High nitrites and nitrates and low ammonia.

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A

Anderman

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2007
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I have an established 450 gallon tank that has high nitrites and nitrates. They are at the end of the chart. I have basically no ammonia so what is going on? I am currently doing water changes and adding salt. I am going to through some more cycle in the tank to help establish more bacteria. I am going to decrease feeding and the current fish in the tank are rays,arowana,pikes and mbu puffer.

Anything else I should do?
 
You could have high nitrites in your tap water-- have you measured the level in water straight out of the tap?

Keep doing what you're doing. Add as much salt as your fish will tolerate (up to 1 tbsp/gallon) because it will counteract the effects of nitrite toxicity, but be careful and watch for loss of equilibrium or listing to one side as this is is a sign of intolerance.
 
I checked the tap water and it has 0. My ammonia was .6, my nitrite was at least 3.3 and nitrate was about 110. After 2 water changes my ammonia is still .6 and nitrite is down at .3 and nitrate is down between 50 and 110.
 
Wow, that's bad. You've either had a die-off of your beneficial bacteria or a huge increase in ammonia from somewhere. This might sound like a stupid question, but are you sure you don't have a dead fish hiding in your tank somewhere? Did you just increase the stocking in your tank? One or two large fish can overwhelm your system and you'll have a mini-cycle. Whatever the case, keep up the large water changes and don't feed until your ammonia gets back to 0. If you can get BioSpira at the store then that would be beneficial.
 
Natalie;4331181; said:
Wow, that's bad. You've either had a die-off of your beneficial bacteria or a huge increase in ammonia from somewhere. This might sound like a stupid question, but are you sure you don't have a dead fish hiding in your tank somewhere? Did you just increase the stocking in your tank? One or two large fish can overwhelm your system and you'll have a mini-cycle. Whatever the case, keep up the large water changes and don't feed until your ammonia gets back to 0. If you can get BioSpira at the store then that would be beneficial.
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The rays a growing like weeds so that could be the cause of the bio load plus me overfeeding them. Stocking is 7 rays,2 black arowana,3 lenticulata pike,3 ornate bichirs,tigrinus, rtc x tsn and a mbu puffer in a 450 gallon tank with a 150 gallon sump. This stocking level has been the same for about the last 6 months except for the pikes which I added about 1 1/2 months ago. Tank has been running for 2yrs. I have done 3 water changes now and added some cycle as thats all they have in my little town. I am heading to the big city in the next couple days to get some more supplies and maybe try out the biospira. Until then I will just have to keep the feeding low and do extra water changes. Thanks for the help.
 
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