Todays Fish Cycle Stats

[mouse33]

Well yesterday I had a 5ppm nitrite reading and a 0 ammonia reading so I did a 30% change and another 30% change today and then tested but nitrites were still in the 5ppm what should I do?

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Have you been doing gravel vacs with the water change or just removing water?

How many fish/what kind in what sized tank?

How much are you feeding the fish?

Keep changing that water!

 

[mouse33]

I am feeding them 2 crunched up flakes, 7 tetras, 10 gallon, no gravel vac.

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

Well, one reason that you may have such high nitrite levels even after water changes is that decaying waste in the gravel is letting off extra ammonia for the bacteria to convert to nitrite. The other situation may be that 30% a day isn't enough to over come the amount of waste that your fish are producing. Or a combination of both.

 

[Puffdaddy]

That is a nitrite reading right and not a nitrate reading. It is very odd to have nitrite that high with no ammonia showing. Have you used an meds recently?

Edit: sorry was breezen through and just now realized you are cycling your tank with fish. You need to be doing water changes daily till nitrites are a consistant 0.

 

[rdd1952]

Is 5ppm the highest level on your test kit? If so, it's possible that the level is much higher than 5ppm. Otherwise, a 30% water change should have lowered it by 30%. With the nitrite that high, you need to do at least a 50% change and probably 2 a day until the nitrite is below .25ppm.

 

[mouse33]

that is the highest on the kit deep puple on a master test kit and yes this is nitrite but is I vaccum the gravel won't I be removing bacteria.

 

[rdd1952]

Unless you have an under gravel filter, there is only a very minute amount of bacteria in the substrate so vacuuming won't harm it. You need to get the waste out that is decaying and creating ammonia. As I mentioned, your nitrite is way above 5 ppm so you need to quickly get it down. I would do 50% water changes 2 or 3 times a day until you get it to at least on your chart and preferably down to .25ppm or less. Then change to 25% WCs as needed to keep it there. What is your nitrate reading? If it is high, it means that at least there are bacteria trying to process the nitrite but the level is just to high for them to catch up.