Wild nitrite problem!

[midgetwaiter]

You added either a liquid fertilizer or root tabs of some kind right?

That's what did it.

I misread, thought you had a nitrate problem, sorry.

Over dosing some ferts that use ammonium compounds in them can still lead to small nitrite spike as it is consumed by the first stage of biological filter and the second stage can't keep up. This is pretty rare and I doubt it is the problem we have here.

I am going on the assumption that this is a newish tank, say less than 6 months.

You have run afoul of a mistake common to new hobbyists, you cleaned up too much. I did it, probably just about everyone else here did too. Consider how the biological part of your filtration works. Ammonia from fish waste is consumed by a colony of bacteria that lives on your filter sponge and other surfaces in your tank, they produce nitrite. An entirely different bacteria colony that also inhabits surfaces in the tank consumes this nitrite and releases nitrate that we then dilute through regular water changes. The second bacteria colony takes longer to establish itself and IME is a quite a bit easier to kill off. Every time I have seen somebody with this problem it has happened immediately after they went and gave the filter sponge and bio media a good thorough cleaning and killed off the nitrite eating bacteria. Don't do that.

If you have a newer style AC70 it came with 3 filter media components. A sponge to trap waste, which also provides surface for your bacteria colonies, some carbon and a bag of rocks to provide more surface for the bacteria. It is essential that you not over clean these media! The best strategy is to clean them on different schedules, rinse the sponge one week and if it is really gummed up the rocks out the next. My preferred method with these filters is to discard the carbon, stack 2 sponges that can be rotated after cleaning the bottom one and to NEVER touch the bag of rocks.

It may take a while for this to fix itself but it will. Using salt (any salt, doesn't matter if it is iodized) at a dose of 1 tsp per 5 gal, any more can harm the plants, will help the fish with the effects of the nitrite. Prime can be used to detoxify nitrite as well, follow the directions. Do water changes as necessary to maintain the nitrite level below 3 ppm but do not eliminate it completely. The bacteria colony will establish itself inside of a few weeks.

[RD.]

Not to nit pick, but 1 tsp of salt (NaCl) per 100 gallons is usually more than enough to help counter the effects of a nitrite spike.

[jvision]

I use prime, so I'll do a big water change.

Lighting is on a timer, 12 hours a day, and unfortunately, I dont think it's bright enough, which sucks cause I just spent $80 on these new bulbs! 2 X 6700 K each, 320 LUX a piece, on a 65 gallon tank, which by popular consensus on this forum is too little.

May have to upgrade to brighter bulbs asap, but not sure where to get anything any brighrter (and the size i use is 42" not 48"

I've been adding a little C02 with the homemade system, right into the power filter, which i cannot see is making a difference, adds about 2 - 4 bubbles a second, for a 65 gallon tank, too much, too little?

Follow midgetwaiter and RD's advice on the nitrite problem - I'll try to help you w. your lighting issue.

Check out the planted forum, as it's off topic of this forum, and thread.

[midgetwaiter]

Not to nit pick, but 1 tsp of salt (NaCl) per 100 gallons is usually more than enough to help counter the effects of a nitrite spike.

Interesting, I have always thought it needed to be higher.

[RD.]

The safest chloride/nitrite ratios will vary from species to species, but in most cases 1 tsp per 100 gallons should be adequate.

[Aaron]

Wow, thanks for the additional information! Yes, I went berserk cleaning out the filter, so no doubt I have washed away all of the good bacteria. I will leave it be to try and recover on its own.