phil saint

For the last three days iv been gettin a nitrite reading of 0.25ppm my ammonia is 0ppm and nitrate is 5ppm im doing daily water changes to bring the nitrite down. dose anyone have any ideas why only the nitrite has gone up

all info about my tank/fish is on my profile, i feed every 2 days all food eaten within 2-3 mins and all fish seem uneffected by the rise in nitrite.

thanks in advance....phil.

Shawnie

prior to getting the nitrite spike, how often and how much of a water change schedule did you have?

phil saint

10% once a week

Shawnie

thats probably what happened..you have a heavily stocked tank and maybe put the water changes up to 30% a week when you have gotten through the mini cycle ?

phil saint

thanks.....i didnt realise my tank was heavily stocked, just out of interest what is the best amount of fish for the tank (110L) this might sound silly but theres loads of space haha

kcarmartinez

I don't know about heavily stocked... expecially if your fish are still small. But maybe the addition of too many fish too quick for your bacteria to handle?
The darth vader mask is for my son. :-)

Common rule is 1 inch of FULL grown fish per gallon (you have 29)
This is a general rule though, some fish are low bio-load, some more. Long tanks generally do better because of surface area, some people are better at keeping the tank water perfect, etc...

Shawnie

usually its a 1 inch per gallon rule..but thats only a start..you have approx 37 inches of fish without the frogs....and they can make a mess of things...not to mention the leftover food that they dont eat and goes to the bottom...

when i said heavily stocked, it was more on that line and not so much that you have large fish...but you have allot of fish...and 10% isnt enough of a water change for that amount IMO

phil saint

all my fish are fully grown and where introduced over time....i'll up the percent of water changed and see how it goes.....the frogs and guppys are going into a new tank that im getting the wife for christmass so going by the inch rule i should be sorted.

thanks for the advice

phil