Tiny Trace Of Nitrite

[LionessN3cubs]

okay I did my water tests tonight...and noticed that there is a TINY trace of nitrite in the tank. I mean TINY...to the point where its just BARELY a different shade from 0...what do I do?


I have the 10 gallon with 3 platys (plus 2 fry) 2 mollies, and an apple snail in the tank. It was fishlessly cycled...and I waited 2 weeks before adding the fish. I added fish a week ago. I DID just today remove the HUGE decoration I had in there which may have removed a small amount of my bacteria colony would that have done it? Or is it more likely because I've been overfeeding the tank a bit to make sure the fry get fed? THe decoration was just too big for the tank and had to go. As far as overfeeding the tank, well I kinda have to do that too because of the fry. Will everyone in there be okay while cycle adjusts to the extra feedings? I absolutely cannot get a fry tank like I was planning to right now...we had some majorly financially rough spots in the last couple of weeks and it just cannot happen. It's going to be awhile unfortunately. My sister DID mention that she may have a tank in her basement from when her daughters had fish last...hopefully she finds it for me. I offered to supply her with a cycled tank AND some fish if she lets me use it until I can swing a new tank and filter.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Well it could be one of two things really

Either the overfeeding cos of the fry, or some muck was stirred up from removing the decoration.

Either way the answer is the same as with cycling with fish, water changes until both ammonia and nitrite are steady at 0.

I appreciate you’ve said you can’t afford a fry tank, can totally sympathise. Do you think you could find money for a breeder net? They’re not brilliant but a reasonable compromise if you can’t get a tank. Understand if not but it’s worth asking.

 

[backtotropical]

I agree Lioness. You should be able to pick up a breeding net for less than $10. It just sits inside your main tank seperating the fry from the rest of the tank. Ideal if you don't have another tank.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

I agree Lioness. You should be able to pick up a breeding net for less than $10. It just sits inside your main tank seperating the fry from the rest of the tank. Ideal if you don't have another tank.

I'll look into getting one on friday. Now the next question is, since the buggers are so fast and tiny would it hurt them to suck them up with the gravel vac and then fish them out of the bucket with the net to get them into the breeder net? These little guys are fast and they hide UNDER the gravel.

 

[Corleone]

I suck up platy fry in the gravel vac constantly, and most of them seem fine for it. I haven't run into fry actually under the gravel, though. Granted, I don't keep them - they all end up eaten eventually.

Another thought on the nitrite trace, didn't you recently finish your cycle? (I loose track of who's doing what, heh) If so, a recently established biofilter is a bit touchy, and you might get low ammonia or nitrite readings now and then for the first week or two. Just do a water change and monitor to make sure it was temporary.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I suck up platy fry in the gravel vac constantly, and most of them seem fine for it. I haven't run into fry actually under the gravel, though. Granted, I don't keep them - they all end up eaten eventually.

Another thought on the nitrite trace, didn't you recently finish your cycle? (I loose track of who's doing what, heh) If so, a recently established biofilter is a bit touchy, and you might get low ammonia or nitrite readings now and then for the first week or two. Just do a water change and monitor to make sure it was temporary.

yeah, was a couple of weeks ago now i think, but it is a newly established filter so it'll just be a little blip for maybe a few days.

 

[waterdrop]

Morning MW et. al., I believe we've read here among member postings that even though we might "qualify" a biofilter as ready to go (because it has dropped both toxins to zero in a half day) there is still a thought that the populations will be maturing and becoming more stable for 6 months after that.

I suppose the things that led to this being passed around were probably just people reporting "blips" of ammonia or nitrite, just like Lioness has here, during that first 6 mo. And perhaps a general experience of much more stability roughly after that point.

Hope to some of you, like me, this seems backed up by your reading of people's threads and is not just an over-generalization,
~~waterdrop~~

 

[LionessN3cubs]

I suck up platy fry in the gravel vac constantly, and most of them seem fine for it. I haven't run into fry actually under the gravel, though. Granted, I don't keep them - they all end up eaten eventually.

Another thought on the nitrite trace, didn't you recently finish your cycle? (I loose track of who's doing what, heh) If so, a recently established biofilter is a bit touchy, and you might get low ammonia or nitrite readings now and then for the first week or two. Just do a water change and monitor to make sure it was temporary.

yeah, was a couple of weeks ago now i think, but it is a newly established filter so it'll just be a little blip for maybe a few days.

I tested again yesterday and it went up to a .25 instead of a trace. Did about a 20-25% change and it was back at 0....tested again this morning and its still 0. hopefully it doesnt creep back up

 

[Miss Wiggle]

usually if you get a 'blip' it is actually a mini cycle.

it means either some excess waste was produced for whatever reason and the filter couldn't catch up quickly enough, or something happened to cause some of the bacteria population to die off, as such you then get a mini cycle while it comes back on form.

the length of time a mini cycle lasts is dependent on the circumstances really, what has caused the blip. Sometimes all you'll see is a small reading of ammonia for 1/2 days, sometimes you'll see a mini version of a normal cycle (i.e. ammonia and nitrite spikes following on from each other) which goes on for maybe 4/5 days or a week.

as WD said, when the bacteria colony is new it's not quite stable, it doesn't have the ability to react to these situations like a mature filter would. In a nice mature tank a little bit of extra waste won't be a problem for the bacteria colony, they'll grow within a couple of hrs to the point they can handle it and you rarely see any changes in the levels. This is why we advise regular testing over the first few months of running a tank, but then it's not as necessary once the tank has stabilised.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

did water change day before yesterday...nitrite was 0 yesterday but this morning was .25 again. Did water change this evening...is this what I am supposed to keep doing? A water change (about 25-30%) every time it creeps up to .25?

Kinda bumming me out that Im basically doing a fish in cycle even tho I spent all that time working on a fishless cycle so that I was doing what was best for the fish. I can't imagine what caused this mini cycle...unless there are platy fry in there that died after birth and they are :::gag:::: decomposing or something. Bummer.

 

[waterdrop]

interesting, I suppose that could be the cause, ugh!

Are you getting some gravel vaccing in when you do the water changes?

 

[LionessN3cubs]

interesting, I suppose that could be the cause, ugh!

Are you getting some gravel vaccing in when you do the water changes?

Trying to...not much time when I'm only wanting to syphon about 25% of the water...it goes quickly with the vac I have.

 

[waterdrop]

You could siphon into a bucket that's on a stool. I think if the water level in the bucket is not too much lower than the tank surface level then the water will move more slowly and you'll have some more time to vac.

 

[LionessN3cubs]

You could siphon into a bucket that's on a stool. I think if the water level in the bucket is not too much lower than the tank surface level then the water will move more slowly and you'll have some more time to vac.

yeah, problem tho is that my tank is up HIGH because of my climbing monkey baby. I didnt trust having it on a regualr stand so its actually up on top of my printer cupboard...roughly 5.5 feet off the ground. I put the bucket up as high as I can, but I dont have any way of getting it higher than I already do, so it syphons very quickly still

 

[Corleone]

Possibly go to a hardware store and get a painter's stepladder. They've got a platform for holding paint cans and such, and it's quite sturdy, should be able to hold a few gallons of water at least.

I usually can't vac more than a quarter of my tank during a water change, myself. I keep a small stone on top of the hood which I move around to indicate what's been vacuumed last, so I hit it all over the course of a few weeks.