Quickly rising nitrite levels Home » Forums » 911 !! EMERGENCY Please Help Me!! Replies: 18   Pages: 2   Most recent reply posted by: DracheCool (May 4, 2004 11:42 AM)

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Replies: 18   Pages: 2   [ Go: 1 2 » ]

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 24, 2003 11:26 PM Reply Hello, I'm new to this hobby (only fish I had before were a few short-lived goldfish won at the town's homecoming fair when I was little) ...anyways, I've currently got a 10-gallon aquarium, that's been set up for about two weeks now. The current contents of it: 3 Black Phantom Tetras 4 Ghost Shrimp An unknown number of tiny snails that snuck in when I added the plants :P (removed 10 so far, and don't see any others, so hopefully that's all of them). The tank also contains Anacharis, a dwarf anubias, two small tufts of dwarf hairgrass, a banana plant, and dwarf mondo grass (which I only found out later was listed as cold-water) Ammonia level has been steady at about .25 for awhile now (which I understand is normal while it's cycling). The nitrites, however, went from .5 to 3 ppm literally overnight a few days ago. Last night I performed a 20% water change, I also added some Korden Amquel Plus, which is supposed to reduce nitrites (among other things). Instead, today the nitrite level was up to 5 ppm. I'm already planning to do at least a 30% water change tommorrow, and I have added aquarium salt (Doc Wellfish's) to the water. Is there anything else I can do? 5 ppm seems to be a bit high, even if the tank is cycling currently. I appologize if this is posted in the wrong forum, I wasn't sure and maybe I'm just being a bit paranoid since I'm new at this. Thanks for any help any of you can provide.

vintage_fish Posts: 7,904 From: South Side of the Sky Registered: Mar, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 27, 2003 9:23 PM Reply The nitrite spike is part of the cycle, as well. You will see a spike first in ammonia, then in nitrite, and as those fall back to zero, a rise in nitrates. Since you do have critters in the tank, it is strongly advised that you do some major water changes, try to keep the levels down so your fish aren't affected. Welcome to the wonderful wet world of underwater wonder (and awful alliteration)!!

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 27, 2003 9:42 PM Reply Thanks, yesterday I was up at the fish store (RMS Aquaculture, if anyone's in the Cleveland area) picking up some supplies and had asked them as well (PetsMart, on the other hand, claimed salt would correct the nitrites :P PetsMart: Good for convenient access to supplies, bad for actual fish and information) and they told me it was normal as well. Just wasn't expecting such a large spike, since ammonia'd only hit about .25. The fish and shrimp don't seem affected (one of the shrimp's disappeared tho, and is presumed dead at this point). Planning another 10% water change on Sunday, as I've been doing weekly since getting the tank, I may increase that to 20% though. I think nitrites are starting to decrease, and nitrates increase. Is there a level of nitrates I should be concerned about? So far only thing I've read about nitrate levels is that some plants prefer it to be under 30 ppm. Right now it's around 40 ppm (tapwater seems to be 20 ppm for nitrates here). Thanks for the welcome and for the advice

vintage_fish Posts: 7,904 From: South Side of the Sky Registered: Mar, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 27, 2003 10:31 PM Reply > Planning > another 10% water change on Sunday, as I've been > doing weekly since getting the tank, I may increase > that to 20% though. While experiencing any reading at all in ammonia and nitrite, you should really do water changes quite often - daily is almost necessary to keep the fish from getting poisoned from the ammonia and nitrite. Ammonia/nitrite poisoning can be a pretty quick killer, and it can be difficult to see happening, especially in hardy fish, but the damage is still there. > Is there a level of nitrates I > should be concerned about? So far only thing I've > read about nitrate levels is that some plants prefer > it to be under 30 ppm. Right now it's around 40 ppm 50ppm is considered toxic to hardy/nitrate tolerant fish. One should aim to keep nitrate well below 20ppm, whenever possible. > (tapwater seems to be 20 ppm for nitrates here). Zowie. That's no fun. It tests at 20ppm straight from the tap?? Ugh. Well, I know you're doing the plant thing, and plants will help suck up nitrates - but you're also going to be in for an algae battle, down the road. Once your tank has finished cycling, do consider some algae-eating shrimp (Caridina japonica, other Caridina/Neocaridina speceis) to help you. -Sabrina

Allivymar Posts: 515 From: NY Registered: May, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 27, 2003 11:36 PM Reply Just a coupla FYIs to add to Vin's suggestions: I've noticed recently, on a number of forums, everyone who used AmQuel+ has experienced a RISE in nitrites, despite the product claims to the contrary. Korden's website goes into detail about how it neutralises ammonia; never explains how it works with nitrites. After reading all these posts I tend to believe they're full of poo with the nitrite claim. Also, while the Petsmart info was misleading about salt taking care of nitrites, they were somewhere in the ballpark. Salt IS the treatment for nitrite poisoning; nitrite competes with O2 at the gills; the chloride ions somehow prevent that.

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 28, 2003 12:12 AM Reply Aye, I knew salt helped as far as nitrite poisoning, Petsmart seemed to think salt reduced the levels or something. Ok, I'll see about doing water changes more frequently (as I noted in my original post, did 20% and 30% ones already this week.) ...I think I saw something about that AmQuel+/nitrate rise thing in the forums, that was after I'd used it. I think I'm going to hold off using it again since I didn't see a noticable effect from using the stuff. Dunno if 20 ppm is normal for nitrates in the tapwater here, or a side-effect of the power outage. Incase any of you didn't hear: Cleveland-area wasn't supposed to drink water without boiling for about 3 days after that, and last I heard they were still telling people not to go swimming in Lake Erie because a load of raw sewage was accidently dumped into it and the Cuyahoga River (no power to the pumps during the outage, and the pipes apparently go uphill from the Lake). Turns out that while Cleveland has four pumping stations for drinking water (and I'd assume it works likewise for the sewage), _none_ of them had backup generators. So for all I know, maybe the nitrate levels in the tapwater is due to the water pipes still not being fully flushed (there's a fun thought :P ). Or could just be mineral run-off (read that somewhere that in the summer nitrate levels in tapwater may rise due to runoff, think it was on WWM or here on the forums). I know in Berea (south of here) their tapwater tastes like salt during the summer after bad winters (where they continually request the surrounding area stop salting the roads as much). Have a little algae growing on the airline, it looks like, and one or two pieces of gravel have a slight greenish tinge. So far it seems to be minor, though. I've started turning off the light for a few hours in the middle of the day, this was suggested in Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants as something that should reduce algae growth. I'll look into the algae-eating shrimp you suggested once the cycle's done. Thanks for the suggestions

Allivymar Posts: 515 From: NY Registered: May, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 28, 2003 12:40 PM Reply 20 ppm nitrates in the water supply? Eeek! Anything over 10 ppm is considered a problem by the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/dw_contamfs/nitrates.html . And boiling water does not rid it of nitrates, if anything it increases the concentration. Ack. What a mess. See if you can find a dechlor that only removes chlorine and chloramine; Jungle makes one.

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 28, 2003 1:59 PM Reply I've been using Stress Coat to remove chlorine and chloramines (as well as letting water sit out at least 24 hours before a change). Hopefully the nitrate level in the water is just boosted temporarily due to the outage or the like. Or maybe it's just testing high (test strips I have doesn't show increments between 0 and 20, but the color looked pretty much exactly like the color code for 20 when I tested the tap water). I'll check the tapwater again tonight and see what it comes up with.

vintage_fish Posts: 7,904 From: South Side of the Sky Registered: Mar, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 28, 2003 2:04 PM Reply The test strips could in fact be the culprit - they have a nasty habit of being grossly inaccurate. Great for a ballpark figure in an emergency situation when nothing else is available, awful for knowing for sure where your parameters are. Try to find liquid reagent test kits, or even dry tab test kits. I'm too impatient for the dry tabs, myself, so I stick with liquid reagents.

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 29, 2003 11:24 AM Reply Picked up one of the liquid kits today (Tetra's). Ammonia's now testing at 0 with the new kit, nitrites are between 1.6 and 3.3 (water was too dark for the one, and too light for the other). Couldn't check nitrates since that was the one thing the kit apparently didn't contain (oh well, I'll be near another pet store this evening, 'll look there if I get done before that store closes)

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 29, 2003 7:39 PM Reply Picked up a nitrate kit. Tank water test a bit high, not quite 50 (was planning to perform a water change tonight anyways). Checked the tap water again, it came in at something below 12.5. So it's not as high as I thought (or if it was that high, whatever was in the system has worked itself out now).

Perculafan Posts: 2,648 From: In a delusional demented state Registered: Dec, 2002 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 29, 2003 8:12 PM Reply DonQuixote, I love DonQuixote. I have a sculpture of Rocinante on my desk! (His view of Rocinante, Claro Que si) Ok, now I forgot what I was doing. Perc.

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 29, 2003 9:42 PM Reply *chuckles* I like bot Cervantes' novel and the musical Man of La Mancha. Got to see a community college production of it a few years ago. I'd recommend the Peter O'Toole version (available on video) if you've never seen it. :) ..also found a Terry Gilliam documentary about Gilliam's failed attempt to film a Don Quixote movie (everything that could go wrong did), haven't had a chance to watch it yet tho.

Sea Maiden Posts: 1,187 From: South Lake Tahoe, CA Registered: Aug, 2002 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 31, 2003 4:18 PM Reply > 20 ppm nitrates in the water supply? Eeek! Anything > over 10 ppm is considered a problem by the EPA: > http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/dw_contamfs/ > itrates.html . And boiling water does not rid it of > nitrates, if anything it increases the concentration. > Ack. What a mess. > > See if you can find a dechlor that only removes > chlorine and chloramine; Jungle makes one. However, I've seen plenty of municipalities that allow a level as HIGH as 40ppm for potable water. I agree, what a mess!

DonQuixote Posts: 158 From: Cleveland, OH Registered: Aug, 2003 Re: Quickly rising nitrite levels Posted: Aug 31, 2003 5:29 PM Reply Checked into algae-eating shrimp yesterday. No one has them around here (at least not the two fish stores (same chain) that I'd buy livestock from. Didn't bother checking PetsPlus or Pet Supplies Plus). I've been thinking of putting in an apple snail (shops have gold and black shelled apple snails. Also Ivory Snails, which I think I read are just albino apples, right?) after the tank's been running 6-8 weeks. Probably not as good as the shrimp, but I've seen sites say they eat algae (also that they might eat my plants :P ..but a few sites say that's usually just if there's a lack of algae and dead plant matter available). Are there any other suggestions? I know otocinclus(sp?) seem to be recommended often for algae eating, but I think putting in several of them in a 10-gallon with a trio of panda corys would be a bit much. (Also, should I start this as a new topic in the freshwater forum? Since the nitrite question's been answered, and we're now on to the topic of future algae control, I can't help but think I'm taking up space in the emergency forum unnecessarily)

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