Struggling With Really High Nitrites

[signet_planet]

First off some good news. In my intro I said I had 2.5 fish as the smallest one had his fins eaten off. As the water has started to become more stable the little guy (or gal I have no clue) is actually growing fins back. The rear fin was gone (very faint white line on edge where fins should have been and based on the articles/pics I saw online I figured it wouldn't recover). I don't know if it is because he is still missing most of his fins (all of them) but he seems to be getting smaller. Although it is entirely possible the other two fish might just be getting larger. The injured fish is still in an isolation tank that is inside the main tank.

My three fish are rescues from a fish pond (one was laying partially on the ice for about 2-3 days when I realized he was actually alive) so they were put in a tank that was new with no biological filters in place. Until I got my testing kit in the mail I just assumed ammonia levels were high so I was changing 80% of water a week or 50% every 3-5 days. (55 gallon tank). Once I got the testing kit the levels were all critically high (but at least the ph was good). Our town water changes so 3-4 weeks ago the ph was 7.6 which is okay for goldfish but this week it is now around 8.6 so I've ordered an API pH down bottle. Eventually the ammonia levels went to 0 and the nitrates when down to acceptable levels. However, my nitrite levels are still really critical. But this is also the time my little guy started growing fins back and he is acting healthy again.

I was told I should not be cleaning everything on each water change and so now I only do half the gravel each week and I only change half the filters every other week. I also only scrub half the ornaments/fake plants with a brush (started getting brown algae). With the fish acting much healthier and the ammonia at 0 and the nitrates being really low I am now changing 30% of the water a week but I'm worried about the high nitrites. The fish are doing the best they ever had and are pretty active (they were either fairly dormant before or jumpy and smacking into everything the first few weeks).

I'm only guessing but I only had the filter that came with the tank. It should be plenty of filter but it is designed to be as quiet as possible so the water tension at the surface I fear is not creating enough current or oxygen in the water. Although the fish themselves use the entire tank pretty evenly (it's not like they hang in at the surface or one corner). I'm really just guessing why the nitrites are high so I figured it wouldn't hurt to get more circulation and aeration so I ordered a couple of small air stones and air pump. That should be here Monday.

I've reduced the food to ensure they only eat what they can in 5 minutes twice a day. Does anyone have any ideas for the nitrites?

[SuperGuppyGirl]

Try getting some duckweed, lots of it. I'm assuming you have goldfish/koi, they will eat it but its great for sucking up nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates). Will need some light but it reproduces like crazy and is a healthy food for goldfish, they may poop a bit more though so keep up daily or every other day WC.

[Percilus]

Try getting some duckweed, lots of it. I'm assuming you have goldfish/koi, they will eat it but its great for sucking up nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates). Will need some light but it reproduces like crazy and is a healthy food for goldfish, they may poop a bit more though so keep up daily or every other day WC.

Or hornwort looks better in my opinion and will grow under almost any light. My guess is just that the bacteria that eat and change nitrite to nitrate just take longer to multiply. You mentioned pond fish in a 55 so the bio load on that filter is probably excessive and the nitrite bacteria have not caught up to the load yet. See if you can pick up a cheap sponge filter rated for a 55 gallon or higher and use that with your pump that's coming in the mail get another bio source going. Continue to gravel vac but I would leave the algae alone. It may be ugly but it's feeding on the bad stuff to. When things level off just get rid of it than.

[geleen]

As you mentioned the filter does not have enough bacteria yet . A few options

Try to get a sponge from an established tank that will help

Quit feeding for 3 days then only once a day just a little they should eat it all in 30 seconds.

Do large water changes until the filters bacteria are established about 4-6 weeks.

Do not clean any algea,as it eats nitrates leave the gravel alone for a few weeks I good bacteria grows on it. once the tank is stable the brown stuff goes away

Edited January 17, 2015 by geleen

[cullymoto]

I'm wondering, forgive me, if you've gotten your nitrate and nitrite mixed up?

Nitrite is very very toxic, More so than ammonia. If levels are high 2 things should be happening.

1. Everything swimming would die quickly.

2. You would have lots of nitrate produced, nitrite rather quickly becomes nitrate In a filtered aquarium, you stated you have low nitrate.

Others have suggested you have not enough nitrifying bacteria yet. ... If ammonia has come down, you have lots of good bacteria. Perhaps I'm wrong.

If as I suspect you have low nitrIte and high nitrAte, ( very normal in established tanks) then just get some hardy plants, change more water ( test your tap water, you may be getting nitrate at the source too) or if it's scary high, look into an exchange resin that goes in your filter. Google nitrate exchange resin. There are hundreds of them.

One more thing, your ph is fine. Whatever it is, it's fine.

Your likely to do more harm in doctoring it around then you would do to just leave it be. Seriously.

Edited January 17, 2015 by cullymoto

[PistolPete]

I agree with cully, leave the ph be. A stable ph is more of the goal you would like to accomplish. And if you have to always adjust the ph,you don't have a stable ph. Like others said I would work on building up the beneficial bacteria. Do large water changes, feed less, and continue to test water. Good luck!

[signet_planet]

Try getting some duckweed, lots of it. I'm assuming you have goldfish/koi, they will eat it but its great for sucking up nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates). Will need some light but it reproduces like crazy and is a healthy food for goldfish, they may poop a bit more though so keep up daily or every other day WC.

I'm told they are just regular goldfish, not KOI. I'll consider the duckweed. Does it grow well in lower temp water. I do not have a heater (well I do, came with the tank) but the water is staying warm enough for the goldfish.(hovers around 21.5 degress celcius)

[signet_planet]

Try getting some duckweed, lots of it. I'm assuming you have goldfish/koi, they will eat it but its great for sucking up nitrogen (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates). Will need some light but it reproduces like crazy and is a healthy food for goldfish, they may poop a bit more though so keep up daily or every other day WC.

Or hornwort looks better in my opinion and will grow under almost any light. My guess is just that the bacteria that eat and change nitrite to nitrate just take longer to multiply. You mentioned pond fish in a 55 so the bio load on that filter is probably excessive and the nitrite bacteria have not caught up to the load yet. See if you can pick up a cheap sponge filter rated for a 55 gallon or higher and use that with your pump that's coming in the mail get another bio source going. Continue to gravel vac but I would leave the algae alone. It may be ugly but it's feeding on the bad stuff to. When things level off just get rid of it than.

I had hornwort years ago in a tropical tank but was told that my goldfish tank now is too cold for them to grow properly. I've started to leave some of the brown algae on so I'll see how that goes.

[signet_planet]

As you mentioned the filter does not have enough bacteria yet . A few options

Try to get a sponge from an established tank that will help

Quit feeding for 3 days then only once a day just a little they should eat it all in 30 seconds.

Do large water changes until the filters bacteria are established about 4-6 weeks.

Do not clean any algea,as it eats nitrates leave the gravel alone for a few weeks I good bacteria grows on it. once the tank is stable the brown stuff goes away

Don't know anyone with an establish tank in my area to get a sponge from. I'll stop cleaning the algae off every week.

I've had this tank for for 11 weeks now and with the ammonia and nitrates leveling off near zero I figured it was finally getting established on the biological filter. It's just odd it's the nitrites that are way off.

[signet_planet]

I'm wondering, forgive me, if you've gotten your nitrate and nitrite mixed up?

Nitrite is very very toxic, More so than ammonia. If levels are high 2 things should be happening.

1. Everything swimming would die quickly.

2. You would have lots of nitrate produced, nitrite rather quickly becomes nitrate In a filtered aquarium, you stated you have low nitrate.

Others have suggested you have not enough nitrifying bacteria yet. ... If ammonia has come down, you have lots of good bacteria. Perhaps I'm wrong.

If as I suspect you have low nitrIte and high nitrAte, ( very normal in established tanks) then just get some hardy plants, change more water ( test your tap water, you may be getting nitrate at the source too) or if it's scary high, look into an exchange resin that goes in your filter. Google nitrate exchange resin. There are hundreds of them.

One more thing, your ph is fine. Whatever it is, it's fine.

Your likely to do more harm in doctoring it around then you would do to just leave it be. Seriously.

I wish I was wrong as that would make sense but it is just the nitrites that are high. Unless of course if my API master test mislabelled the test solutions but even then the colours are different so I doubt that.

The reason I started worrying about the ph is because how drastically it changes at our tap. From what I understand, our town switches to different water reserves over the winter on a regular basis (as the river is too frozen to be a source). If the pH was relatively close I would likely ignore it. However I've tested as low as 7.0 and as high as, 8.8 (and 8.8 is the highest my test kit goes so I don't know if it is at 8.8 or higher or if it is even possible to go higher).

If I'm changing 50-80% of the water while I'm waiting for my nitrites to level off and the pH is that dramatic of a change then would that not be too big of a shock to the fish? I use a Python hose/siphon that connects to my kitchen sink tap (as we have that tap on the water software bypass for cold water). I use that to vacuum drain the water from the tank (very slick). As the tap water is really cold, instead of just reversing the flow to refill the tank I fill a large tupperware container beside my fish tank. There I neutralize the chlorine and my plan was to bring it close to a ph of 7.5 before adding it to the tank. As the water is really cold, I also only add enough to get the filtration running again and then once the remaining water is more room temperature I add it to top off the tank. It's a lot of work using this process but I figured the less stress I add while waiting for the tank biological filtration to start working properly the better. I just figured by 11 weeks I should have a working biological filter.

The filter in this tank is the Marineland Penguin 350B power filter. It processes 350GPH and is rated to work with a 70 Gallon tank. This being a 50 gallon I thought it should be sufficient with 3 fish (two of which are very small).

[signet_planet]

Hey good news. I didn't test the water for 2 days and I wanted to read posts before I did anything today. My nitrites are at zero. Yippee the biological filter is working. My ammonia is still at zero and my nitrates have gone up up a little bit (up to 10-15 ppm) but that is survivable.

I'm amazing the fish didn't die as for about a week my nitrites kept shooting up to 4-5 ppm shortly after each water change.

[cullymoto]

A solution to your pH problem. Might not work for you, but it is the best way to do this...

Get a second, beat up, ugly aquarium for cheap or a tote bin or whatever holds water. Use that container to "age" water. ALL tap water contains dissolved gasses, these gasses (dramatically) alter the pH. As the gasses dissolve out of solution the pH returns to normal.

Do a test of you don't believe me. Tap water into a glass and pH tested right away. Test the same glass of water 24 hours later...

Into your ageing bin place an air stone, heater( if required to temperature match ) and a pump. Use the pump to push water from the age bin to your aquarium.

Do not add dechlorinator to your age bin. You want the chloramine there, keeps junk from living in your clean water lol. Add it to your aquarium as usual.

Like I said, doesn't work for everyone, but it works wonders for those who do this

[signet_planet]

A solution to your pH problem. Might not work for you, but it is the best way to do this...

Get a second, beat up, ugly aquarium for cheap or a tote bin or whatever holds water. Use that container to "age" water. ALL tap water contains dissolved gasses, these gasses (dramatically) alter the pH. As the gasses dissolve out of solution the pH returns to normal.

Do a test of you don't believe me. Tap water into a glass and pH tested right away. Test the same glass of water 24 hours later...

Into your ageing bin place an air stone, heater( if required to temperature match ) and a pump. Use the pump to push water from the age bin to your aquarium.

Do not add dechlorinator to your age bin. You want the chloramine there, keeps junk from living in your clean water lol. Add it to your aquarium as usual.

Like I said, doesn't work for everyone, but it works wonders for those who do this

That's good to know about the gases. I'll definitely try testing it out. I was considering putting an "preconditioning" tank in the basement with a pump to make things easier. There is a spot where I can install the lines right into the main tank upstairs with little or no hassle. We don't have chloramine but chlorine in our water. Would it not harm the fish if I didn't put the chlorine remover in before that water ever hits the aquarium? I've always treated the water before dumping it in. Chlorine also evaporates as well does it not so would an "ageing" tank not have bacteria issues even if I didn't put the chlorine remover in?

[cullymoto]

Your thought process is spot on.

Dechlorinator into the aquarium (fish home) immediately before filling it is recommended.

Since your water has chlorine, not chloramine, after 24 hours of vigorous airation you won't need dechlore at all. I still would though to be honest.

You will get bacteria in your age container if you make a habit of leaving water in it. If you dry it between use, and don't add dechlor to the age container it will kill off bacteria each time it is refilled. Another option is to add bleach to the age container (assuming you wish to have it full all the time) to keep the chlorine level at 4ppm and then use dechlor into the fish tank as normal when you do a water change.

4ppm chlorine is what's coming out of your tap FYI.

There are calculators online you can use to figure out how much household bleach to add to X volume of water to achieve 4ppm.

Google is your buddy, my buddy.

Edited January 26, 2015 by cullymoto

[signet_planet]

Sorry for the long delay in giving an update. I left algae to build up some and the tank quickly stabilized. I stopped managing the ph and although the ph levels from my tap change each week (sometimes dramatically) the fish seem to be doing just fine. I did introduce some plants of which one looks like a ball (about tennis ball size) that is supposed to be good at absorbing nitrites/nitrates of which they tore it apart in just a few hours and pretty much ate it all in a couple days. Then then ate all large 6 hornwort plants in a couple of days and then the leaves off another type of plant I had leaving just the stems. After than my almost aluminium coloured fish turned almost completely black (it looked pretty cool and it didn't show signs of illness so I figured it was just a colour change). About 2 weeks later most of the fish started getting red streaks in their fins, red blotches on their bodies, fin rot and were losing scales. The loss of scales could be because they started to swim erratically at random and were smacking into everything. Water conditions all tested just fine. I removed all decorations that had rougher edges and ordered antibiotics from our pet store but that was going to take a few days to get in and after just two days the fish that were ill deteriorated quickly to the point we figured they wouldn't make it another night. Discovered walmart sold fish antibiotics (I had never been in their pet area and forget they even had a pet area). One week of treatment and the fish were doing really well. One week later the rear tail fins looked so good again you would never have known they were so sick. I didn't realize they could grow fins back so quickly. That was all about 6 weeks ago and they have been great ever since. Think I'll plan better next time before introducing plants. Oh, the fish that turned almost entirely black is now bright orange.which is fine but I already had two other orange ones. At least I still have a white one. I never knew comet fish could change colours like this.

Thanks all for your help on this issue.