Constantly high nitrite, what am I doing wrong? help!!!

[HelloKitty]

Hi guys, I am having trouble with my tank water. The nitrite and is constantly high, it was off the scale last night. Nitrate was 20 and ammonia 0. What am I doing wrong. I am changing water all the time and I've tried cleaning out the filter, and I also put stress coat and stress zyme in the fresh water before adding it to the tank. Then I removed the carbon from the filter because someone suggested to me that with the carbon inside it will remove the treatment I put in the water so it will be ineffective. What can I do to sort this out. Aristotle has been floating again lately and one of his gill tips is a bit white. Does this have something to do with the nitrite. I'm trying to get it down but its not happening. I've just done a 75% tank change. Should I do a full change and change the sand as well? I've been hoovering the sand with a tank hoover. I don't mind all these tank changes because I love the way they come out to see whats going on and then beg for food but I dont want thier water to make them sick. Is there a treatment I can use to remove the nitrite? Should I put the carbon back in? I recently changed half of my filter cartridge, only changed half as thats what it suggested on the packet.

 

[aeri]

sounds like you're in the 2nd part of the nitrogen cycle process.

what filter do you have?

do not change the sand or do a full water change.
do not clean out your filter or change any cartridges inside your filter (unless there is some molding food in there).

try to add bio media to your filter and do 30% water changes daily.
with regards to bio media and filtration take a look at my post here: http://www.caudata.org/forum/f46-be...istently-high-ammonia-level-2.html#post286030

 

[horsyqueen]

This is a common problem in tanks for fish, amphibians and any aquatic living animal in a tank.

The most common reason is over stocking or animals gone in too fast for the filter to cope.

i added more plants when i had that problem in my fish tank. test it everyday.

the most likely reason why your Axolotal has been floating is probebly the fact there is too much nitrate. nitrate is toxic. i think the filter is not working as it should.

 

[larn]

You could try speeding up the cycle by removing the axolotls and put them into a temp tank or container, then put a heater into the (empty) tank and add a little ammonia (perhaps with fish food, or pure ammonia) daily, the bacteria grow faster in warm water, so crank the heat up to 30 degrees

I have a similar problem at the moment, been trying to cycle my tank for about 2 to 3 months and had 2 accidents which has put the process back to square one,

 

[carsona246]

What size tank do you have and how many axolotls do you have in there? Nitrate is not that toxic, and while there are debates about how toxic it is to have nitrate in your tank it's commonly accepted that below 40 ppm's are perfectly safe. It's the nitrite that's bad for your fish, you said you did a 75% waterchange, how long has it been since you did a waterchange before? It sounds like your just going through the nitrogen cycle, which is why fishless cycling is always advisable. Do not remove your sand. That will just remove any beneficial bacteria that's in your substrate, and it'll stress out your axolotls. The only thing you can really do for nitrite is waterchanges.

 

[jclee]

What are you using to dechlorinate the tap-water that you use for water changes? If not dechlorinated, the tap-water would kill beneficial bacteria, slowing or restarting the cycling process.

If your water is being dechlorinated well, then you are doing all you can. I would up the water changes, though, to 50% per day, simply because those nitrite levels will be very harmful for the axolotls. If/when the levels start going lower, you can lower the water change quantity (10-20%) until you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites.

Are you getting any nitrate readings yet?

 

[HelloKitty]

I'm dechlorinating the water before I put it in. Will just stick to the water changes for now and see if it gets better. Axies look happy and gills are looking nice and fluffy so I will keep at it and hope to reduce the nitrites.

 

[HelloKitty]

ok, think I'm getting somewhere. Removing the carbon from the filter seems to have worked. Nitirite down to .25 nitrate 20 and amonia 0. It seems to have changed a lot where as before I was getting nowhere. Someone told me that the carbon removes any treatment that I have put in the water and I have been using stress zyme and filter start. Now without the carbon it seems to be getting better. Do I put the carbon back when the nitrite gets to 0?

 

[carsona246]

carbon wouldn't be removing beneficial bacteria. It does remove chemicals, and medicine. I'm not sure how filter start works, but if it's claiming to have beneficial bacteria in a bottle I doubt carbon would affect it. I never use carbon because I think it's uses in filtration are limited and not necessary. What size tank do you have and how many axolotls?

 

[jclee]

carbon wouldn't be removing beneficial bacteria. It does remove chemicals, and medicine. I'm not sure how filter start works, but if it's claiming to have beneficial bacteria in a bottle I doubt carbon would affect it. I never use carbon because I think it's uses in filtration are limited and not necessary. What size tank do you have and how many axolotls?

I think the concern with the filters (at least, I've heard this on fish forums), is that it might adsorb some of the ammonia, which is needed to start up the nitrogen cycle, and thus slow down the cycle. I don't really know how true this is. I know some filter cartridges have zeolite (I think that's the one?) to remove ammonia, but I'm not sure how much carbon removes. Either way, removing the carbon from the filter wouldn't hurt a tank's cycle.

I am skeptical of products that claim to seed the tank with beneficial bacteria. I haven't used them, but I've read others' experiences with them, and overall, they range from slightly quickening the cycle time to forestalling it entirely. Some of them even rely on nitrifying bacteria that is not aquatic, so as soon as you stop adding the product, the cycle re-starts. If you're cycle has started along, you can probably skip the cycling product and let time do its thing.