how to help my nitrite levels - Page 2

donk18 · 09-25-2007, 11:11 PM

today i did about a 60% water change in both tanks. most of the fish are acting normal now but lets see how long that lasts. but a few hours after the water change i am missing 2 male and 1 female guppy in my 10g. i think they may have hidden to pass on. i am going to have to find them soon. i will probably do a 10% water change tomorrow and get my water tested again. i can't lose any more fish.

chadf · 09-25-2007, 11:16 PM

All I know is saltwater but are you making your water change water the same temp. and whatever else a f/w tank must be

donk18 · 09-25-2007, 11:23 PM

i am trying the best i can. the water temp went up to just about 81 from 79 so thats not to bad i don't think.

cichlidgirl · 09-25-2007, 11:45 PM

I think youll be ok, but i would not go any hotter than that, make sure you put clorine/cloramine remover like stress coat in the bucket and stir it up before you pour it in. Also, I like personlly to only do a large change like your 60 percent once and then try to maintain the better levels with the daily small 10 percent ones. I have heard that removing most of the water80-90 percent can effect your cycle, so for that reason i never do more than 60 like you just did in one day. so far its working good for me. I had had some tanks stored and needed them quickly because i couldnt control my self and bought fish that didnt get along with eachother, so im cycling with fish. Never done that before, but so far so good, I ve got one tank completly cycled and a second one a little more than half way maybe more, and one that is cycling extremely slow, readings hardly change at all from day to day, i have readings so i know its doing its thing, just very slowly compared to the smaller tanks.

Tommy Gun · 09-26-2007, 09:26 PM

Hey donk18!

Just so we are all on the same page, can you verify that you are speaking of nitrItes rather than nitrAtes? If so, can you post your test results so that we might be better able to help you out?

The only thing I might add to the comments posted so far is that, as it relates to nitrIte and not as much for nitrAtes, you can help your fish out to some degree by adding some salt to the tank. When I say 'salt', in this case I am referring to sodium chloride (NaCl) - e.g. table salt, aquarium salt (versus marine salt). In case you do not already know this, nitrites are problematic for our fish because they hinder the ability of our fishes' blood to carry oxygen. That being said, salt is known to help our fish 'breathe' or otherwise help in that aspect, it can be useful in periods of time in which nitrites are overly abundant. Taking that one step further, you may also want to ensure that an ideal amount of gas exchange is occurring since this would help ensure our fish have a fighting chance.

With that in mind, I thought I would point out that IMHO, even though it sounds as if salt would be beneficial in any situation, I feel as though the fact that it can help our fish 'deal with' nitrites is not enough to warrant its constant use over a long period of time...although I am sure quite a few hobbyists would disagree with that notion for one reason or another so this might be considered my opinion and not necessarily advice to top all others in every way.

cichlidgirl · 09-27-2007, 12:36 AM

Good advice. All we can do is offer our opinions to try to help or pass on knowlege we have learned from our own experiences and mistakes. Its always ok to feel different on something and even good to try things on your own. I agree with the salt thing by the way, I have done it both ways with the salt. I had a set of south american ciclids while stationed in germany that i had salt in the tank to cure some ich and they liked it so much they spawned. I never knew the name of them cause i did not speak german to ask and had no books or internet to look them up. So when puting in the salt for the ich cure i accident ly put too much in but they did not seem to mind it so i left it in there and was shocked at how much salt they actually liked and did well in. My personal observations were the following: They never got ich again, they never got a fungal or bacterial infection for 4 years, not one! They were non stop spawners, i had fish coming out my ears at all times for 4 years! They had improved color and great slime coat. I admit i dont do this now with my tanks, but at the time i was sort of conducting a scientific experiment. I did not keep records of how much salt was in the water but i do remember it was ALOT. Much more than i normally would have thought to put in there. It was so much after a couple of months of adding salt in my w/c buckets to replace salt removed i could not understand why they did not have any adverse reactions or die from it. I guess they could have been a brackish variety. I did see them in a profile about a year ago, i can try to look them up this week. I am NOT suggesting anyone make the f/w tanks into s/w tanks (lol) to induce spawning but was just reminded by the salt discussion and thought i would share that experience.

donk18 · 09-30-2007, 10:16 PM

i think my nitrite level's are better in my 29g but still bad in my 10g. i did another big water change(50%) in the 10 and moved my guppies into the 29 gallon till the levels are back to normal. i did leave the zebra danio's in the 10 and put the danio's from my 29 in to counter act the guppies going in. i am going to continues with the daily water changes in the 10g and go to weekly in the 29g till i am sure all my levels are okay. how does that sound??