Question on Nitrites

[finfin2003]

My tank has been set up for a little over 2 months now. I have a ten gal with 11 lbs of LR, 170 pengunie 3 blue legs, 1 snail, 1 coral banded shrimp and 1 perc clown.
I have added everything very slowly and had great results. I have gained a wealth of info from this site and will continue to do so. And to top all that I have seen mt coral band molt for the first time over the weekend. It was awsome!! But when I tested the water this past Sunday I noticed that the nitrites rose to .25 What would cause this??? My ammonia is still zero, nitrates 0, ph 8.4 salinty 1.023
everything in the tank is eating... looks happy.. behavor is normal. Should I be concerned about this?
Thanks again guys!!

 

[beaslbob]

Yes you should worry about nitrItes, less about nitrAtes. During the initial 2-3 months on my 55g I would have nitrIte spikes when I added new fish. I stopped feeding for a day or two until the nitrItes came down. Now at six months the nitrItes do not spike when i add a new fish.

 

[azeritis]

I would also double check test results that do not appear normal.... If for example you have not overfed, added new fish, invertabrate, disturbed the bottom, cleaned a filter, or somethiong else that could cause a spike, test again.
But in a new tank I am with beaslbob. It will take some time for your tank to reach an equilibrium, so small spikes are no surprises....

 

[azeritis]

by the way there are several authors out there that suggest you test for something 2 or three times and average out the result just to be sure....

 

[finfin2003]

OK, I will test again today .. maybe twice to see what comes up. And I did just add a new fish. I added some of the inverts about 1 1/2 weeks before. Is that too soon?
Now I only feed once a day ..one pinch of marie food for the clown (he usually eats it all at once.. what a piggy lol) and one piece of the brine food thats hard to the coral band. Is that overfeed?
Now come to think of it.. when he was molting for that 2 day period he didnt eat that piece i was feeding and maybe that caused the spike because it sat in the tank???

 

[finfin2003]

anyone think I am overfeeding?

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by finfin2003
anyone think I am overfeeding?
If you had a nitrIte spike then yes. When it comes down then no. The same amount of food to the same bioload only a few monthe from now, will not result in a nitrIte spike. The reason is that bacteria will have built up to handle that amount of feeding. During the cycle process, I let the nitrite determine how much i fed.

 

[finfin2003]

SO THEN I SHOULD FEED EVERY OTHER DAY?? i DONT WANT TO STARVE THE LIL GUYS EITHER.
WHAT WOULD BE BEST FOR MY BIO LOAD
3 BLUE LEGS
1 SNAIL
1 CORAL BANDED
1 CLOWN

 

[beaslbob]

Originally posted by finfin2003
SO THEN I SHOULD FEED EVERY OTHER DAY?? i DONT WANT TO STARVE THE LIL GUYS EITHER.
WHAT WOULD BE BEST FOR MY BIO LOAD
3 BLUE LEGS
1 SNAIL
1 CORAL BANDED
1 CLOWN
When I first set up a salt tank, my first fish was a Neon gobie. When i added him (10G tank) Nitrites refused to come down until I stopped all feeding. that was with a UG and no live rock (was late 70's). I took about a week and a half, then in two days the nitrItes went down to 0.0. With my current 55g, when the nitrItes spiked, I stopped all feedings until they came down. Usually only took a couple of days or so. Your livestock should be able to survive a week with no food. Meahwhile, they will be cleaning up your tank, which also reduces the bioload.

 

[finfin2003]

Thanks that sounds like a good plan then. I will test first when I get home then if they are still up I will stopp feeding for awhile and keep testing
Thanks for the info beslbob

 

[reefnut]

I feed once a day with no problems. What exactly is the "one piece of the brine food"?
Have you noticed any missing snails or crabs?

 

[finfin2003]

Funny you should ask... the larger of the blue leg was missing for three days but I saw him this morning before I went to work. Why .. do you think they would eat each other.
as far as that piece of food all i can describe it as if a pellet this shape "-" and brown in color with shrimp in it. Guy at the store said that the coral banded would love it and he does. I have been feeding him a piece a day

 

[reefnut]

I don't necessarily think they would eat each other but If one should die it could cause extra bio-load. I would suspect when you get home tonight that all will be fine. IMO you should be able to feed daily w/o problems. Is the CBS eating all of the pellet? With the food being eat up like you described I really don't think your overfeeding... That's my 2c anyway.

 

[finfin2003]

well reefnut that is 2 cents more than I had lol
Now the food was being entirely eaten up until the two day period when he was molting. Now again he will come right out from his fav spot and eat the entire pellet. of corse this is hard to do at first because the pellet is hard and he has to wait til it softens ... so he hold it in his lil claws.
Its too cute to watch!!

 

[reefnut]

With the tank being a 10g small things can have an impact. Let us know what your reading is tonight...

 

[reefnut]

One more thing. Normally I would say don't worry about it but in this case I would get the molted skeleton (skin, what ever its called) out of the tank if you haven't already.

 

[finfin2003]

ok, I already did that... but it broke apart and i got like 98% of it out... those atenna really break apart !
ill give a reading in the morning when I get to work!!
Thanks again for your help

 

[dcox88]

when you mention the brine food, it is a frozen cube? Do you feed the whole cube? I use the frozen brine shrimp cubes, but do not feed an entire one to a single animal. I thaw the cube in some saltwater and then feed the tank. I know there are several sizes of cubes, but even the small flat ones seems like it would be a lot to feed a single shrimp each day.

 

[reefnut]

I think this is more of what he is refering to...

 

[finfin2003]

REEFNUT HAHA
HE WHO? IM A GIRL!!! HAHAH
ANYWAYS, YES THAT IS THE FOOD I FEED IT. ITS NOT FROZEN, IT COMES IN A PLASTIC BOTTLE.
SO I WENT HOME AND TESTED LAST NIGHT. LOOKS LIKE THE NITRITES ALREADY DROPPED. I AM GETTING READY FOR A WATER CHANGE SOON ANYWAYS. I BELIEVE ON THURSDAY... THAT WILL BE ONE WEEK.