High nitrites and ammonia...need help

**DeadSulphurhead** · 03-18-2012, 11:50 PM

Definitely a minicycle, if not a full cycle.
What the others were asking was, have you recently cleaned your filter at all? Like replace/add any sponges/pads/bioballs or rinse anything off with tap water?
If you have, this would be the 1st thing to point the finger at in a case of high ammonia AND nitrites. Ammonia can easily build from many factors in a tank, but having nitrites is what leads us all to believe it's a minicycle.

Sligg also had a good point. I don't have any brackish tanks so I can't speculate on that. As for just eye balling, never a good a idea, you want consistency with pretty much everything in an aquarium

Like Tiara said, liquid tests from brands like API really are worth a few extra bucks, much more accurate. I've done my own tests to confirm this..

**Lady Hobbs** · 03-19-2012, 02:18 AM

Originally Posted by Fish guy128

I'm misunderstanding you I think. Are you saying to uncycle a tank I need to rinse the filter in tap water? Or to fix my problem rinse my filter with tap?

Neither.

Tap water has chlorine in it. Chlorine kills the benefical bacteria. That would cause you to loose the cycle in your tank.

**matsungit** · 03-29-2012, 11:14 PM

I guess you were trying to go brackish for your Violet Goby? Too bad he died. The trick is to slowly acclimate. An SG of 1.010 is a bit high for the goby. Violet gobies should be 1.006 to 1.008 sg. Tap water is 1.001. Raise that SG .001 per week minimum until you reach your target. All the while adding beneficial bacteria but you need to stop if you get bacterial bloom. While cichlids are not brackish fish they at least need a little acclimation to survive the strange water. Having a salinity refractometer is a must for all brackish tanks. A hygrometer simply will not do. Use marine salt or real seawater. Never use aquarium salt.

**matsungit** · 03-31-2012, 01:16 AM

Please don't let this scare you. I actually bought my brand new refractometer online for only $30. They're getting cheaper nowadays. A brackish system is actually an exciting new territory and not too difficult to maintain like marine systems. Please read up on it. http://homepage.mac.com/nmonks/Proje...ackishfaq.html

As opposed to the writeup on the link, I actually have 7 neon tetras, 6 tetra glows, 4 barbs, and counless platys in my slightly brackish tank. Plus a pleco which supposedly cannot tolerate any salinity. All are happy and getting along with the other fresh and brackish fish. My specific gravity is 1.0025. Brackish fish are very tolerant of salinity swings since it rains on and off in tropical weather. Some even breed with sudden salinity drops.