# Nitrite spiking for three days?????



## Long Beach (Mar 11, 2008)

My ph is steady at 7.5 but my nitrates are 40, and my nitrites stay at 5.0. I do water changes every day and the lowest i can get it is 3.0. I have added a teaspoon of salt to help with the poisining, but what else can i do? I have only had my tank going for three weeks max. I know that this is not the proper way to cycle a tank, but i need find a way to stabalize this tank. I have two emperor 400's in my 60 gal tank, so i should have plenty of filtration. Any help would be great, thanks


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## AKSkirmish (Jun 24, 2005)

read link-
http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=170181


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

What are your other water parameters?


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## Long Beach (Mar 11, 2008)

Nitrates.......20

nitrites........3.0

ph...............7.5

water is hard, about 150

chlorine........0

alkil..........80

amon.........0

Befor the water change just now my nitrites were 5.0 and after the 30% change they went down to 3.0. What else can i do? I have started to cycle another thank and hopefully they can hold on until that tank cycles completly and i will move some over to that tank. I also picked up a rena xp3 today and will install that with one emperor 400. Thanks


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## maknwar (Jul 16, 2007)

Time. Nothing else you can really do.


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## angeli697 (Jul 5, 2007)

Long Beach said:


> Nitrates.......20
> 
> nitrites........3.0
> 
> ...


instead of adding 1 tsp. add 1 tbsp. per every five gallons of water. (aquarium salt or non-iodized table salt)


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## Piranha Dan (Nov 11, 2007)

Are you trying to cycle the tank with the fish in there? If you are, all you can do is keep doing water changes and add salt do reduce the chances of Nitrite poisoning till your parameters stabilize. Good luck.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

It will be over soon man. Just a couple more days. Salt is your best friend here and will keep your fish alive. Just dont mess with the filters.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

I remeber DonH explaining this years ago and basically here is the explanation on how much salt is roughly needed to treat nitrite poisoning. For nitrite poisoning salt can protect the fishes. This happens only if the salt content is such that the chloride ion's concentration is about 30 times that of the nitrite ion concentration in the water. Typically, nitrite becomes toxic at about 0.1 mg/L. This means that the chloride ion concentration would have to be at least 3.0 mg/L. This concentration translates into one of about 5.0 mg/L of salt (NaCl is 60.66% chloride, Cl-); this is equivalent to 18.7 mg/gallon. A teaspoon of table salt is about 5.5 grams (or 5,500 mg); a teaspoon of table salt would be sufficient to protect fishes living in approximately 294 gallons of water. This is for 0.1 ppm. You can do the math on 3.0 ppm to figure out how much salt you need to protect the fish from the nitrite ions.


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## Long Beach (Mar 11, 2008)

A few hours after my water change and my levels are about the same, but the nitrite's are at 10.0 now. I added a tablespoon of salt to the tank and hopefully that will get them through the night until my next water change tomorrow. Thanks everyone for posting with help.


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## asian_redtail_catfish (Sep 25, 2003)

Whenever I have like water problems, I just put Bio Spira in and no water changes..It speed things up a lot..Well that is what I do..I guess I dont have time for water changes and the wait method since I think just doing water changes will just prolong the cycle..

Yes, maybe I am thinking outside of the box....With a brand new tank, Bio Spira can cycle a tank in 10-14 days and for you, you already have some good bacteria in your tank, it would probably take around five days for your tank to completly cycle..

Okay, my 2 cents..I am just saying what I would do if I have water problems..


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Long Beach said:


> A few hours after my water change and my levels are about the same, but the *nitrite's are at 10.0 now*. I added a tablespoon of salt to the tank and hopefully that will get them through the night until my next water change tomorrow. Thanks everyone for posting with help.


Dont you mean nitrates. It is next to impossible to get nitrites at 10.0 ppm. What conditioner are you using for your water changes ??? No need for bio spira at this stage of the cycle. Will be a waste of money. Cycle will be done in a couple days.


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## Long Beach (Mar 11, 2008)

Dr. Giggles said:


> A few hours after my water change and my levels are about the same, but the *nitrite's are at 10.0 now*. I added a tablespoon of salt to the tank and hopefully that will get them through the night until my next water change tomorrow. Thanks everyone for posting with help.


Dont you mean nitrates. It is next to impossible to get nitrites at 10.0 ppm. What conditioner are you using for your water changes ??? No need for bio spira at this stage of the cycle. Will be a waste of money. Cycle will be done in a couple days.
[/quote]
No its my nitrite's that was a little less than 10.0. I use kordon novaua +, and amquel + to treat the water on every change. I use 1tsp per 10gallon. for both.


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Can I ask you which test kit you are using ? All the test kits i am familiar with only read nitrites to 5.0 ppm. I dont see how nitrites in your case can more than triple in just 2 days after a water change. I would call your water district up if they have done anything to the water over the last 2 days. If it is them than something seriously wrong occurred with the drinking water supply. Check your tap water and see what you get.


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## Long Beach (Mar 11, 2008)

They are quick dip test strips. I see what you are saying in that they are probably not very accurate to begin with. I might have to pick up a better test kit. Thanks


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