Nitrate and Nitrites. did I un cycle my tank??

rED O

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 21, 2007
584
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edmonto alberta
I have a 500 gallon running with a few canisters until I can get the sump running this week. Anyways, I always try my best to keep my water really clean for the rays. I changed out the media in my canisters the other day and the bio filters were covered in crap and other waste. I did not wash them out but I did rise them to remove the waste. The next day my tank water was kinda cloudy and i tested the water for nitrates the the test showed the water was in the red zone,( very high nitrates ) and dark purple for nitrites. In a panic, I did a 70% water change on the 500. Filled it back up, let it sit and then did another 30% water change. Then I tested the water and still showed the same levels. After 8 hours of water changes and still showing these readings.At this point I am very frustrated. Today I did another 25% water change and then still with very similar results. I always keep my water decent so why did this happen???!!! Then it got my thinking. I am showing high nitrites. When I rinsed the waste off my bio filters, did I rinse off to much and uncycle my tank? Any opinions on this or why I am having this problem?
 

therevolution

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 2, 2009
65
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maryland
rED O;3748795; said:
When I rinsed the waste off my bio filters, did I rinse off to much and uncycle my tank? Any opinions on this or why I am having this problem?
Did you rinse with tap water? If, so you could have messed up your bacteria.

Also if you are using the api liquid test kit, I notice that when my tester bottles are getting low, I tend to get high readings no matter how much water i change.
 

rED O

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 21, 2007
584
2
48
edmonto alberta
Yes I did you tap water. Wow, this is one of those mistakes that you make in the hobby to learn and advance. But I hope I don't lose my fish in the lesson. A buddy of mine is selling me a whole bunch of established bio media and I am going to get the sump going tomorrow or sunday with the media in hopes i will not lose my fish. No curling buy the rays so thats a good sign i guess...
 

spwd

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 20, 2008
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leicester,england
Have you checked what your tap water levels are too?


Steve
 

rojowe

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 15, 2009
242
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Ontario
definitely dont rinse biomedia with tap water...i did this once on my 90 gallon a while back and ended up killing everything in my tank....good luck with your rays I would hate to see you loose them....get the sump up asap with the mature biomedia
 

rED O

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 21, 2007
584
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48
edmonto alberta
With some help, we spent all day on got the sump up and running. I bought some established media from friends. After a few hours of my sump running my nitrates are under 10 and nitrites were close to 5 and now back down to 0.

All good :headbang2 and no lost fish
 

rED O

Candiru
MFK Member
Jun 21, 2007
584
2
48
edmonto alberta
dmopar74;3751457; said:
so your nitrates dropped just by running the sump, no water changes?
both. lots of water changes... water bill is going to be chunky this month.
 
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