Question about nitrites

[Bellie816]

Okay... I'm aware that I have probably beat this topic to death by now but I am very thorough and want to know every bit of information that I can.

My tank is the stinky little 10 gallon that has been giving me some problems. I fully cycled it (or at least thought it was) on January 6th after 4 weeks of waiting and all that jazz. I added 3 platies and a pond snail (snuck in the bag somehow) that same day after a 25% water change. My ammonia was 0, nitrites were 0, and nitrates were 5.

About 2 days later my nitrites started to slowly creep up...first .25, then .50 and then between 2 and 5. I figured I must have overfed because there were a few days that I thought "oops, I think I put too much in" so I'm assuming that's why my nitrites spiked up. Well my fish have been in there for 6 days now, and today my nitrites are still at 1.0. I've been doing 25% water changes at least twice a day and adding aquarium salt because I heard that helps decrease the toxicity of nitrites (not sure if this is true).

Anyway I'm just patiently waiting for my nitrites to fall back to zero. My nitrates are 10 right now and ammonia has been 0 all along since it has been fully cycled. My questions are...

1. Is there anything else I can be doing to help with the nitrite situation other than waiting it out? I'm assuming I just need to wait for that specific bacteria to grow and catch up with the 3 fish.

2. Should I buy a product to get rid of nitrites, or vacuum the gravel? I see some fish poop floating round when I do the water changes and some small pieces of food. Would it help to get rid of this stuff? I'm currently using the Jungle brand water conditioner/dechlor...but someone had suggested using Prime because it also gets rid of toxins.

I just want to make sure I am doing everything I can do help these fish get through this. My two female platys are doing well.... actively swimming, eating, and not gasping for air at the surface or anything. My male platy still has pop eye and clamped fins at times throughout the day, but I'm hoping the aquarium salt helps him heal. I believe I am slowly killing my pond snail with the salt (as I just found out in my snail post) :scry: ....

[Chris5150]

You most likly caused a mini cycle adding 3 fish at once to a 10 gallon. Just be paitient. Feed once a day. I would keep up with the water changes or at least do 3 or 4 a week until the nitrites fall back to 0. As far as a product to get rid of nitirites, I'm sure a product does exist but the best way to ensure that they wont spike again is to wait and let the aquarium establish itself.

[Northernguy]

Stop adding salt!
Remember the only way to get rid of the salt is through water changes.Those small water changes will remove some but not all.You do add salt every time.

[aspects]

Stop adding salt!
Remember the only way to get rid of the salt is through water changes.Those small water changes will remove some but not all.You do add salt every time.


exactly what i was thinking.

as far as your nitrite issue goes, its strange that you are showing such high nitrItes but no elevated marks in the other readings.

what are you using to test your water?

[Bellie816]

exactly what i was thinking.

as far as your nitrite issue goes, its strange that you are showing such high nitrItes but no elevated marks in the other readings.

what are you using to test your water?

Okay so stop adding salt even though I'm trying to help the sick platy with pop eye? I will do as you say! thumbs2:

I am using the API liquid test kit... I thought the nitrite thing was strange, too. I will have to test nitrates again...maybe they are higher now. I even tested my tap water for nitrites to make sure my test solution wasn't bad or something...but it read 0.

[aspects]

if you are treating a fish, you should remove it from the tank to a hospital/ quarantine tank.

that is really odd. unless your nitrate testing solution is out of date.
if it were a mini cycle, you would be having a spike in ammonia and nitrates. but even then, after 6 days it should have been long gone.

[Bellie816]

if you are treating a fish, you should remove it from the tank to a hospital/ quarantine tank.

that is really odd. unless your nitrate testing solution is out of date.
if it were a mini cycle, you would be having a spike in ammonia and nitrates. but even then, after 6 days it should have been long gone.

Do you mean I would be having a spike in ammonia, nitrates and nitrites? I am only having a spike in nitrites, and it started happening about 2-3 days after I added fish, even though my tank showed as fully cycled on 1/6.

Now when I was cycling my tank, I never had a spike in nitrates. It never went above 10, which I thought was odd. Someone in my aquarium journal told me it was no big deal. Does that sound right?

How much longer should I keep doing water changes for the high nitrites? They have been at 1.0 today.... which is lower than yesterday so maybe it is starting to go down.

I looked inside my filter (took the lid off) and it has an oily residue along the top of the water just on the inside of it where the cartridge and bio filter are.... would that have anything to do with it or is that just from fish food?