Help-spike in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate

HI all,

We started our tank about two and half months ago and all was going well until....
All of a sudden we had a spike in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.

pH: approx. 7.3-7.5
Nitrates: 20ppm
Ammonia: .5
Nitrites: 2-5ppm

We have a ten gallon tank, and currently four fish that are seemingly alive and well (not sure how long that will last). We have done a 50% water change a couple times in the past week and are wondering what to do now. Is it just a patience game and a hope that things will return to normal, or should we continue changing water to dilute out those nitrites? I am most worried of course the most about the nitrites and ammonia. Is this just another cycling that is all of a sudden occurring? If so, I need some guidance.

Thanks!

 

Nitrites are deadly high at 5ppm, so you HAVE to do BIG water changes to lower it. Its a math problem:

If you have 5ppm nitrites, change 50% of the water, you're still left with 2.5ppm, which is poisonous. At 5ppm, youd have to change 90% of the water to make it safe at .5ppm. At 5ppm an 80% change is still going to leave 1ppm, which isn't safe for your fish.

Youll have to do this until your cycle catches up. Seems like the tank wasn't cycled properly before the fish were added or you have HUGE fish in that 10 gallon and are overfeeding them severely. What type of fish do you have?

 

Thank you for the prompt reply! We have three platys and two dwarf gouramis. I do think the cycle possibly wasn't fully finished before adding fish, then all of a sudden the bacterial growth sky rocketed....Do you think we should treat with anything or just continue doing water changes and hope the fish survive?

 

Thank you for the prompt reply! We have three platys and two dwarf gouramis. I do think the cycle possibly wasn't fully finished before adding fish, then all of a sudden the bacterial growth sky rocketed....Do you think we should treat with anything or just continue doing water changes and hope the fish survive?

If you don't already have it get a bottle of seachem prime. It is first and foremost a water conditioner but goes one step farther and detoxes low levels of ammonia and/or nitrites. Try to keep those down as low as possible with water changes and add enough prime to treat the full 10 gallons with each water change. Try to keep the total amount of ammonia + nitrites below one with water changes. Prime will detox the ammonia and protect your fish. The ammonia will still show up in your tests but it will be in a safer form.

we know that you have both ammonia and nitrite eating bacteria because your nitrates are rising so now it is just a matter of time for there to be enough of each to process straight through to nitrates.

 

+1 to mattgirl