Worrying Nitrite Reading.

[crazychris]

Just done tests on both my tropical tanks. Everything fine in my main 3' one with both ammonia and nitrite at 0. However in my 2ft one I got a shock with nitrite over 1.0 and nearly 2.0. Has been cycled 2 years and tested 0 last time I tested about a fortnight ago! All I can think is that I accidentally left the filter off 17 hours, all night, last Thursday. Could my bacteria have died off in those hours so basically the tank's cycling again? Ammonia is 0 and nitrate 40. Just done a 50% water change. Do I test daily, every other day or what? Fish seem fine but when should I do another water change?

 

[Bluetooth]

ive read that the bacteria generally start dieing off after an hour or no oxygenated water, i think you might be in a mini cycle or something, i would monitor your nitrIte levels with daily tests and do 10% daily changes to keep the levels down if there are any spikes.

 

[helterskelter]

Yes your in a mini cycle, it should clear quite soon now if ammonia is 0.

again do 10-15% water changes every 2-3 days to help reduce it.

 

[crazychris]

Thanks.

 

[ellena]

Surely bigger water changes would be needed? If it was nearly 2 and you changed 50%, it's still around 1 which is very high. It needs to be kept below 0.25 with frequent 50% changes.

 

[crazychris]

Surely bigger water changes would be needed? If it was nearly 2 and you changed 50%, it's still around 1 which is very high. It needs to be kept below 0.25 with frequent 50% changes.

Will another tomorrow be okay then or shall I do another tonight?

 

[crazychris]

It's 0.5 now so still too high but much better.

 

[Gilli]

Keep changing daily as much as you can until it hits 0