shells I keep in the tank put in a lot of Gh components and the minerals/salts are protecting the fish from nitrite poisoning. Or I'm just getting screwy readings.
Thoughts???
