It won't go away!

[aaustin15]

Ugh. so i still can't get my nitrites down. i have about 2 ppm ALL THE TIME. i do weekly water changes of 10% and have several live plants in my 10 gallon. all i have in there is my P.labiatus and he's only around 4.5 inches. the tank has been running since August. I use Prime to treat my tap water. (sorry this is choppy, I'm thinking of useful information as i go). all my other levels are good. but i feel bad for my poor little newt. i also clean the sponge for the filter once a week. any tips on how to get the nitrite levels down?


thanks!

P.S. my newt is eating well and otherwise seems healthy, but he randomly every couple weeks goes into a frenzy and wants to get out of the water probably because of the nitrites. ))))): please help!

 

[Kaysie]

Have you tested your tap water to get a baseline reading? Other than that, there's a couple of factors at hand here. 1.) cleaning your filter is counter-productive. The whole point of the filter is to grow bacteria, and by cleaning it, you're just removing them, starting your cycle over and over again. 2.) Prime binds ammonia and isn't the best dechlorinator to use. Amquel+ is much better.

 

[aaustin15]

even if i just clean the mechanical filter sponge? i thought you're just not suppose to clean the biological filter? cause the mechanical sponge gets nasty! haha. maybe i need a better filter. its a 318 zoomed. and i will definitely change to amquel+!

oh, and theres not nitrites in my tap water if thats what you're asking. just chlorine and my water is pretty hard. everything else is normal.

 

[jane1187]

Can I just point out that 2ppm is still quite a low reading for nitrites (I assume it is nitrItes you are worried about, not nitrAtes). Don't panic about your newt too much at this stage.

The way the nitrogen cycle works is that ammonia is converted to nitrite, then nitrite is converted to nitrate. The fact that you actually have nitrites is proving that there are bacteria around to convert the much more harmful ammonia. Also the fact that it is not rising indicates the second part of the cycle (nitrite converted to nitrate) is working. If anything it is good news because it shows that your nitrogen cycle is occuring as normal.

It sounds like your set up is in the last stages of cycling. If you continue with the water changes, and clean out your filter less regularly (remember to use dechlorinated water to wash the sponge, otherwise you kill all the good bacteria on the sponge) you should start seeing an improvement. as the cycle matures. Might also be better to do a full 25-30% water change, rather than 10%.

Keep us up to date.

 

[Kaysie]

I had a peek at your setup, and I get what you mean by cleaning the filter now. Yes, you should be removing the debris from that.

I agree with Jane. You're on the right track. Keep at it! Sometimes cycling can take 2 months.

 

[aaustin15]

Thanks y'all for your responses! Makes me feel a lot better, I was definitely panicing.

 

[aaustin15]

OMG! that amquel+ made a huge difference. i used it this last time i did a water change and my nitrite is already down to .5-1ppm, and that was only like 2 days ago! thanks so much!