high nitrite

[bretz]

had a dead fish and right now my nitrite level is very high, did a 5 gallon water change in my 30 gallon tank. Should anything else be done to lower nitrites all the other levels are fine no amonia or nitrates, ph 8.0 water temp 79 salinity good, have a power head going in there, right now the clown is at the top ot the tank. The only other fish in there is a bi color angel

 

[~sc~emt~]

do 2 back to back water changes maybe 10 gallons instead of 5.

 

[traib]

You could try AZ NO3. IT works.

 

[bretz]

just did a 3 gallon water change, what is a az

 

[traib]

AZ-NO3 is a product designed to reduce nitrates by enzymic action. You need a skimmer for it to work well. [Link violation]

 

[bretz]

now nitrates are high?? nitrites seem to be good now

 

[molamola]

I'd wait till all nitrites (including trace readings) are gone, then do a partial waterchange.

 

[~sc~emt~]

How often do you feed your fish?

 

[bretz]

twice a day, the nitrites are at .5 again, the clownfish is laying in the corner of the tank right now ntrates are just a little high. the tank has been running for 3 months now, the levels were great a couple days ago.

 

[~sc~emt~]

whoa man, I feed my fish every 3 days they are very healthy and fat. when you feed your fish nitrates go up. What do you feed your fish? I believe you might be feeding your fish to much, you can soak your food in zoe and zocon and that helps boost their ammune system and keep it up. I would back off the feeding.

 

[fatpuffer]

something sounds wrong with your tank. How long has the tank been up and running? How often do you do water changes? Have you cleaned out your filter recently? It sounds like your tank is still cycling as indicated by high nitrites. I wouldn't add anymore fish until you get the nitrites under control. Get yourself a piece of live rock or try adding a nitrifying bacterial supplement to get your tank cycled completely. Do water changes at least every 2 weeks and do 30-50% when nitrites show up. You need to be cognizant of nitrites since this will kill your fish overnight. Make this a priority and worry about your trates later(trates increase as nitrites get converted over to trates via your natural bacterial filter. The only way to lower it is to clean out your sponges in the filter, or replace them, and do water changes-both must be done and also clean out your sand bed with a syphon especially if you have crushed coral). Make sure you also have a protein skimmer-this also helps lower trates and don't overfeed the tank.

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

agree with fatpuffer - your tank is reacting to a bio-spike or a re-cycle/cycle.
Hang loose - don't do any more water changes or the tank will never settle down. Let the nitrites zero out.
Nitrates are the natural result of the nitrogen cycle, so some nitrates are normal, however - if yoiu have too high a bio-load (Too many fish) your nitrates will climb.
I had this problem until I increased the size of the deep sand bed.