Hey guys im having a problem with my nitrites. I added an arowana to my tank about a week ago and now my nitrites r around 4ppm. How can i get this down. This past friday is when i noticed it so i did a 25% wc then and yesterday i did a 10% wc and still the nitrites r staying where they r. any suggestions?
nitrites are high, lil help please
- Thread starter bbenjamin21
- Start date
I got a friend that was saying a fish like an arowana can throw my cycle off for about a week, just keep up on the water changes and everything should even back up. But im just getting a lil worried now.
is your tank cycled because one arowana shouldnt really throw it off, but add some Amquel+ or Prime to help keep it down and cycle faster
yea ive had the tank up and running for about a month and a half. its just a 40g breeder. and dont worry the aro is a juvenile plan on being put in a 90g in about 4-5 months. just waiting to move into my next place to set the 90 up. my ph is at 7.2, amonia 0, nitrates r at 10. i think this is due to adding the water from the lfs to my tank. i didnt even think about it when i did it.
Water change of 50% will reduce your nitrite levels by half. This is as long as you tap water contains no nitrites. For the health of the fish you need to be doing enough, possibly daily, 50% water changes in order to keep your nitrites under .25ppm. Also treat your tank(entire tank volume) with prime after each W/C. Prime will detoxify the nitrites but will not get rid of it or do anything for any new nitrite produced.
Ok thank you guys a lot. The lfs's are not open anymore so 2morrow after work thats wuts um my agenda, 50% wc and prime
Just to be clear, treat the tap water with prime before you put it into the tank. Then when done with the W/C treat the whole tank with prime. If your not seeing any ammonia then your tank is close to being cycled, so hopefully you'll be good in a couple days.
I think everyone is not really paying attention to what really matters here. Just looking at the trees and not the forest.
How is the fish doing? Is the Arowana or other tank mates acting out of place or strange? Showing signs of distress? If not by doing these water changes are you not disrupting/prolonging the mini cycle thus possibly harming the fish in the long run? It is good that you are diligent at knowing such parameters but this is where you have to look at your fish as well, are you sure your test kit is up to snuff? Is it possible you are getting a false reading? Just adding the LFS water to your tank should not throw your cycle off, unless it was heavily medicated and you added a lot of their water.
If the fish is not showing signs of distress I would be most inclined to NOT do the water change, but maybe add the prime or other product to neutralize the harmful effect of the nitrites.
Just remember when you use something like prime it doesn't remove it but makes it safe for the fish, so you will still have readings until your bacteria has a chance to catch up. Bacteria will catch up and take care of this problem, if the fish isn't bothered then I wouldn't worry so much maybe cut back on feedings for a few days too. This will help reduce fueling the issue.
How is the fish doing? Is the Arowana or other tank mates acting out of place or strange? Showing signs of distress? If not by doing these water changes are you not disrupting/prolonging the mini cycle thus possibly harming the fish in the long run? It is good that you are diligent at knowing such parameters but this is where you have to look at your fish as well, are you sure your test kit is up to snuff? Is it possible you are getting a false reading? Just adding the LFS water to your tank should not throw your cycle off, unless it was heavily medicated and you added a lot of their water.
If the fish is not showing signs of distress I would be most inclined to NOT do the water change, but maybe add the prime or other product to neutralize the harmful effect of the nitrites.
Just remember when you use something like prime it doesn't remove it but makes it safe for the fish, so you will still have readings until your bacteria has a chance to catch up. Bacteria will catch up and take care of this problem, if the fish isn't bothered then I wouldn't worry so much maybe cut back on feedings for a few days too. This will help reduce fueling the issue.
ok thank you, i actually didnt know i should do that, i was going to just to the water change then treat it so thanks again for the clarification. I tested my tap water. my tap water has 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 0 ammonia, and a ph of about 7.4