What could cause Nitrite to lag in a cycled tank.

[Catfishacr123]

Hi,

I have a 300 gallon rubbermaid stock tank i use to store local caught bluegill/sunfish/bullheads. Im a fisherman and keep these fish to use as catfish bait. Tank was set up 8 months ago. Fishless cycled with ammonia. I put in 5 cups of ammonia at a time while cycling, I wanted to have a strong bacteria colony to support high waste loads. I had ammonia pop up and then started to see Nitrite and then nitrate then zero ammonia/nitrite. Took 3 months to achieve this. I then put in 10 fish to keep the cycle going. Once i started fishing this spring i started putting 40 to 50 in at a time (4" to 7" fish). Started to have issues with Nitrite. It would just sit around .25mg. When i take fish out and keep less than 10fish the nitrite will go to 0 but when i add more than that it spikes to .25 and will stay there for days and weeks. I dont have any ammonia spikes at all. Just nitrite.

Oddly i had this problem at my old house last year as well. I live in a different state now and still have this issue.

Im currently on well water. PH of 8, Nitrates of around 10-15. No nitrite or ammonia in the well water. No chlorine.

I know it can overload the bacteria colony adding large amounts of fish at a time. However there is never any ammonia spikes its just the nitrite. My Current tank water P's : 0,0,20. Currently no fish in the tank. Had a bad kill off which i think was columnaris, I'm sure due to the nitrite. I do put in a cup of ammonia a week to keep the bacteria feed while no fish are in there.

Filtration:
1- SunSun Canister filter 793gph. (mechanical filtration "Filter pad" in one tray the rest filled with Seachem matrix media.)
1- Homemade filter. See pics. water fills from the bottom of the trashcan and drains out close to the top. There is a ton of biological media in here Seachem Matrix, ceramic rings, Bio balls.

Tank has lots of oxygen and i keep it at 78 to 80 degrees.

Any ideas what would cause the nitrite to lag?

Let me know what other info/pics i can provide that might help.

Thanks

 

[Fishyboy🐟🐟🐟]

Hi,

I have a 300 gallon rubbermaid stock tank i use to store local caught bluegill/sunfish/bullheads. Im a fisherman and keep these fish to use as catfish bait. Tank was set up 8 months ago. Fishless cycled with ammonia. I put in 5 cups of ammonia at a time while cycling, I wanted to have a strong bacteria colony to support high waste loads. I had ammonia pop up and then started to see Nitrite and then nitrate then zero ammonia/nitrite. Took 3 months to achieve this. I then put in 10 fish to keep the cycle going. Once i started fishing this spring i started putting 40 to 50 in at a time (4" to 7" fish). Started to have issues with Nitrite. It would just sit around .25mg. When i take fish out and keep less than 10fish the nitrite will go to 0 but when i add more than that it spikes to .25 and will stay there for days and weeks. I dont have any ammonia spikes at all. Just nitrite.

Oddly i had this problem at my old house last year as well. I live in a different state now and still have this issue.

Im currently on well water. PH of 8, Nitrates of around 10-15. No nitrite or ammonia in the well water. No chlorine.

I know it can overload the bacteria colony adding large amounts of fish at a time. However there is never any ammonia spikes its just the nitrite. My Current tank water P's : 0,0,20. Currently no fish in the tank. Had a bad kill off which i think was columnaris, I'm sure due to the nitrite. I do put in a cup of ammonia a week to keep the bacteria feed while no fish are in there.

Filtration:
1- SunSun Canister filter 793gph. (mechanical filtration "Filter pad" in one tray the rest filled with Seachem matrix media.)
1- Homemade filter. See pics. water fills from the bottom of the trashcan and drains out close to the top. There is a ton of biological media in here Seachem Matrix, ceramic rings, Bio balls.

Tank has lots of oxygen and i keep it at 78 to 80 degrees.

Any ideas what would cause the nitrite to lag?

Let me know what other info/pics i can provide that might help.

Thanks

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Just leave the tank Alone with no fish and maybe add some nitrite in because it seems like there’s something wrong with the bacteria colony, since you fed ammonia they only eat ammonia so i would leave the tank be and supplement nitrite little by little so the bacteria colony is able to grow and eat it ( I am assuming it’s nitrite and not nitrate lol idk if I misread)

 

[Fishyboy🐟🐟🐟]

Just leave the tank Alone with no fish and maybe add some nitrite in because it seems like there’s something wrong with the bacteria colony, since you fed ammonia they only eat ammonia so i would leave the tank be and supplement nitrite little by little so the bacteria colony is able to grow and eat it ( I am assuming it’s nitrite and not nitrate lol idk if I misread)

I would also dose with some good bacteria (fritz-zyme)

 

[Catfishacr123]

Just leave the tank Alone with no fish and maybe add some nitrite in because it seems like there’s something wrong with the bacteria colony, since you fed ammonia they only eat ammonia so i would leave the tank be and supplement nitrite little by little so the bacteria colony is able to grow and eat it ( I am assuming it’s nitrite and not nitrate lol idk if I misread)

Yeah Nitrite not nitrate. How could you add nitrite to the tank? Can you just buy plain nitrite?

I would also dose with some good bacteria (fritz-zyme)

I just ordered dr Tims one and only but will try Fritz-zyme in the future if this doesn't work well.

Thanks!

 

[Fishyboy🐟🐟🐟]

You pr

Yeah Nitrite not nitrate. How could you add nitrite to the tank? Can you just buy plain nitrite?



I just ordered dr Tims one and only but will try Fritz-zyme in the future if this doesn't work well.

Thanks!

You probably could just by nitrite
The problem maybe lies that you didn’t add any nitrifying bacteria and just did a colony that fed on ammonia, I have had good results with fritz zyme also it might be that 40-50 4-7 inch fish at a time is way way too much at a time I would add 10 so the colony can adjust and you cannot overstock which might also be the cause

 

[scalareson]

I would honestly just give it time with the full stock (40-50) and maybe keep the nitrites at 0ppm (though .25ppm isn't terrible imo) with more frequent water changes for a bit.
I believe the bacteria responsible for converting nitrite to nitrate grow extremely slowly, more so than the first set that converts ammonia to nitrite. Your bacterial filter may just be lagging because that second set of bacteria just grows really slowly to meet the increased load. In cycling tanks, I've had it stuck on the nitrite stage for over a month as that bacteria grows in with 0ppm ammonia. I would imagine you might see the nitrite eventually hit 0ppm over time as the BB grows in. Hard to say how long that will be, never seems to be consistent.

 

[esoxlucius]

Going off what you've said so far I'm not surprised you're having problems. BB prefer a stable environment and you're providing exactly the opposite!

Increase in bio load one minute as you add live bait fish, then no doubt a decrease in bio load as you take bait fish out to go fishing. Add to the mix a pathogen which wiped your stock out. Jeesh, the BB in your set up won't know whether they're coming or going.

For this type of a set up where your stock is changing all the time I'd have thought a drip system would be more beneficial.

 

[Trouser Cough]

In that something similar has happened twice to you in two different locations you may want to look at your test kit. API test kits are not known for having perfectly accurate readings and test results are not always easy to replicate a second or third time.

Is it possible that test kit you're using is near or beyond its use by date?

And yeah, I'm not certain the ammonia added was the root of your issue but I wouldn't repeat that process again either. Interesting idea but it's a little like getting only the meat patty when you really need the whole sandwich. Next time consider using API's Quick Start and a handful of flake (or whatever's handy) to feed the newly introduced bacteria. It works well enough and it doesn't leave you a finicky bacterial culture that has a strong preference for gourmet waste only.