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Help! My nitrites are way to high. I have done frequent water changes to try and get it back down with no luck. I have also vaccumed the gravel. My barbs are going crazy rubbing their noses up and down on the glass. My tank is not overstocked and it has been cycled for 6 weeks now. Does anyone have any suggestions or do I just need to wait it out? I just don't want to kill any of my fish.

Well if the tank was really cycled then there is some reason for the min-cycle (the rise in ammonia or nitrItes after a cycle is refered to as a mini-cycle). Have there been any power outages which might have killed off some of your biofilter? Have you increased the stock @all lately ?

Some live plants will help, water changes will reduce the ammount (just like during the cycle) but it will also take longer for any additional bacteria to grow in order to regain the balance in the tank.

Personally, depending on the stock and how well they're dealing with the nitrItes, you may want to wait, or continue with the water changes.


What size tank, what filtration and can you give us the numbers?


^_^

It's a 29 gallon with a Whisper 30 filter and an undergravel filter. There's a bubble wand for added Oxygen. There are a few small live plants. I currently have 5 dannios, 4 gold barbs, and 1 dojo that was recently added a few days ago (I guess this could be the reason for the spike?) The fish seem to be holding up pretty well, except for the barbs going a little crazy (Rubbing their noses up and down the glass. They do it in almost a schooling way.) So do you think I should postpone any water changes unless the fish start to really show stress?

Hi,
Once a tank is cycled, and the owner adds fish,
the tank goes through a "mini cycle" with each
addition. If you added the fish enmass (all at
once) then the tank will go through another series
of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate spikes as it
recycles to handle the new bio load. The mini
cycle can take as long as a normal cycle, or
be much shorter, it depends upon the tank conditions.

With the addition of fish, and very few plants,
you will have an "excess" of nitrate. Now you
have to "use it up" either through water changes,
or the addition of more plants.

The ideal way is to add floating plants such as
wisteria, hornwart, anacharis, riccia, splatterdock,
etc. Because these are floating plants and not anchored
in the gravel, the roots draw their nutrients directly
from the water and will soak up those nitrates, naturally.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Addition of Cycle will help.

This mini-cycle probably came about because of the additon of the extra fish. Also make sure you do not over clean your tank and filters. Not that i am saying you do, just pointing out that that can cause a mini-cycle.

-- Gomer

I am sort of dealing with the same thing in my 35g hex tank which has 4 tiger barbs, 2 guaramis, 2 clown loaches, and 1 petricola catfish. One piece of advice if you have plants, don't add salt. One thing that will detoxe nitrites is prime. Cycle works good too. Another thing that people told me that I rejected they're advice was to take it slow. As any person with ADD, they want it NOW. You know, the 35 fish in a 35g tank. Doesn't happen in 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month. It has to be taken slowly. I'm no expert, just speaking from my short experience. One other thing you might want to try adding is a product called cycle which adds bacteria to the tank, speeding up the cycle process.

Have you been adding the proper amount water conditioner to remove chlorine in the replacement water after vac and changes? Have you been rising your filter media under tap water?