Nitrite Spike After Large Water Change- It's Spiked Again

[Ny82]

It's spiked upto dark purple again, it's really p***ing me off now i've never had my nitrites spike up like this and don't know why it keeps happening
I'm about to do another 90% change and i'll test it afterwards.

 

[Ny82]

Just tested it, it's down to about 1 now. Will test it again tonight and if it's not spiked up again then I will do another 90% change tomorrow.

 

[Ny82]

Just tested it, it's down to about 1 now. Will test it again tonight and if it's not spiked up again then I will do another 90% change tomorrow.
At least my ammonias at 0

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Hopefully you mean 0.1ppm and not 1ppm. If it's 1ppm you need to do a 90% change sooner rather than later.

 

[balajake]

I would be very tempted to strip the tank right down. Put the fish in another tank or a bucket, scoop out all your substrate and wash it all. Best way is to fill a bucket half full and fill it with water till its overflowing, whilst stirring it round with a ladle or spatula, no substrate should come out and you should do it till the water runs clear. Wash all wood and rinse ornaments etc too. Get every bit of water out of the tank and clean the glass with a clean/new household sponge that has never had detergents on it. I would clean your filter in new dechlorinated water too. For nitrites to spike that high in such a shot period of time, I would say something might be rotting quite badly in the tank. Maybe a fish has died and got buried in your substrate or something like food.


Some might say its unneeded but I don't know what to suggest that you haven't already done Other than dosing with prime or cycle or getting a forum member to send you some nice gungy filter media . If you have a very large tank like I do then big water changes every 12 hours can be so exhausting. I feel for you as I had a major incident with my tank recently that resulted in a lot of deaths.

 

[Ny82]

Thanks, my tanks only 64 litres-it could have been a lot worse. It's not doing my back any favours but at least it's getting me exercise whilst i'm still on this list for physio!
I only have the one bucket-the other ones for the kitchen and bathroom floor so that's a no no. but i'm going to take the redmoor and the bogwood out - I have an unopened packet of sponges so i'll use one of them to scub it.
I will remove all the plants which look wilted. Yes it is exhausting between that and my 2 year old who is all too willing to help but most of all it's frustrating. Everything was spot on before I changed the filter. I now have a fluval U2 set on "b" which is the middle part causing a stream. Like I said before somewhere (my memory is shocking lol) I didn't know about cycling so all in all the filter sponges are 3 months old which I transferred into this new filter. Could it be still cycling? I have read things on other forums about it going through the nitrite cycle and only to do 10% water changes as it will take a couple of weeks to settle but not to do big ones as it kills the bacteria. I also have a lot less fish due to rehoming to my friends juwel rio 240 tank as I thought mines was overstocked.

OLD STOCK-
1 male fighter
4 longfin leopard danios
7 neon tetras
4 platinum tetras
1 male 2 female platy
1 male 2 female hi fin platy
5 cories.

CURRENT STOCK
1 male fighter
2 male swordtails
4 female platies
5 cories

you would think it's helping as there isn't as much stock as there was but it's just seemed to have spiralled out of control.
I am about to do another 90% water change I am also tempted to scoop out and bin the sand on the right hand side of the tank as I have noticed it's turned quite dark and looks horrible. I will use my 2 year olds spade when she's not looking lol. I will look to see if I have any other sand left.
Watch this space-rescape and deep clean coming up! Wish me luck!

 

[balajake]

The sand could be holding toxins from rotting food. It needs stiring around regularly to release the build up. It will get rid of the blackness too

 

[Ny82]

Oh i've just dug it all out the smell was awful just doing the water change/syphon at the same time. Going to put a thin layer of fresh sand in.

 

[balajake]

Oh i've just dug it all out the smell was awful just doing the water change/syphon at the same time. Going to put a thin layer of fresh sand in.

Make sure to wash the sand first. Then give it a stir every few days with a stick or net to air it. Your old sand could well be the culprit. It should be ok but I have given up totally on sand and have fine gravel now.

 

[Ny82]

Right thats the sand back in. I had taken the water right down to about an inch left, the waters cleared now and I waited until it's cleared to take a reading.
Look at the colour of the sand

It was so foul smelling. I now have a very thin layer of fresh sand. I find gravel easier to hold the plants down, they seem to uproot from the sand easily especially with the cories sifting through it!

and the results

Proper light blue-0. I hope it stays this way now. I will test it again tonight. So far so good.
Thanks again for the help.

 

[balajake]

Think I'm going to puke lol, that sand is gross! I bet that was the main cause of it. I hope it gets better for you now, if your nitrites go dark purple again before tommorow then I don't know what to suggest except it being a problem with the filter. Keep up the sand swishing and keep testing and doing water changes as it could still be a combination of an uncycled tank and the sand going really iffy. I really think it will improve Now if you keep on top if the sand. If it gets too much then you can switch to gravel if you want

 

[Ny82]

Think I'm going to puke lol, that sand is gross! I bet that was the main cause of it. I hope it gets better for you now, if your nitrites go dark purple again before tommorow then I don't know what to suggest except it being a problem with the filter. Keep up the sand swishing and keep testing and doing water changes as it could still be a combination of an uncycled tank and the sand going really iffy. I really think it will improve Now if you keep on top if the sand. If it gets too much then you can switch to gravel if you want

Thankyou
Yeah it was probably too much and my tank still cycling. I shall test it again tonight. See if those nitrites re back up i'll scream lol. The sand is very thin(bout an inch) so it will be easier to maintain.
The filter is very quiet I had to check a few times to see if it was on.
Do you think my stock is ok now for the tank? It does look empty lol but at least they have space to swim.
Thanks for the help.

 

[balajake]

Your stock is fine and no way would it be that amount of fish causing your nitrite to go that high in 24 hours. It has to be 80% the dirty sand to blame as it was rancid and holding all sorts of nasties. Then 20% your filter holding dirt and gungy sand. You have nitrates so your filter was working hard to convert it but obviously the substrate was so toxic it was overloading your filter. I think having a change to a new filter is always a delicate operation even when Adding cycled filter media so there can be problems whilst your bacteria transfers and grows onto your new pads, so testing and water changes will always come into play if things go tits up. If you get problems with nitrites or ammonia I always look at the substrate and filter media being dirty as a possible cause if water changes aren't reducing the problem. Seachem prime can also help whilst cycling your tank as it will neutralise ammonia and nitrites.

There are much, much wiser people than me on this forum who might have a different answer than me but I hope the advise I've given helps your tank. I'm really anxious to see your test results tomorrow, I'm praying it makes a difference.

 

[Sask Aquarist]

Switching 90% of the water so often is causing the problems. To avoid spikes i don't recommend changing more then 40% of the water every two weeks. The ammonia cycle takes 16 days to go through its stage. Nitrite takes 30 days and Nitrate takes 60 days to fully cycle through. By changing such colossal amounts of water your killing off bacteria and Nitrite/nitrate levels. Then as you leave the water sit for awhile it immediately starts to cycle again. Leaving 10% of the spiked water everytime you change causes buildup. So you leave 10% in the tank every time of VERY high nitrite/nitrate water. Personally I think the best option is to restart. Clean the tank right out wash everything and do a cycle reboot.

 

[Ny82]

Thanks for the help.
It's just so exhausting. I just tested the nitrites and they are still at 0. I think i'm going to leave it alone now. If there's a spike tomorrow shall I do a 40% or a 90%?