.25ppm on Nitrites Ammonia is level

dougedoug

dougedoug

Member
Recently did a 40 gallon water change on my 200 gallon tank. 2 days later I got a bacteria bloom. Nitrites were high and PH was off. Now PH is fine, but nitrites are .25ppm and the water is almost clear. Ammonia levels are fine too. Also swapped out my carbon. Should I do a water change or wait 2 weeks until my 40 gallon water change? I know nitrites should be at 0 but I dont want to do a water change right after I just did one.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Although the Nitrite is harmless at that level it does indicate that your bacterial filtration has been disturbed.

Could there have been anything wrong with the water you used for the water change? Some contaminant in the bucket, not enough salt, too much salt? How long had the water been mixed before you used it? Did you stir up a lot of sand or detritus when you added the water?

By the time you read this your Nitrites will most likely be back to normal but try to think back as to what could have been wrong.
 
dougedoug

dougedoug

Member
Thank you for the reply. It was RO water and I am not sure how long it was mixed up since I had a service come in, but the salinity is right where it should be and I do not believe there was anything in the container. I feel the sand got disturbed a lot when the coral was swapped out. Also we replaced the active carbon, but I do not know if that is relevant to this. I checked my levels today and they are still .25ppm. I do a water every 2 weeks then have a service come in 2 weeks after that so I am just going to keep an eye on the levels and I think it should resolve itself.
 
dougedoug

dougedoug

Member
I use amquel on any water I use. I had been trying to setup an RO system but the one I bought just leaked non stop.
 
bang guy

bang guy

Moderator
Just a passing thought - when AmQuel reacts with ammonia or Chlorine it consumes O2 to detoxify. I'm not thinking that a 20% water change would be significant enough to cause a problem though. Perhaps stirring up the sand + using AmQuel could lead to an issue.
 
dougedoug

dougedoug

Member
Interesting enough. My nitrites spiked and my ammonia is the same level. The water is very clear, but I noticed what looks like a light amount of carbon in my protein skimmer there is virtually no waste in there. This may sound silly but does the carbon bond to the waste and thats why it looks like it does? The tank is very clean.. I bought some of this, dr tims bacteria and put it in yesterday to get the nitrites down. Completely no clue what I got going on here, but I am up for the challenge. Fish still look good and I did some placebo tests on my API test kit and they came out good.
 
dougedoug

dougedoug

Member
Honestly I have no idea whats going on. Hopefully this Dr Tim stuff works to knock down these nitrites.
 
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