Hi everyone, have been searching around and found this forum to be very helpful and knowledgeable about anything and everything related to fish!!! I was hoping someone could help point me in the correct direction.
Basically I started my first fish tank about 3 months ago and all was well until I got back into town the other day. The tank was started slow and cycle was completed with all tests monitored consistently at first then on a weekly basis by the LFS. I had my girlfriend take care of the fish while I was gone and when I came back some of the fish were acting a little odd so I went straight to the LFS and that's when I found out how off my Nitrite levels are....and came to find out she feed them about half of the jar are food, i know WAY to much, which is and understatement. They gave me some advice and sold me some tank cycling bacteria but I came to you all before doing anything they recommended.
The levels of Nitrite and Ammonia were through the roof and off the chart so I immediately did a large water change and got a ton of junk out of the gravel and have continued to do so everyday since. Within about 6 days I have reduced all levels to normal, I think, except for the Nitrite and cant seem to get it under control. Just purchased real test kit and threw out strips. As of right now the levels are:
Tank size: 45 gallons
pH: 7.8
ammonia: 0
nitrite: brought down to 1.0 but was at 5.0...terrible i know
nitrate: 5
kH: 80
gH: 120
tank temp: 80.8
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): Hovering at top of water, swimming fast, popeye, and some dead
Volume and Frequency of water changes: back to back 50% immediatly then 30% then about 20% daily, completely cleaned gravel b/c filthy and probably lost most bacteria
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: just water conditioner and a little bacteria used when starting cycle in tank at the beginning
Tank inhabitants: 1 Angel 2 Tetra 1 Red Tail Black Shark 3 something else small cant remember name
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): none
Exposure to chemicals: none
The fish are now starting to act somewhat normal but still have me worried as the Nitrite level has remained at a constant and I can;t get it to go down. I lost 1 angel, 2 Tetra, and 1 gold sail fin fish. The other gold sail fin fish is in another tank and popeye went away was reintroduced into tank and popeye came back overnight so he is out again. I probably did everything wrong to fix what she did but I wont stop trying....any other ideas of how I can get Nitrite down?? And why the fish got popeye when reintroduced?? I keep reading articles about established bacteria on rocks or filters from LFS but don't think I trust them anymore. Any advice/help would be great....Thanks
Also, my tank is a little odd as it is a hexagon shape and six feet tall...tons of fun to clean but looks great and have double recommended filtration on the tank. I have been told the 1 inch per gallon applies then others tell me I should cut that down to about .5 inches because of the shape. To many different options so any advice on that would be great as well.
Thank again
Greg
Basically I started my first fish tank about 3 months ago and all was well until I got back into town the other day. The tank was started slow and cycle was completed with all tests monitored consistently at first then on a weekly basis by the LFS. I had my girlfriend take care of the fish while I was gone and when I came back some of the fish were acting a little odd so I went straight to the LFS and that's when I found out how off my Nitrite levels are....and came to find out she feed them about half of the jar are food, i know WAY to much, which is and understatement. They gave me some advice and sold me some tank cycling bacteria but I came to you all before doing anything they recommended.
The levels of Nitrite and Ammonia were through the roof and off the chart so I immediately did a large water change and got a ton of junk out of the gravel and have continued to do so everyday since. Within about 6 days I have reduced all levels to normal, I think, except for the Nitrite and cant seem to get it under control. Just purchased real test kit and threw out strips. As of right now the levels are:
Tank size: 45 gallons
pH: 7.8
ammonia: 0
nitrite: brought down to 1.0 but was at 5.0...terrible i know
nitrate: 5
kH: 80
gH: 120
tank temp: 80.8
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): Hovering at top of water, swimming fast, popeye, and some dead
Volume and Frequency of water changes: back to back 50% immediatly then 30% then about 20% daily, completely cleaned gravel b/c filthy and probably lost most bacteria
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: just water conditioner and a little bacteria used when starting cycle in tank at the beginning
Tank inhabitants: 1 Angel 2 Tetra 1 Red Tail Black Shark 3 something else small cant remember name
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): none
Exposure to chemicals: none
The fish are now starting to act somewhat normal but still have me worried as the Nitrite level has remained at a constant and I can;t get it to go down. I lost 1 angel, 2 Tetra, and 1 gold sail fin fish. The other gold sail fin fish is in another tank and popeye went away was reintroduced into tank and popeye came back overnight so he is out again. I probably did everything wrong to fix what she did but I wont stop trying....any other ideas of how I can get Nitrite down?? And why the fish got popeye when reintroduced?? I keep reading articles about established bacteria on rocks or filters from LFS but don't think I trust them anymore. Any advice/help would be great....Thanks
Also, my tank is a little odd as it is a hexagon shape and six feet tall...tons of fun to clean but looks great and have double recommended filtration on the tank. I have been told the 1 inch per gallon applies then others tell me I should cut that down to about .5 inches because of the shape. To many different options so any advice on that would be great as well.
Thank again
Greg
/www.flippersandfins.net/pop-eye.htm"]http
