Last night nitrite was high(2 ppm) so I did a 25% water change. I woke up this morning and did my normal testing since I made the common newbie mistake and bought my fish after a week of running my new 60 gallon tropical community tank. It's been running about 6 weeks altogether now. I did add the filter media from my established 10 gallon at week 2. Anyway when I tested water this morning my ammonia level was almost 0 barely any tint of green at all nitrite was 4-5 ppm and nitrate was about 7 ppm I'm using api freshwater master test kit. I freaked out and did a 50% water change only using tap water conditioner(chlorine heavy metal remover) and am still reading about 2 ppm on the nitrite. I am at a loss please help.
High Nitrite Level Help
- Thread starter adoyle983
- Start date
Sounds like the tank hasnt fully cycled... which is odd because 6 weeks is more than enough time. What are you running for filtration? May need more bio to handle the load from your fish.
Its been years since I cycled a tank but ive read good things about seachem stability. Its a biological additive that supposedly aids in cycling the tank. Maybe worth checking out.
Two aqueon 50/75 and a UGF with two risers one on each side and air stones. Tank also has 9 established plants in it. The UGF was also before I knew better
Hmmm... dont have much bio filtration in there. The aqualeon filters rely on that plastic piece for bio which I think is nearly useless, and ugf dont do much. Theres a chance the plants are being slightly counterproductive by eating up ammonia before the cycle can happen. Best recomendation is find some sort of small bio media bag and see if you can stuff it in the hob filters. Maybe the media for an AC10 or something would fit
I have an api nitrate zorb bag but have seen many mixed reviews so I have not used it? Would this help or will it interfere with my tank cycle?
Yeah you need more biological filtration. What fish are in the tank now. I would forget the nitra-zorb.