kmarie

I have slightly elevated nitrite levels in my 5.5 gallon tank. I have one male betta in the tank. Will doing partial water changes (25% to 30%) daily help this? So far, my betta seems okay. I did a partial water change on Saturday. Sunday I tested the water and had elevated nitrite levels.

chickadee

If you could please let me know how high the levels are it would help and how far along the cycle process is. If you are still cycling you will have the higher readings, but if the tank is cycled then there is some reason why this is going through a mini cycle. You can do water changes every day but if your tank is trying to cycle, to take too much out will delay the process, but you cannot let the level get so high as to hurt your betta. They can stand a very small level for a short time during a mini cycle but not for long. I would post the levels for me today if you can and also the ones for ammonia and nitrates if you can. I wish I could be of more help now. I would do the water change of 25% and get back to me and I will try to get the answer to you ASAP.

Welcome to Fishlore.com. We are here to help with questions you may have about your fish and will do our best to assist you. There are some great people with all levels of experience on this site and I hope your experience here is as pleasant as mine has been.

Rose

kmarie

The tank is in the second week of cycling. I did use a bacteria bio-starter. Ammonia is currently 0; nitrites at .5 (caution level); and nitrates were 20. I'll do a 25% water change today and test it again.

Boxermom

Unless you used BioSpira, your bacteria biostarter is useless and only contains dead bacteria. Water changes will help.

chickadee

Looks like you are doing a full cycle and will have to do frequent water testing to keep your little guy safe from high levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Confine the changes to 25% at a time so you are not undoing all the bacteria build-up that you have accomplished, but do them anytime the ammonia or nitrite goes above .5 and the nitrate goes above 20. When your cycle is complete, probably about 3 to 4 weeks, the readings should be ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate less than 10. You could have used Bio-spira and had an instant cycle, but the others are fairly useless and do not do anything to cycle your tank. They will not hurt anything but do not do the job for you. They may introduce a bacteria to the tank but if the stuff is not constantly added with each and every water change, the cycle is lost and you have to start all over, very stressful to fish and deadly to some.

Rose