My nitrites levels will not come down!
Let me start off at the beginning of this story. I was fish less cycling, my ammonia was going down to zero everyday after adding ammonia, my nitrites weren't quite at zero but very close. My fish were arriving in a few days and I knew I was cutting it close. So I did a water change, and after that my nitrite levels spiked! Off the charts, with no explanation. My tap is zero for everything except ammonia(chloramines) so I don't know why this water change would have cause such a spike in nitrites when I was adding clean water.
Anyways cut to now, I have my fish and since the tank still isn't 100% cycled I'm doing twice daily water changes, small amounts about 15% each time with a total daily water change of about 25-30%. My ammonia still looks good at zero, but nitrites are still off the chart, even after each water change the number never changes at all.
Is this normal? I tested the solution on my tap and got zero like always so I don't think the test kit is faulty.
Do I need to do larger water changes? I'm using half a cap of prime every time I do the water change. The fish seem fine, so I'm hoping if the nitrites really are that high then at least they are neutralized.
Please help me figure out why my nitrites are not falling and how to bring them down.
Let me start off at the beginning of this story. I was fish less cycling, my ammonia was going down to zero everyday after adding ammonia, my nitrites weren't quite at zero but very close. My fish were arriving in a few days and I knew I was cutting it close. So I did a water change, and after that my nitrite levels spiked! Off the charts, with no explanation. My tap is zero for everything except ammonia(chloramines) so I don't know why this water change would have cause such a spike in nitrites when I was adding clean water.
Anyways cut to now, I have my fish and since the tank still isn't 100% cycled I'm doing twice daily water changes, small amounts about 15% each time with a total daily water change of about 25-30%. My ammonia still looks good at zero, but nitrites are still off the chart, even after each water change the number never changes at all.
Is this normal? I tested the solution on my tap and got zero like always so I don't think the test kit is faulty.
Do I need to do larger water changes? I'm using half a cap of prime every time I do the water change. The fish seem fine, so I'm hoping if the nitrites really are that high then at least they are neutralized.
Please help me figure out why my nitrites are not falling and how to bring them down.
