No3 And No2 Levels

[squarefish]

As a newbie, I wonder if anyone can help with this... I added five neon tetras eight days ago, and the levels of Nitrate and Nitrite have risen pretty high. I am using the Freshwater Tetratest kit where you dip the strips into the water. The NO3 and NO2 levels appear to be at the highest colour levels, but I have not been able to get them down for the past five days even though I change 20% of the water every other day, and I bought some de-nitrate 'gravel' (in a net) to put in the tank. I have also added 3ml of Safe Water two days ago. How long should it be before I see any results, or am I not doing enough? I have the small AquaOne 320 (28 litre) with an undergravel filter system. As far as I can see there is no foam filter anywhere. There are five serpae tetras and six neon tetras, which the shop said was OK for the tank (but no more). Any advice appreciated, thanks Steve

 

[Scunny]

In order to get your Ammonia and Nitrite levels down you need to have established bacteria in the tank (i.e. a cycled tank). You didnt mention your ammonia levels, but if they've begun to fall then your nitrite levels will begin to rise. This is because the bacteria is converting the ammonia into nitrites. However, nitrites are lethal to fish, so therefore you need to have backteria to turn nitrites into nitrates. Nitrates don't tend to be to harmfull to your fish (unless you have really high levels) and should be lowered by water changes.

I've never used an Under gravel filter, but i think the bacteria will be on your gravel.

What are your actualy readings that your getting?

How long has the tank been set up?

How did you cycle it?

When i cycled my tank my ammonia was sky high for weeks, and then droped, and my Nitrite level went fairly high but only for a few days.

Your best bet is to try and get hold of some mature filter media.

Hopefully some part of this will have helped, but then again i wouldnt pay too much attention to it and instead wait for someone who knows more about this kind of thing to reply

 

[Scunny]

Check this out, as its got alot of advice in it

Whats in your water

Hope it helps

 

[squarefish]

The tank has been running for three weeks, the first two with the five serpaes, and seemed OK then, only now there are the neons as well have the levels gone up so much. My test kit does not show ammonia levels, but the readings tonight (all done by looking at the colour on the strip and comparing with label on tube) - NO3 (250) Bright Pink, NO2 (10) Bright pink, GH (16d) 3x purple, KH (15) and pH (8). As I say this kit just goes by the colour squares. As for the filter I don't think I've got one? - the bacteria must be in the gravel as far as I can tell.

 

[Scunny]

you said 'as for a filter i dont think iv got one' but in your first post you said youd got an undergravel filter

Itd be best for you to go get some ammonia test strips as soon as you can so you can see what your readings are.

I take it you didnt do a fishless cycle (neither did i with my first tank, its a mistake you learn from, quite a few people do it) which means that the chances of your fish surviving is a bit slim.

If you read that link i gave you it should explain how to get your nitrite levels down, aswell as any other levels that are undesirable.

 

[squarefish]

Sorry, what I meant was that I don't think theres any foam unit to hold the bacteria. I think they just sit in the 'plate' under the gravel. Unfortunately the owners manual doesn't explain a lot! I'll stop off tomorrow and pick up an amonia kit. Your'e right I did not do a fishless cycle - never heard of it til I joined up here (no mention in the shop). Just hope I can pull this around, at the moment its very confusing - like a chemistry lesson from hell!

 

[Scunny]

haha tell me about it. Wish i'd paid more attention at school now

Don't know if this would work, so maybe someone else could clarify, but what about floating the filter media in the tank?

I did this a while back but it was with some plastic cylinders out of my dads pond which were full of bacteria...although within an hour my 4 corys had striped them of it