Nitrate and Nitrites. did I un cycle my tank??
- Thread starter rED O
- Start date
OscarRobinson;3751888; said:
I use prime so ammonia test kits give false readings. I am still showing nitrite, at about a level of 2 or around there. I don't know why the nitrites will not go away. My tank is super clean. I don't see any un eaten food. I don't even see any waste on the sand. The water smells fine too.
I just looked at my tank and its cloudy. When I went to bed it was crystal clear. My nitrite readings spiked to 5 ppm. What should I do???? I already dumped 2 bottles of seachem stability. What can I do??? I don't want to lose my fish.
I would stop adding the seachem stability or anything else for that matter. Prime will give you a false ammonia reading up to 24hrs after the initial use. Do a water change and wait 24hrs then check your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. If you have nitrite you may have destroyed your BB and you probably have ammonia too. The cloudy water after it was clear could be a bacterial bloom.
is this bacterial bloom good bacteria? I did kill my good bacteriaOscarRobinson;3753639; said:
Why should I stop the stability? Will this not help replenish the bacteria I killed?You may not have killed off all of it. BB will start to reproduce in about 48hrs. I'm pretty sure that all your BB need is an ammonia source that being your fish. Maybe someone else can chime in on the use of Stability but I think all you need is water changes and time for the BB to reestablish itself. I've never been a fan of adding chemicals. The cloudy water if it is a bacteria bloom is a sign that its going through the process.
How do your fish seem to be doing now? If they seem fine, and you did a water change today, there's not too much more you can really do, unless you have a qt you could put them in until you figure it out. Definitely stop adding chems as a panic reaction though... Keep it simple.
