Nitrite in my 55 gal picture

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k9blackshepherd

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 23, 2013
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Miami
so today is day 4 of my 55 gal setup and i had a cichlid in my tank for 2 days then i bought a test kit and everything was pretty pefect my nitrite was 0.25 now i got a pleco yesterday and tested my tank today and nitrite was 5.0 so i did a 25% water change 30-40 min ago and tested the water to see if it made a difference and look at my nitrite...nitrite.jpg

nitrite.jpg
 
That being said i should probably give my fish back to the petshop right? or is there anything i can do to lower my nitrite mabey just get rid of the pleco?
 
Just got to do more frequent water changes until the tank is cycled. Don't forget to add your water conditioner to the fresh water to neutralize the chlorine.
 
so can i keep my fish? i was just reading on the prime declorizing bottle and it said something about adding 5 times the normal dose in emergency of high nitrite so i just did that and tested my nitrite and it dropped down to a 0.25-0.50
 
@Dcichlidguy if i take my fish out and give them back to the pet store and just let my tank run with no fish in it just the filter bubbler and heater it will naturally cycle by itself or i got to do somthing to make the tank cycle? please help
 
Because cycling a tank is a biochemical process, it takes time, normally up to 2 months.
Different populations of bacteria need to peak and grow, and although there are products to speed up the process, a truely cycled tank takes time. This is why your 1st couple fish are basically sacrificial.
You will need to do daily water changes until the populations of nitrate and ammonia fixing bacteria are large enough to bring those poisons under control.
 
duanes said:
Because cycling a tank is a biochemical process, it takes time, normally up to 2 months.
Different populations of bacteria need to peak and grow, and although there are products to speed up the process, a truely cycled tank takes time. This is why your 1st couple fish are basically sacrificial.
You will need to do daily water changes until the populations of nitrate and ammonia fixing bacteria are large enough to bring those poisons under control.
Click to expand...
+1 , sorry harris but hes right theyr sacrificial in a sense. they are taking the brunt of the chemical so in the future you could have a healthy tank with healthy fish, just be patient don't return the fish and don't obsess
 
You've now created 4 threads that are virtually identical...

Picking up the pleco right off the bat was your mistake. One small Texas in a 55g would have been a very easy cycle. Plecos are poop factories.
 
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