Nitrites Too High.. Wot To Do?

[jenny6165]

ive had my tank for a couple of weeks now and the 5 danios that were added are doing fine.
the ammonia levels have been at 0 for a week now, but my nitrite levels are at least 5ppm. Will they drop on their own and what sort of time frame are we looking at?
ive been doing daily water changes, using a big cooking pot and doing 3 potful changes a day.

I added some aquarium supplement called 'cycle' which is supposed give beneficial bacteria to consume ammonia and nitrite. is it worth using? ive used it twice now, once last week and once this week. but it doesnt seem to have made any difference.

my nitrate levels are about 40ppm.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

AHHH!! NOT GOOD! I would do bigger water changes more often. Add that cycle stuff. Im guessing you didn't cycle your tank. The only thing you really can do is do big water changes as often as you can and keep adding that cycle stuff. Hopefully the nitrate will go down.

 

[dwarfgourami]

You can also add a little salt; helps with the effects of the nitrites.

 

[jenny6165]

how big is big for a water change?

 

[Glod]

You probably want to look at doing 20-25% as often as needed (even every day if your nitrites remain high).

As for a time frame, it varies for everyone but generally speaking you should start to see a decline in nitrites within a week to 10 days from your ammonia spiking. A couple of days either side of that is still possible. Just try and keep on top of the water changes to minimise the threat to your fish. You might need to keep the regular changes up for a couple of weeks while it settles.

Nitrates at 40ppm is not a huge worry, the nitrites are the problem at the moment. Are the nitrates in your tap water quite high to start with ? Do you have live plants in your tank ? They can help a little with the nitrogen cycle too.

As for Cycle, it's up to you. It probably doesn't do any harm but I haven't seen any proof that it does much good either. I used it in my 10 gallon the first time I cycled it and it took just as long as it did the second time.

Good luck with your Cycle Patience is key, all you can do is monitor it, test regularly and change water as needed. Keep an eye on the fish, Danios are pretty robust but they'll soon tell you if the water is unbearable.

 

[scubadoo]

Your tank is still cycling.
It will take time for the nitryfying bacteria which process nitrite to nitrate a while to develop.

The best thing you can do is do regular water changes to get your nitrite down. It should be 0, but during cycling you want to do all you can to keep it as low as possible.

When my tank went through a mini cycle, I was changing 30-40% twice daily for a few days to get the levels down. once your levels are below 1ppm, then you can reduce the number and quantity of changes as you find your bacterial colony is coping with the fish waste.

Dont forget to add de-chlorinator to all your new water or you'll kill off all the bacteria your trying hard to cultivate.

 

[Glod]

Dont forget to add de-chlorinator to all your new water or you'll kill off all the bacteria your trying hard to cultivate.

Quoted for emphasis... I knew there was something else I meant to mention !

 

[jenny6165]

how can i tell how the fish are coping? what sort of signs should i look out for.

i'll do a bigger water change tomorrow, havent been adding dechlorinator, so will go get some asap.

 

[Tolak]

Nitrites inhibit a fiah's ability to process O2. Many times they will be at the surface trying to gulp air if they are stressed from nitrites. Increasing the O2 level by adding an air stone, or dropping the water level a little so the output of the filter splashes the surface will help.

 

[Rocky32189]

Keep doing large water changes. That cycle stuff will not do a thing.

 

[jenny6165]

ok the last 2 days ive done 50% water changes.

tested my water today

ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0.5ppm
nitrate between 7 and 10 ppm
ph about 7.5ppm

i think i may have done the nitrate test wrong tho, cos i had 40ppm last week, so might need to do another test.
the nitrites have now gone well down, will this stay down now if i continue to do water changes and how will i know when they are going to stay down without such a big water change.

 

[MoMa]

it's a good idea, while the tank is still this young, to do your water tests every day.
you'll be able to better understand the effect your water changes, etc. are having on the tank.
Definitely get the dechlorinator!!

Good Luck!
-MoMa