7 replies to this topic

[Tonster76]

Please fill out as much as possible below and give us a description of what is wrong with your fish.

Type of fish: Mbuna - Electric Yellow
Symptoms: High Nitrite
Other tank mates: Dolphin, Red Empress
Tank size / capacity:240L
Type of Food fed: Cichlid
Feeding frequency/amount: 1-2 day and skipping some days to reduce additional nitrites
Substrate: Gravel
Type of filtration: Juwel Bioflow (with Cirax as of today)
Frequency of filter cleans: 5 weeks old.. just changing the wool prefilter twice
Frequency and % volume of water changes: 1 - 2 days 20%
Last water change: Today
PH: 7.5
KH: 71
GH: 160
Nitrite: Probably 5...  I'm really wishing the colour into looking more like 2.5
Nitrate: 2.5-5
Ammonia: 0.125
Phosphate:
Water temp: 28
Medications used recently to date:
Any recent changes..new fish/filters/power outages etc etc:

 

Hi All, really hoping for some more advice if you have any from experience.  I'm a complete newbie.  Had a 240l tank for 5 weeks.  I had goldfish in there for 3 weeks trying to condition it.  Removed those and now have 5 Lake Malawi cichlids for a week.  As per above stats... my Nitrites are horribly high around 5 and if I look really hard I can wish the colour into looking a bit closer to 2.5

 

So the tank is 5 weeks old...  I was doing 20% water swaps every 2-3 days, for the last week I increased to 1-2 days.

I've kept up this routine and feels like my nitrites should be reducing especially after 5 weeks.

 

I used API Stress Coat for the first 2 weeks, then Quick Start for a couple of weeks and Tap Water conditioner.  I've also been adding Rift Lake salts for the last week.

 

So my two questions - Nitrites....after 5 weeks with this amount of attention, should I still be on the cusp of the Nitrogen Cycle?  What am I missing other than patience?  Maybe I really need to bit the bullet and do a full 50%+ water change.

 

Also... any newbie advice/brands I should look at for increasing my KH a lot!  and the PH a little?  Do people really use Baking Soda and Bicarbonate of Soda?  (I'm cool with increasing the GH a bit more with the Rift Lake salts)

Thanks very much if you get a chance to look at my stats.

Tony

Edited by Tonster76, 28 February 2015 - 11:58 PM.

[silverscreen]

tony...your tank will cycle if you ease of with the water changes a bit....let it go a week before you dump any water.

 

it can takes a couple of months for a tank to fully cycle.

 

add your stress coat...pick a day of the week to do your water change and enjoy your new tank.

 

rgds

john.

[Tonster76]

Thanks a lot John I'll ease off a bit.

Everything I read to treat high nitrites says to do water changes. I guess that's only once the bacteria is properly established.

Makes sense to leave it a bit... Because that's the only thing I'm not doing.

Loving the tank and thanks again


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[malawiman85]

Hi mate,

The problem most people have is they tend to fiddle too much when they get a reading for something like nitrite.
John is spot on ease up. Remember you want to achieve a stable system. Fiddling makes that impossible.

I would consider adding some aquarium/pool salt though. It reduces the effect of nitrite significantly. Do a bit of research on using salt to treat nitrite poisoning/exposure and see if you think its worth it.

Best not to add to much to your water to mess with pH either. Again its more important to keep it stable. If you want to do anything about it, pitch a heap of limestone in your tank.
If you dont like the look of limestone, you can buy crushed limestone which is like a dissolvable fine sand.

[Tonster76]

Thanks Malawiman, I did read up on the salt a little bit.  I'm not sure if the Malawi aquarium salt I'm already adding might be combating the effects of Nitrites and the only reason they're still alive.

[Mr_docfish]

Being a rift lake cichlid tank, Id use rift lake salts (Magnesium/Calcium Chlorides) rather than pool salt (sodium chloride) as this is the salt mix you will be using long term with those fish - and the calcium chloride is more effective than sodium chloride in blocking uptake of toxins like nitrite.
Stop feeding your fish other than twice a week - and water change ~ 30% twice a week (more for reducing the ammonia)
Once the ammonia has gone, you can feel free to up the pH by increasing the KH (try using a riftlake based KH buffer like tang buffer - either Seachem or AquaRealm) as they increase the pH more.

[Tonster76]

Thanks Mr_docfish, I was so worried about the Nitrites I was ignoring the Ammonia but will keep an eye on that and am also using the rift lake salt as you recommend.

 

Nitrites are coming down after not changing the water for 4-5 days

[bigjohnnofish]

i find your fish occupants are constantly producing ammonia - as in poop and other a few other sources as uneaten food decaying , dead fish , decaying plants etc...

 

when cycling your tank you create a backlog of ammonia to be consumed by the bacteria - bacteria numbers arent sufficient to keep up with ammonia production and hence your ammonia levels rise... bacteria numbers can double every 15 hours in favourable conditions... and will eventually catch up and consume the backlog of ammonia... this same process happens with nitrite as well... nitrite spike usually follows an ammonia spike when cycling a tank....

ideal levels of ammonia to have during cycling are around 2ppm... when and if your ammonia level gets to 4ppm and beyond this high level inhibits the growth of bacteria and can actually start to kill it off...  so during cycling the only water changes that are necessary are those to keep ammonia level below 4ppm and best at around 2ppm when cycling with fish... so i would do a 50% waterchange if ammonia gets to 4ppm... and i would prob do the same if my nitrite levels got high as well...  so the advice you were reading online elsewhere wasnt wrong - just probably didnt come with a good explanation why... hope this helps you understand the nitrogen cycle and how it establishes in new tanks...

p.s. wouldnt hurt to pre seed your new tank/filter with some bacteria squeezed out of another well established tanks sponge filter(s) and put into your tank... it will make your tank go cloudy and messy but should clear in an hour or so...   alternatively quickstart is a good product also to help establish bacteria quicker in your tank... use as per label and dont worry if you overdose a little -> safe...

Edited by bigjohnnofish, 07 March 2015 - 12:44 AM.