Should i panic

[Country joe]

I swapped my tank over on Wednesday 29 th January, yesterday Thursday test was ammonia nil, nitrite nil, ph 7.5, today Friday, ammonia is nil, ph is 7.5 but nitrite has jumped from nil to .5, tests were liquid not strips, should I be worried, I have put my live plants into new tank plus wood and rocks, also old substrate wich I did not wash, and my fluval 307 filter from my established tank, this morning I added a small bottle 50 mls of Tetra Safe Start, as a preventative, my tank is 200 litres,
What should I do about the nitrite.

 

[MaloK]

While vacuuming the substrate. Perform a 20% water change, about 10 gallons. Every time the nitrite raise over 0.5.

This should settle pretty quickly. If I remember, one of your post, you mentioned that you didn't rinse your substrate when moving.

It's probably the cause of the spike. It's always expected when doing substrate "modification".

 

[Country joe]

Thank you

 

[Country joe]

Should I just do a water change, or should I gravel vacuum as well?, when I did the change over, it took me longer than I thought, and the water was sitting in my filter for 4 hours, before it was up and running again, could this have caused the spike and not my substrate?

 

[DoubleDutch]

I swapped my tank over on Wednesday 29 th January, yesterday Thursday test was ammonia nil, nitrite nil, ph 7.5, today Friday, ammonia is nil, ph is 7.5 but nitrite has jumped from nil to .5, tests were liquid not strips, should I be worried, I have put my live plants into new tank plus wood and rocks, also old substrate wich I did not wash, and my fluval 307 filter from my established tank, this morning I added a small bottle 50 mls of Tetra Safe Start, as a preventative, my tank is 200 litres,
What should I do about the nitrite.

I don't exactly get if there are fish in allready.

 

[Country joe]

Very simple I purchased a bigger tank and moved everything over, the first two days my tank tests were fine, but yesterday my nitrite was from nil, to .5 so i have a nitrite spike

 

[MaloK]

Should I just do a water change, or should I gravel vacuum as well?, when I did the change over, it took me longer than I thought, and the water was sitting in my filter for 4 hours, before it was up and running again, could this have caused the spike and not my substrate?

No, it wasn't long enough to have any repercussion, I when as long as 48 hours, any ammonia or nitrite where cleaned in few hours after circulation came back.

As long as the media remained wet and warm enough, your filter should be still in good health.

 

[Country joe]

I visited my fish store, and was having a word with the manager, who has run the store for 15 years with marine and fresh water, he reconed with the amount of new water I put into the tank, I didn't need to do a water change, he said it will probably settle down,and I could add Stability, for a 200 litre tank he advised first dose 25 mls, then 6 doses of 12.5 mls, and don't feed fish, so I did a test yesterday the nitrate was still .5 ammonia was nil, I added the Stability But I also added one cap of prime. Tested today and readings are ammonia nil, nitrite nil, which is good. I added the 12.5 Stability, but no prime.
I will continue with the Stability doses, but should I continue adding prime as well, and when would start feeding fish, and finally do you think I'm now in the clear, with ammonia and nitrite at nil?
And thanks to all who replied to help I was in a panic.

 

[MaloK]

I think you could stop everything, your spike is already over.



You can restart feeding them slowly and do spot checks on ammonia and nitrite, but you seems to be good.