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Nitrites! 0.25

Joined
Nov 9, 2008
Messages
90
I checked my water today and I seem to be zero on Ammonia but I have an increase in Nitrite. I usually have a zero reading but now I am on .25.
What should I do?

Will this be bad for my Mercs?

I'm doing a water change after work.

Dino
 
That's not that bad actually. Water changes should help. If it gets over .30 then that might become an issue.

You might find some nice macro algae to add to the tank. It will help absorb some of those nitrates.
 
AM, if Dino has not confused the two (it took me forever to keep them straight) that was Nitrite not Nitrate.

Change extra water daily and monitor until it is back to zero. You should not never be able to detect nitrites. Putting back some of that LR now would help once you have them back down (as long as you kept it in water the entire time).
 
Yes it is Nitrites... weird I know. The reading was taken after having an uneaten piece of frozen shrimp in the tank. I'm not sure if that could have skewed the results.
I was quite surprised to see the Ammonia and Nitrates unchanged and to see an elevated Nitrites.
I did a big water change earlier.
I'll let it settle and check again tomorrow. Maybe I do need to put back some of the LR I took out earlier this week.
 
The cycle is Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate. You will always have it as decaying food and critter waste will produce the ammonia but your biological filtration should run the conversion quickly enough that there is no build-up of either ammonia or nitrites in the water (therefore undetectable). Water changes (be sure to stir up your bottom substrate and give your rocks a blowing off with a turkey baster) are the only nitrate removal in your current system. I think I mentioned that shrimp are especially good at creating ammonia :hmm:. Since you are seeing nitrites, your original cycle and the biological filtration that was created was likely weakened when you removed the LR without time for more bacterial build up with the increased bioload. This will be a little tricky to control for awhile and adding back LR that is fully cycled will help since you need to build up more bacteria but keep the water as nitrite free as you can (which will slow down the new cycle but keep the animals healthier).
 
Thanks again for the great advice guys... I brought back some of the rock I took out of the tank and the levels went back to a stable zero. I think I may have shocked the system by taking out so many rocks at one time the same day I left a chunk of shrimp for the octos.

Lesson learned. :smile:
 
Decaying... they start to have that rancid smell. Hey D! Do you think it's safe to drop a thawed out krill in a tank over night? I don't think Hugsy has eaten all weekend.
 
ok. just making sure. theres a few shore shrimp running around with district. just wanted to make sure it wasnt an issue.
 
DinoIgnacio;129895 said:
Decaying... they start to have that rancid smell.

Do you think it's safe to drop a thawed out krill in a tank over night? I don't think Hugsy has eaten all weekend.

Any live food that is still alive is not a problem (most actually eat decaying matter, adding, temporarily, to your clean-up crew).

The only thing dead I will leave overnight is a feshly killed crab that I remove in the AM if not eaten (usually it is cleaned out). Do you have any kind of clean-up crew in the tank (snails, hermits, serpents)? If so, then place the krill at the mouth of his den but if not, I would stay with the live if you have any (you can get 20 small ones delivered in the mail for about a dollar a piece from Paul and you should always have some live to feed on hand). If you don't have some sort of live clean-up, I would suggest getting a few snails, hermits or a single serpent before you try to feed frozen as it is very hard to find and remove the thawed remains if something does not eat it.
 
I have a couple hermits in there along with two snails. I left a small thawed krill in there and will remove it in the AM if it's uneaten. I could not keep it close to the den as I don't know where Hugsy stays and the krill naturally floats.

I'll tracking down one more lead for live bait. If it does not pan out; I may have to contact Paul for some live food.

Thanks!
 

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