# Nitrite Issue



## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

Hey all, new to the forum. Have had a couple african tanks over the past few years. Just started a new tank a couple months ago, at first i had 2 marineland emperor 400's on the back with the biowheels, water balance levels were doing ok. I recently purchased a AquaTop CF400 canister with the UV light, i took away one emperor 400 and put the 2 biowheels into the media of the canister filter before setup. My tank size is 75 gallon, I have about 15 mixed africans and a few catfish and 1 bushynose pleco. The nitrite has risen over the past couple of weeks and I have lost 2 africans since the installation of the canister filter. Every now and then I might overfeed slightly, this could possibly be an issue, but the cats take care of the bottom so I'm not too sure whats going on. My nitrite level is between 3.0 and 5.0 ppm , nitrate is at around 40 ppm and ammonia is 0, PH is a constant 7.8-8.0. I'm trying to figure out the issue, yesterday I removed all of the tank decoration and siphoned out the sand/gravel (only about 10% water change) of all the **** that has settled, and also purchased a nitrite remover media that I put into one side of the marineland. The nitrite levels have not gone down, would it be a gradual drop or do I have more underlying problems? I also added more Bio liquid to help out a bit as recommended by my fish store. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated I really am worried about losing more fish. Thank you in advance for the help -sidenote, I have a DIY custom foam/cement rock background, this wouldn' be an issue right??
-Lou


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Hi Lou and Welcome to C-F!!!

I recommend doing a 50% water change to bring the nitrites down immediately and this should also reduce your nitrates at the same time. It does sound as if your tank was not fully cycled OR that too often cleaning or even replacement of your filter media is what caused your nitrites to spike.

Did you remove the sand/gravel from the tank or just siphoned the debris from it?

Has the DIY background been in the tank since day one or is it a recent addition?

Also, what is the Bio liquid product that you are adding?

In order to post pics, follow the link in my signature for How To, you will first need to upload pics to a photo hosting website.


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

Thank you for your response, Lol thank you I was wondering why the picture wasn't working. My local fish store told me to not remove too much water because i will be taking out the bio, so that's why I only did a 10% change yesterday. I suppose I dont fully understand the chemistry of the nitrate/nitrite cause I never ran into this issue. But the guy at my store said it has to do with the tank not being fully cycled, so he told me not to remove too much water, If i do a 50% water change do you think it will def help and then just add more bio liquid? I was using Nutrafin Cycle, but I just ran out of it yesterday. I did not remove the gravel/sand but siphoned it out nicely and cleaned it all up since all the large rocks held a lot of bad debris underneath. My DIY background has been in from the start, as soon as I bought the tank I made it before even adding water.


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

You are welcome!

Most of the biological bacteria resides in the filter media, hard surfaces in the tank and in areas of good water flow. The water itself doesn't.

Since you already have fish in the tank, I would perform a 50% water change, add your normal water conditioner and if you have a bacterial additive, follow those instructions. Nitrite is harmful to the fish and needs to be addressed quickly.

It does sound as if you are very close to being fully cycled since the nitrites are so high but for the benefit of the fish, do the water change I suggested. Continue to monitor for ammonia and nitrite daily at about the same time each day. Your tank should finish the cycle soon.

I also recommend rinsing your Emperor 400 cartridges in a bucket of used tank water to remove any coarse dirt, don't worry if they aren't perfectly clean. Just slosh them around and put them back in the filter. You really want to avoid major cleaning or replacement of filter media for a couple months to allow the bacteria to stabilize.


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

ok thank you s much for the advice, I'm going to change the water right now and I'll let you know know how it turns out in a few days with the levels.


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## Austinite (Jul 27, 2013)

I would definately begin substantial water changes, and do so every few days, testing your water parameters each time until you get those nitrites to zero, and nitrates need to be 20ppm or less. You want to minimize the toxicity to your fish with the frequent water changes until you can get things under control. Unfortunately the pet store gave you bad advice on not changing the water, Deeda gave you good advice. I personally don't clean the filter media for a good 6 months after setting up a new tank, so that I don't disturb the bacteria colony I've worked so hard to build up. After that, I clean every 3 months, and like Deeda said, just a swish in the old tank water works just fine. I see many posts from folks with issues from cleaning the filter media too often, thinking they are doing a good thing, but too much cleaning damages the beneficial bacteria.


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

I did the 50% water change as soon as Deeda recommended, checking the level the next day, the nitrite level dropped quite a bit. Down to about .50ppm. I checked it again earlier today and it has skyrocketed once again, I did another 50% water change and continued adding Bio liquid. Im worried that there is possibly another underlying issue, when I first put my tank together with the DIY cement background, I stuffed moss from an outside tree into some of the holes, hoping for some growth, most of it has since been picked out by my fish and the remnants may be decaying in the background? Is that a possibility that decaying plant matter could contribute to this? Since the 50% water change recommended by Deeda, I have added a good amount of salt,and a bubble bar, hoping to add a little O2, not sure if this will help. I'm over exhausting my options here I dont want to lose fish and I've done tons of research and am following all protocol, I Havent cleaned my canister filter and I did as she said, just swished the emperor filter pad in dirty tank water. I dont want to lose anymore fish and they have certainly lost a lot of their eccentric color. And lately have been rubbing against the sand and rocks. Somethings going on here, can parasites contribute to bio problems?


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

please help!! ^


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

If you can still see bits and pieces of the moss you added to the background, try and remove them since they are probably contributing to your water problems if they are decaying in the tank. Moss growing on trees and rocks outside are usually not aquatic and will die in your tank.

What was the reason for adding the salt? What kind of salt and how much have you added?

Parasites do not contribute to bio problems.

You will need to continue performing water changes every day or so to keep the nitrite level down because you have fish in the tank.


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

Hey Deeda, I have been getting rid of all the excess moss. The only reason I added the moss was cause a friend had good results with it in a SA tank. I have read on other forums that adding salt will help the cichlids deal with the nitrite levels a little bit easier, another reason for the salt was to get rid of any possible parasite, brought up temp to 86 deg and added a good amount of salt for that. According to other forums, this was a attempt at getting rid of parasites before buying ick/velvet treatment. Thank you for the help deeda


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

I have been adding regular cichlid salt 2 tbsp per 15 gal as per the other forum, and have been performing regular water changes every 2 days now for the past week since you told me, the nitrites have gone down, for the time being that is


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## hisplaceresort1 (Mar 10, 2014)

please consider Seachem Prime... it bonds with ammonia and nitrite, not making it "disappear", but making it non-toxic to your fish. It will keep your fish alive... Use it every couple of days while you're cycling. Your fish will thank you. And keep changing that water!


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## Lou21 (Dec 11, 2014)

All levels under control! Fully cycled tank it seems, extremely happy  thank you guys for all the info I've kept up with consistent water changes and all of the helpful information you guys have given me, I cant thank you all enough


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Good to hear, thanks for the update!


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