G'day all
So last night my female dwarf gourami died, i am pretty sure this was my fault, as when i checked my levels this morning my ammonia was finally at 0ppm (hooray for that), however my nitrite.. well my nitrite read about 2-5ppm, according to the API Freshwater Master Test Kit I used, which I think the shades of purple that indicate 1ppm through to 5+ppm are VERY similar, so a bit hard to tell exactly.
So as of now, I'm a bit confused as what to do next to get through this safely.
Here are some of the details...
I'm on day 12 of a cycle with fish.
I know alot of people prefer fishless, and so may I if that had been what i'd done, but i haven't, so let's work with that.
As I said, my ammonia seems to have hit zero, but my nitrite is peaking.
Tonight I did a 50% water change to try and drop it down to safer levels, added some aquarium salts to try and soften the nitrite parameters a little more, and added a 4 times dose of Prime (which says you can do in Nitrite emergencies to "detoxify" the Nitrite).
But still it's reading about 1ppm or over (again, cant be too sure due to the test kit)..
So a few questions here..
Anyway, hope some of you here can shed light on all of this, I know this is a rather long post but I'd much rather ask it all and look like a blatant rookie than not ask and never know. Thanks heaps everyone.
So last night my female dwarf gourami died, i am pretty sure this was my fault, as when i checked my levels this morning my ammonia was finally at 0ppm (hooray for that), however my nitrite.. well my nitrite read about 2-5ppm, according to the API Freshwater Master Test Kit I used, which I think the shades of purple that indicate 1ppm through to 5+ppm are VERY similar, so a bit hard to tell exactly.
So as of now, I'm a bit confused as what to do next to get through this safely.
Here are some of the details...
I'm on day 12 of a cycle with fish.
I know alot of people prefer fishless, and so may I if that had been what i'd done, but i haven't, so let's work with that.
As I said, my ammonia seems to have hit zero, but my nitrite is peaking.
Tonight I did a 50% water change to try and drop it down to safer levels, added some aquarium salts to try and soften the nitrite parameters a little more, and added a 4 times dose of Prime (which says you can do in Nitrite emergencies to "detoxify" the Nitrite).
But still it's reading about 1ppm or over (again, cant be too sure due to the test kit)..
So a few questions here..
- say my nitrite is now "detoxified" from the prime overdose, will this still read as nitrites on my API test kit, or should the kit read 0 if they are detoxified?
- If the Nitrites are in fact detoxified, does this mean they are useless to the cycle and may hamper its progress? The info on the Prime informs me that it makes them non toxic to fish and easier for bacteria to consume, so from this it would sound that they are still going to continue the cycle, but I'm just not sure as that doesn't sound right..
- How should I go about water changes during the Nitrite stage of the cycle, as I have not read anything on them from the resources found here. Are they only in emergencies? Should they occur regularly as in the ammonia stage?
- I have read that ammonia should be supplemented once in the nitrite stage, but this was in the articles on fishless cycles, what should I do since my cycle includes fish? Will continuing feeding the fish add the ammonia needed, or should I (as I have read elsewhere) stop feeding my fish while I right now have a spike in the nitrite and perhaps supplement it another way?
Anyway, hope some of you here can shed light on all of this, I know this is a rather long post but I'd much rather ask it all and look like a blatant rookie than not ask and never know. Thanks heaps everyone.