Nitrite Level?

[Demm]

what's up all?

well I'm starting to get a little concerned about our tanks at home. me and my roomate have 3 tanks. to me all the readings on the tanks are bad.

my tank reading:
stock: african cichlids
ph - 8.2
nitrate: 5ppm
nitrite: 1.5 to 2.0 ppm
ammonia: 1

roomates tank:
stock: blood parrots
ph: 8.2
nitrate: 5ppm
nitrite: 2ppm
ammonia: .25

my other tank:
stock: neons/black stripe tetras
ph: 8.2
nitrate: 10ppm
nitrite: 2ppm
ammonia: 0

I'm really worrying about my nitrite readings. they seem to be really high. I thought it was just my tank with my neons that was high then I tested all of ours and I found this out. maybe its something in our water? what exactly causes nitrites? all of our tanks were cycled with biospira. they all have weekly water changes and vacuums. I don't know what to do about these levels? should I be really worried?

any advice is appreciated. thanks

 

[dthoffsett]

I'll see what I can do to help. Any levels of ammonia or nitrite point to an uncycled or overstocked/underfiltered tank. The nitrotgen cycle in laymans terms: fish produce ammonia which is deadly to them, in nature there is bacteria present to break down the ammonia into nitrite, nitrite is also deadly to fish, so there are bacteria present to break nitrite down into nitrate. In a closed environment (a tank) the only way to get rid of nitrate is to conduct water changes. Nitrates have been shown to be detrimental to fish health in high concentrations (consistantly over 150ppm). The goal of keeping fish in a closed environment, is to mimic nature, by having enough "beneficial" bacteria to continually break down the ammonia and nitrite to relatively harmless nitrate, ie. a cycled tank.

Biro-spira is one of the products touted to carry live bacteria to "instantly" cycle your tank, many people on this forum have used the different "live" bacteria products available with varying results, though biro-spira seems to be the best. However, with this product you should still stock very slowly, and monitor water parameters closely.

Since, you didn't list the size of your tanks, filtration used, or the number of inhabitants, I can't tell if you are overstocked or underfiltered, so we'll go with the assumption that the tanks aren't fully cycled.

During the cycling process, first ammonia builds, then drops, nitrite builds, then drops, and finally nitrate builds. Since you have fish in the tank, you'll need to do daily 10 to 15% water changes to combat the affect of ammonia and nitrite on the fish, you'll want to continue to do daily water changes until your ammonia and nitrite levels consistantly stay 0, showing the cycling process is complete. However, if the problem is caused by overstocked/underfiltered tanks, you may need to continue with bi-weekly 30% water changes after the cycle is completed, until the stocking or filter issue is fixed.

Here are a couple of links that can better explain the cycling process.
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099
http/www.fishforums.net/Whatand39s-In-Yo...ter-t59467.html

 

[Demm]

thanks for the explanaition. i better understand now.

i hate to even say this, but when i first got my cichlids i got way to carried away, my 29 gallon is way way way overstocked with 19 cichlids (albino, kenyi, blotch, etc all under 1inch), 2 guppies, and 2 plecos. 2 filters a topfin 30, and an aquaclear 50 i didnt do my research right at all. so righ tnow i'm getting a 55gallon and splitting them up and giving some away to some friends cause i made that bad mistake. i am doing water changes about 3 times a week, and for the most part i'm doing decent on keeping the levels somewhat down i think.

as for my little 6 gallon regular "stock" filter, it's also overstocked, 5 neons and 3 black striped tetras, they are going in another 9 gallon in a couple of weeks, once again didnt do my research well enough.

as for the other 29 gallon it has 3 blood parrots, topfin 30 filter, and about 5 albino cory's, this actually isnt my tank it's my roommates.

i guess it's just my fault for being so stupid with my research. but new tanks are coming in a week or two and hopefully the water levels will be better by then.

tested the water again just now:

ammonia: 0ppm (mg/l)
nitrite: 1.0ppm (mg/l)
nitrate: less than 5.0ppm (mg/l)