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I started my 75G 2 weeks ago. Got nitrite reading 0.25mg/L last night. What should I do other than doing a major water change? My tank temp. is now at 80F. A 50% water change will drop the tank temp rapidly (as the tap water is pretty cold). I have 4 clown loaches in this tank. They seem to be doing fine at the moment. I'm afriad that rapid temp drop will stress them too much. Any advice?

Hi, and welcome to FP. You should do nothing but wait. A water change will only prolong the cycling process, making it take much longer.
And when you do change the water (only after nitrates appear and the nitrites start sliding off) make the water going in the same temp as what's in the tank, else it will be a huge stress on the fish, and could cause many maladies.
Most fish diseases can be prevented by a few simple things, REGULAR water changes, a constant temp, basically constant water parameters. Unfortunately, thats askin a lot, especially in smaller tanks. Most of the maladies aren't really caused by the water, other the stress caused by poor water quality, or very unstable conditions. Huge water changes should be avoided for this reason, most of us do 20-50% although I think 20% is about the norm.
I hope this helps, and again welcome.

You must play the waiting game it could take up to two months before the tank is running as it should.
If you got the CLs at the same LFS returnn then immediatly reason the cycling process coulds easly kill them.

Buy at least six Zebra Danios, and some live plants. Are you adding any chemicals to get the tank started?
Filtration what do you have? Is there any airation if not get an air pump and a air stone this will certainly help.
Tell us more about the tank please.
A 20%-30% is a good water change if your tap water is cold I suggest you store it for a week add any necessary chemicals dechlorinator etc and warm the water up first.
I store my water in containers and heat all the water up in a laundry trough. I have been doing this for well over 20 years. One of my main reasons fore storing is to dechlorinat and kill off ang Ich which comes through our town water supply.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Nitrite reading stays at 0.25mg/L today. CLs look happy, they play /fight with each other (trying to sort out the hierachy?) and have been feeding well (I did not feed them yesterday because of the nitrite alarm).

The tank is 75G that comes with a filter on the top. Water flow rate is slow but there's a lot of room for the bio media (and I put a lot). I use this for mechanical and Bio filtration. I added a Fluval 4 plus to take care of the chemical filtration and use it's strong flow to aerate the tank.

Water has been treated with dechlorinator and added some commercial nitrifier product (not sure if it actually works). I also took some bio media, filter foam pads, gravels and plants from a cycled tank. There is also a lot of plants in the new tank.

I'll certainly keep an eye on those lovely CLs and take immediate action in first sign of trouble. Hopefully, one day they'll grow into a gorgeous looking CL like yours

Good news. Nitrite is slowing retreating .