Nitrite Spike Won’t Go Down

GuppygirlLol

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Hello,

i’ll start with the details of my tank.

I have a 20g tall planted tank. Fluval substrate+ top layer sand substrate, with a piece of wood, and a few rocks. My heater keeps the tank between 78-80. I’ve had it running for nearly two months, and started it with a mesh bag of cycled substrate, old sponge filter, and a piece of wood from an old cycled shrimp tank.

As for fish I have two Guppies, one of which may have been pregnant from the store. I’ve had them for about three weeks and they are very active and (seemingly) healthy. I also have a mystery snail that i’ve had for about a year, transferred from an old tank to this one.

As for water parameters.. i’ve recently had a sudden nitrite spike of 5ppm. Also the PH of my local tap (brooklyn, ny) is only at a 6.8. so even with crushed coral it has stayed consistently under 7. I condition the tap water with Seachem prime before adding to the tank. I have 5 ppm nitrates, 0 ammonia, and a KH of 40 ppm. Hardness between 120-180. I have a master test kit and the api strip tests. Up until now, my nitrites have been at a 0, and I thought it had become established and cycled already. I bought some aquarium plants… name forgotten but was in a floating bunch with tiny leaves, after two weeks these turned nearly brown and i lost a lot of leaves throughout my tank. I took the plant out and cleaned several times with a long turkey baster. I also do this regularly for poop etc.

To combat the nitrites I have done several water changes over the course of a week. Two 25% and three 50% each dosed with the recommended seachem. I didn’t add more because i’ve read that seachem may actually not fix the nitrite problem? i’ve read mixed reviews on this and i still feel unsure. I also added another old sponge filter to increase aeration. I know I made a huge mistake when I rinsed my sponge in tap water for a moment to get some leaves and muck off of it but i did not thoroughly wash the inside. I now know tap kills beneficial bacteria so maybe that + the plants caused the spike?
My other question is.. what else can I do? I don’t want my fish to suffer but even a few hours after a water change my readings for nitrite are still at an emergency level of 5ppm.

Does nitrite still show as detectable after using seachem prime?

also want to mention i’ve added root tabs and florin multi (shrimp friendly) liquid fertilizer because my plants weren’t thriving and i’m hoping to get some shrimp in the future. i’m not sure if these ferts affect the nitrites???

thank you
 
Does nitrite still show as detectable after using seachem prime?
Yes you are right. Prime will bind harmful particles and make them fish safe for around 24h. Afterwards you'll have to re-dose. In the meantime your beneficial bacteria will still be able to "consume" Nitrites and your test will be able to detect it. Still 5 ppm is a lot, probably more than Prime can bind.

I am curious if your fertiliser contains anything that affects water quality. Would you mind taking a photo of the ingredient list?

Number of beneficial bacteria in a cycled aquarium corresponds to the amount of Nitrites. In your case rapidly decaying plants may have caused the Nitrite spike as bacteria weren't ready so for extra work that they were suddenly given.

Getting used sponge works, but only if it remains wet while being transfered between filters. If you let it dry for any period of time, the bacteria will die as well. Maybe you could buy some super fast growing plants that were kept in established aquariums rather than plant farms and stick them in your aquarium. Of course only if you trust the source. Most likely at least a few people in your neighbourhood keep fish tanks and will be willing to spare some plants or cuttings.
 
Yes you are right. Prime will bind harmful particles and make them fish safe for around 24h. Afterwards you'll have to re-dose. In the meantime your beneficial bacteria will still be able to "consume" Nitrites and your test will be able to detect it. Still 5 ppm is a lot, probably more than Prime can bind.

I am curious if your fertiliser contains anything that affects water quality. Would you mind taking a photo of the ingredient list?

Number of beneficial bacteria in a cycled aquarium corresponds to the amount of Nitrites. In your case rapidly decaying plants may have caused the Nitrite spike as bacteria weren't ready so for extra work that they were suddenly given.

Getting used sponge works, but only if it remains wet while being transfered between filters. If you let it dry for any period of time, the bacteria will die as well. Maybe you could buy some super fast growing plants that were kept in established aquariums rather than plant farms and stick them in your aquarium. Of course only if you trust the source. Most likely at least a few people in your neighbourhood keep fish tanks and will be willing to spare some plants or cuttings.
 
image.jpg
Great idea about the plants.. I have a good local fish store I could get some plants from. and yes i’ll send a pic of the fertilizer. Thanks for your help.
 
Thank you for adding the photo. None of the ingredients look suspicious to me.

I have a good local fish store I could get some plants from
Please ask them to sell you the plants that are in the aquariums with fish rather than in plant-only containers. In this way your new plants will be coated with nitrifying bacteria when you bring them home.
 
Number of beneficial bacteria in a cycled aquarium corresponds to the amount of Nitrites. In your case rapidly decaying plants may have caused the Nitrite spike as bacteria weren't ready so for extra work that they were suddenly given.
Normally, in a fully uncycled tank, you'd have ammonia present. The detail that it is nitrites that are present suggests the possibility that the tank wasn't fully cycled.
Given that the tank was apparently running for "nearly two months", and that the guppies were introduced 3 weeks ago, it's possible that the ammonia-eating bacteria had grown sufficiently, but not yet the nitrite-eating bacteria. (This usually takes quite a bit longer to develop).

Besides adding fast-growing plants, another possible solution would be to add some commercially available, bottled bacteria, specifically of the nitrite-eating kind. (I've used Microbe-Lift Nite-Out II to good effect).
Whilst I appreciate that the tank could well have it's old beneficial bacteria present, adding extra from a bottle would rarely cause any detriment and would likely enhance what should already be there.

Please ask them to sell you the plants that are in the aquariums with fish rather than in plant-only containers. In this way your new plants will be coated with nitrifying bacteria when you bring them home.
Whilst this is a reasonable suggestion of a tip, most plants found in the tanks of shops tend to be Java Fern, or some other slow grower. These would be neither use nor ornament for the purposes required.
For management of nitrogen-based toxins, faster growing plants, as you suggested, would be needed.
This list may be of use.
 
Thank you all very much for your help and ideas! I’m going to my lfs now to get some live bacteria, and they do have lots of fast growing plants in their fish aquariums too! So i’ll try both. after another water change today the nitrites are down from 5 ppm to .25 ppm.. so hopefully it keeps going down each day.
 
I dosed stability yesterday and today nitrite is at 0!!!! should i continue the 7 day dose? or just stop?
Excellent, congratulations!!! I would continue for 7 days. I think after first day you can half the dose.
 
Excellent, congratulations!!! I would continue for 7 days. I think after first day you can half the dose.
Thanks OutOfTheBlue, It’s been 24 hours and i’ll soon add the second dose of stability.. but I just tested nitrates with my master api and it seems to be at zero.. or close to zero. the yellow doesn’t quite match. do you think this will be a problem? I don’t want to kill off all my good bacteria
 

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