Nitrite Problem! (still)

[petitelupin]

alright so ive had high nitrite levels for like two weeks now. all other stats are normal besides nitrite hovering around 2-3ppm.
i have a ten gallon, with only 3 fish...plus fry...
im doing regular (excessive) water changes, bought a gravel vac today along with an extra foam square for my filter and i tossed the carbon filter in hopes of strengthening my bacteria colony.

any ideas?
i dont want my babies or other fish getting poisoned!!!

 

[WILDER]

How long has the tank been set up.
The new sponge did you seed it by squeezing some benefical bacteria off the other sponge in the filter.

 

[Anna Robinson]

Keep up with the water changes. In addition to what Wilder asked, how are you maintaining your filter?

 

[petitelupin]

what do u mean maintaining? everytime i do a water change i rinse the foam with tank water..and before i put in the new foam i got it wet with tank water. the tank has been running for like 2 months

 

[WILDER]

Do you mean the sponge , if so no need to wash it in tank water every week.

 

[petitelupin]

yea the sponge...
so ok i wont wash it weekly,
but now ive got two sponges in the filter instead of a sponge and carbon filter because i was told to rebuild the bacteria colony with more sponges.

 

[WILDER]

You don't rinse them every week you will be losing to much benefical bacteria.
You only start to touch them when they get mucked up.
Also you go by your nitrate test kit.

 

[petitelupin]

nitrates are about 20 right now...nitrites 2ppm.

 

[WILDER]

Stop touching the sponges every week. Just rinse the filter floss or add new once a week.
What your tap nitrate reaing. Do you have live plants.

 

[petitelupin]

i just put two bulbs in the tank and they sprouted a litttle....
whats filter floss?
i have a really cheap filter, its an aquatech..

 

[WILDER]

Filter floss or mating good for removing fine particles from the water. its keeps your water crystal clear.

 

[petitelupin]

hmmm i dont know that i can get any for my type of filter...but the water is pretty darn clear

 

[Anna Robinson]

I can't think what's in the Aqua-tech filter, but if it's sponges then you want to clean them as little as possible. Only clean them when they clog up enough to slow the flow down, because every time you wash the sponge you will wash away a lot of the filter bacteria.

Wash them in a bucket of water taken from the aquarium (cold, chorinated tap water will kill off all the bacteria) and now that you have two sponges, wash one at a time. The next time the filter clogs, wash the other one, so they're in a rotation. This maintenance routine preserves as much of the bacteria as possible. Don't allow sponges to dry out, and make sure the filter runs 24 hours a day.

I think Wilder is suggesting you add some fine filter floss (we call it filter 'wool' here in the UK) to the filter because this catches a lot of the solid muck. It can then be taken out and thrown away, so you don't have to wash out your filter sponges so often. Only do this if you have room for it in the filter, though.

In the short term, you can improve the water quality by doing frequent water changes (as you already are), or adding nitrite-absorbing resins to your filter (if you have room to put them in there). You can also try adding add bottled cultures of filter bacteria (available from your aquatic shop), to try and boost the numbers of bacteria you have.

Live plants help because they will take up ammonia and nitrite from the water, but your filter is more important at the moment.