Hi, Im in the midst of cycling an Aquarium stuck on Nitrite.

[Racerguy]

Its a 29 gallon tank with 6 Red Minor Tetra. I realize now it may have been too many fish. The fish are swimming, eating and behaving normal as far as i can tell. The tank has been up an running for 31 days and fish were introduced about 28 days ago. I have some plants in there Anubias and Java Fern. PH 7.2, Ammonia Zero, Nitrite 1.0 PPM. Nitrates are sitting are sitting around 40 PPM. My tapwater has nitrate in it from the start. KH is Zero from tap. Im using API Master and Tetra Test strips. I ordered the API GH/KH solution should be here Sunday.

The last 5 days i have been doing 40-50% water changes and dosing with an ounce of Fritz 7, 15 min after the water changes. I went over to Fritz's site and i see that having ZERO KH can stall the cycle. Is there anything i can do to help this along? I was pondering adding some crushed coral to boost KH some. Thanks for reading...

 

[Tash33]

Having zero KH will stall your cycle, a really quick fix is to add bicarbonate of soda, however this will increase your pH. There are a lot more experienced people on here who could probably advise you, to amounts to use. I actually remineralise rainwater for my tanks and actually add bicarbonate of soda to raise the pH and KH for my top offs as I find my KH gets depleted quickly. I generally add 1/2 TSP per 5 gallons and find it raises the pH by about 0.4 but, as I said I'm not that experienced and tbh play it by ear, test the water and than faff about until it's more or less where I want it.

 

[SparkyJones]

Your cycle isn't stalled if you have nitrates showing, it's just not strong enough yet. With 40ppm nitrates and 6 serpae tetras and it being about a month you haven't done much water changes.

That's what you need to do really, some heavier water changing, it will replenish the KH and get it back on track. Try to bring the nitrates down below 10ppm and it should then clear the ammonia and nitrite in about a week. I think it ran down the KH from the nitates being produced and it's slowed your colony from reproducing further.

You have a colony though it goes from ammonia to nitrates, it just needs to finish sizing up to clear out the nitrites and run zeros on ammonia and nitrite.
I'd suspect you have low KH in your source water maybe just 1 or 2 dKH. You are going to want to do weekly water changes of 25-30% and aim at 100% of the tank volume or more being changed per month to avoid the KH from running out as it builds up nitrates.

Other option would be as stated by Tash33 and making amendments to add KH with your water changes to add additional to it and set the water where you want it.

I just water change to replenish it personally. I've got 2dKH and overstocked and it works, ill run empty on KH and run up about 100 nitrates+ by maybe week 3 if i dont water change more frequent than that. Once it's cycled and the bacterial colony is at a functional size to handle it its fine, they just stop reproducing and growing the colony.
The only thing you'll need to worry about is slacking and the KH completely depleting and then the pH dropping out to acidic water.

 

[86 ssinit]

Hey Sparky he’s been doing 40-50% wc for the last five days. Nitrites still there. Could just be the test strips. Also 0kh from tap. But said fish look fine. Again may be the test strips.

 

[RayClem]

You have been doing a fish-in cycle for only 31 days. You have developed colonies of bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite. That is the 1st half of the process. Now you need to WAIT until you develop colonies of bacteria that will convert the nitrite to nitrate. Because you are seeing nitrates in the tank, that is an indication that you are developing colonies of the bacteria you need. They just have not had sufficient time to develop to the point that they can eliminate the nitrites.

Nitrites are toxic to fish, but not nearly as much as ammonia. If your nitrite test is over 1 ppm, do a partial water change. If the level drops below 0.5 ppm, hold off on the water change.

You might try to add a pinch (about 1/8 teaspoon) of baking soda to a glass of water, allow it to dissolve and then pour it into your tank to raise kH. I do not know how often you will need to do this. If your tap water is acidic, you might need to add something like crushed coral to your tank to help stabilize the pH and kH. If the water is slightly alkaline, but has low kH, the baking soda might be sufficient. There are also pH buffers that contain various forms of phosphate that can stabilize pH, but phosphates can promote algae growth if you are not careful about lighting levels. The Anubias and Ferns in your tank do not need a lot of light.

If your six Tetra Minor are the only fish in a 29 gallon tank, you do not have to be concerned about being overstocked. You are well within stocking limits. Make sure you are not overfeeding the fish. Feed only what they will consume in a couple of minutes.

You did not mention what type of filter and filter media you have in your tank. If you are using an HOB filter with replaceable filter cartridges, they do not provide a lot of surface area for development of bacteria colonies. When you replace the cartridge, you are throwing out a lot of your beneficial bacteria. If possible, use permanent sponges and filter pads that can be rinsed occasionally to remove excess debris without devastating your bacteria colonies.

 

[Racerguy]

Your cycle isn't stalled if you have nitrates showing, it's just not strong enough yet. With 40ppm nitrates and 6 serpae tetras and it being about a month you haven't done much water changes.

That's what you need to do really, some heavier water changing, it will replenish the KH and get it back on track. Try to bring the nitrates down below 10ppm and it should then clear the ammonia and nitrite in about a week. I think it ran down the KH from the nitates being produced and it's slowed your colony from reproducing further.

You have a colony though it goes from ammonia to nitrates, it just needs to finish sizing up to clear out the nitrites and run zeros on ammonia and nitrite.
I'd suspect you have low KH in your source water maybe just 1 or 2 dKH. You are going to want to do weekly water changes of 25-30% and aim at 100% of the tank volume or more being changed per month to avoid the KH from running out as it builds up nitrates.

Other option would be as stated by Tash33 and making amendments to add KH with your water changes to add additional to it and set the water where you want it.

I just water change to replenish it personally. I've got 2dKH and overstocked and it works, ill run empty on KH and run up about 100 nitrates+ by maybe week 3 if i dont water change more frequent than that. Once it's cycled and the bacterial colony is at a functional size to handle it its fine, they just stop reproducing and growing the colony.
The only thing you'll need to worry about is slacking and the KH completely depleting and then the pH dropping out to acidic water.

Hi and thanks for the response. My tap water has nitrates in it. I tested it a few times with the API Master and Tetra test stripes. The last 5 days ive been doing 40-50% water changes up from 20% the weeks before. This has been everyday for the past 3 1/2 weeks ive been doing some water change maybe skipped a day. According to the Tetra Test Strips my KH is Zero. GH is 150 or 75 kind of hard to differentiate the Browns. Today i did a 20% WC. PH reading is 7.2.

I want to increase KH and ordered some coarse aragonite should be coming in tomorrow. Just dont know how much i should put in there. Maybe a pound ?

Hey Sparky he’s been doing 40-50% wc for the last five days. Nitrites still there. Could just be the test strips. Also 0kh from tap. But said fish look fine. Again may be the test strips.

I also got the API Master Kit about 10-12 days ago. Neon Purple although the last few days ( possibly because ive done 40-50% WC) it seems to have dropped to the 1PPM range.

You have been doing a fish-in cycle for only 31 days. You have developed colonies of bacteria that convert ammonia to nitrite. That is the 1st half of the process. Now you need to WAIT until you develop colonies of bacteria that will convert the nitrite to nitrate. Because you are seeing nitrates in the tank, that is an indication that you are developing colonies of the bacteria you need. They just have not had sufficient time to develop to the point that they can eliminate the nitrites.

Nitrites are toxic to fish, but not nearly as much as ammonia. If your nitrite test is over 1 ppm, do a partial water change. If the level drops below 0.5 ppm, hold off on the water change.

You might try to add a pinch (about 1/8 teaspoon) of baking soda to a glass of water, allow it to dissolve and then pour it into your tank to raise kH. I do not know how often you will need to do this. If your tap water is acidic, you might need to add something like crushed coral to your tank to help stabilize the pH and kH. If the water is slightly alkaline, but has low kH, the baking soda might be sufficient. There are also pH buffers that contain various forms of phosphate that can stabilize pH, but phosphates can promote algae growth if you are not careful about lighting levels. The Anubias and Ferns in your tank do not need a lot of light.

If your six Tetra Minor are the only fish in a 29 gallon tank, you do not have to be concerned about being overstocked. You are well within stocking limits. Make sure you are not overfeeding the fish. Feed only what they will consume in a couple of minutes.

You did not mention what type of filter and filter media you have in your tank. If you are using an HOB filter with replaceable filter cartridges, they do not provide a lot of surface area for development of bacteria colonies. When you replace the cartridge, you are throwing out a lot of your beneficial bacteria. If possible, use permanent sponges and filter pads that can be rinsed occasionally to remove excess debris without devastating your bacteria colonies.

Good evening. I have a TopFin 30 HOB. I did change the filter once but i cut portions of the original floss material and stuffed it in the filter. I also bought a bag of Aqua Clear 30 BioMax about 3 weeks back stuck in the filter as well. Ive been feeding the fish a pinch every other day only what theyll eat in under 90 seconds. Voracious little guys lol. I did order some filter material and traced the shape with the outgoing first filter i used. I ordered a bag of this Aqual Natural 10lb Coarse Aragonite. Just not sure how much i should use....

Having zero KH will stall your cycle, a really quick fix is to add bicarbonate of soda, however this will increase your pH. There are a lot more experienced people on here who could probably advise you, to amounts to use. I actually remineralise rainwater for my tanks and actually add bicarbonate of soda to raise the pH and KH for my top offs as I find my KH gets depleted quickly. I generally add 1/2 TSP per 5 gallons and find it raises the pH by about 0.4 but, as I said I'm not that experienced and tbh play it by ear, test the water and than faff about until it's more or less where I want it.

Yea according to Fritz website no KH will stall. Ive been dosing this stuff an ounce a day for the past 5 days. Today i didnt use any and did a 20% WC. Also from Internet searching ive seen a few comments saying the same about stalling the Nitrite Cycle with Zero or low KH...

 

[Tash33]

I found out because I have a 20 gallon that has been fish free for about a month, I'd been dosing with ammonia and fish food to keep the bacteria alive but I wasn't testing the water as it was empty ( of livestock.).
I decided to rescape the tank for some new inhabitants so once I refilled it I dosed it to 4ppm of ammonia and it was taking ages to process it which I thought was odd as it could easily do 2-3ppm prior. I tested the KH and it was zero so I put bicarbonate of soda in and pretty much straightaway it was processing 2ppm in 24 hrs.

 

[Fishyfreeonz]

For every 10 ppm of ammonia the bacteria consumes it uses roughly 4° KH

 

[Fishfur]

For every 10 ppm of ammonia the bacteria consumes it uses roughly 4° KH

That’s an interesting tidbit of knowledge. Very nice to learn that.

 

[Racerguy]

For every 10 ppm of ammonia the bacteria consumes it uses roughly 4° KH

Interesting and thanks for the info... Im not sure how accurate these Tetra Strips are but ive tested a few times and Zero KH from Tap and from the Aquarium itself. Ive ordered the API KH solution. Ammonia has been Zero for the last 2 1/2 weeks or so. Tested with API Master, Tetra Ammonia and Seachem Alert.. Although i started off with the Tetra Strips...I just tested for Ammonia as im typing this and reads Zero. I wonder if there is just enough KH in there that the strips arent picking up to keep things going. Since ive been doing daily water ( except for a day or two) every day for the 3 weeks. I tested for Nitrites again earlier today and still at 1.0 PPM did a small WC afterwards..

 

[RayClem]

It sounds like you are on the right path. Just keep doing what you are doing for a few more weeks. Try adding a pinch of baking soda after every water change and see if that helps.

 

[SparkyJones]

Hey Sparky he’s been doing 40-50% wc for the last five days. Nitrites still there. Could just be the test strips. Also 0kh from tap. But said fish look fine. Again may be the test strips.

Wow. Maybe thr fritz was mishandled along the way and the bacteria died in the bottle? maybe allowed to freeze or overheat? Seems odd doing 40-50% there's still 40ppm nitrates but don't know where it was before the last 5 days either. Still should have cleared it out though.

Could be the test strips. That's true but all results should be wonky with bad strips.

Red minor serpae tetra will be fine with pH dropping down to 6 or even lower and KH or GH won't be all that important to them they should be fine if it's low KH or GH I think. The pH staying just above 7 should mean it's not completely depleted of KH theres something there, maybe just not enough to show on the test. But again I don't know where it was 5 days ago before the water changes if it was a much different picture that's been corrected with those water changes.

Still has me wondering where the 40 nitrates came from, that type of thing drives me crazy. Mystery nitrates. Are there nitrates in the source water maybe? Do the test strips read zero on a tapwater sample for nitrates?

 

[Fishyfreeonz]

Interesting and thanks for the info... Im not sure how accurate these Tetra Strips are but ive tested a few times and Zero KH from Tap and from the Aquarium itself. Ive ordered the API KH solution. Ammonia has been Zero for the last 2 1/2 weeks or so. Tested with API Master, Tetra Ammonia and Seachem Alert.. Although i started off with the Tetra Strips...I just tested for Ammonia as im typing this and reads Zero. I wonder if there is just enough KH in there that the strips arent picking up to keep things going. Since ive been doing daily water ( except for a day or two) every day for the 3 weeks. I tested for Nitrites again earlier today and still at 1.0 PPM did a small WC afterwards..

I have never dealt with low KH or GH before because my water is extremely hard but I managed to use up all the KH in a tank I am cycling. I caught it before it stalled but just barely. I used 6 tsp of baking soda in a 30 gallon tank to raise the KH to 10°
When fishless cycling you can use baking to adjust KH without worry since there are no fish involved.

 

[Momgoose56]

Question: what is your tap nitrite/nitrate levels?

 

[Fishfur]

If

Interesting and thanks for the info... Im not sure how accurate these Tetra Strips are but ive tested a few times and Zero KH from Tap and from the Aquarium itself. Ive ordered the API KH solution. Ammonia has been Zero for the last 2 1/2 weeks or so. Tested with API Master, Tetra Ammonia and Seachem Alert.. Although i started off with the Tetra Strips...I just tested for Ammonia as im typing this and reads Zero. I wonder if there is just enough KH in there that the strips arent picking up to keep things going. Since ive been doing daily water ( except for a day or two) every day for the 3 weeks. I tested for Nitrites again earlier today and still at 1.0 PPM did a small WC afterwards..

If it helps any, I used Tetra strips for years and found them to be more than accurate enough. I even did my own comparison with the API liquids and there was no difference worth worrying about.

Dip strips universally get a bad rap which isn’t deserved because they aren’t all hopelessly inaccurate. Like any consumer product, brands vary in quality.

But I believe user error accounts for a lot of the discrepancies.

Dip strip technology is good enough for a lot of medical testing and there aren’t all that many companies making the things,

I also believe that the strips with way more than 6 or 7 test pads are just too hard to read in the time allowed. If I had to use them I’d have the colour chart laminated, lay the strip on it and take a well lighted picture of the results at the precise time. At least that way I’d have a shot at being able to read all the results.

Best results with dip strips are achieved when you make sure you never try to remove a strip from the jar with wet or damp fingers and close the lid tightly immediately after taking out a strip.

Strips are very easily damaged if the unused strips are exposed to excess humidity inside the jar and the paper strips easily soak up and wick water droplets. You can ruin an entire jar that way.

Always time carefully and read them in the allotted time because pads will change colour as time passes.

I used to take the colour chart off the Tetra bottle and get it laminated so I could lay a wet strip on it. Made comparisons much easier.

 

[Racerguy]

Question: what is your tap nitrite/nitrate levels?

My Nitrites are Zero from the tap. Nitrate is 5ppm. Just tested again with API MK..

 

[Racerguy]

Wow. Maybe thr fritz was mishandled along the way and the bacteria died in the bottle? maybe allowed to freeze or overheat? Seems odd doing 40-50% there's still 40ppm nitrates but don't know where it was before the last 5 days either. Still should have cleared it out though.

Could be the test strips. That's true but all results should be wonky with bad strips.

Red minor serpae tetra will be fine with pH dropping down to 6 or even lower and KH or GH won't be all that important to them they should be fine if it's low KH or GH I think. The pH staying just above 7 should mean it's not completely depleted of KH theres something there, maybe just not enough to show on the test. But again I don't know where it was 5 days ago before the water changes if it was a much different picture that's been corrected with those water changes.

Still has me wondering where the 40 nitrates came from, that type of thing drives me crazy. Mystery nitrates. Are there nitrates in the source water maybe? Do the test strips read zero on a tapwater sample for nitrates?

There is nitrates in my Tap. I tested and it looks like its about 5PPM from Tap. Using the API MK. I did a small WC ( 20%) earlier waited about 6 hours and tested Aquarium Nitrates are at 20 ( maybe 40). I now just tested ( at tap) with the Test Stripes at 20 PPM.

Wow. Maybe thr fritz was mishandled along the way and the bacteria died in the bottle? maybe allowed to freeze or overheat? Seems odd doing 40-50% there's still 40ppm nitrates but don't know where it was before the last 5 days either. Still should have cleared it out though.

Could be the test strips. That's true but all results should be wonky with bad strips.

Red minor serpae tetra will be fine with pH dropping down to 6 or even lower and KH or GH won't be all that important to them they should be fine if it's low KH or GH I think. The pH staying just above 7 should mean it's not completely depleted of KH theres something there, maybe just not enough to show on the test. But again I don't know where it was 5 days ago before the water changes if it was a much different picture that's been corrected with those water changes.

Still has me wondering where the 40 nitrates came from, that type of thing drives me crazy. Mystery nitrates. Are there nitrates in the source water maybe? Do the test strips read zero on a tapwater sample for nitrates?

Thanks for the info. I ordered the Fritz from Chewy. The thing is that Exp Date is "rubbed off" It looks like 9-2- rest is rubbed off. I ordered the KH API should be coming tomorrow from Amazon.

 

[FishDin]

When fishless cycling you can use baking to adjust KH without worry since there are no fish involved.

It's commonly used with fish as well without worry.

Fritz says you ideally need a KH of at least 4.5dKH with temps in the mid 70's to mid 80s as well as some phosphate present (which the fish food will provide).


"What if my nitrites will not go down in my freshwater aquarium treated with FritzZyme® Nitrifying Bacteria?
In freshwater, we occasionally run across this situation, and the first thing we recommend is testing your alkalinity. In aquariums with an alkalinity below a 4.5 dKH (1.6 Meq/l), the bacteria that convert the nitrite to nitrate simply stop the conversion process. We have found that after raising alkalinity to a minimum of 4.5 dKH (1.6 Meq/l) but ideally 5.6 dKH (2.0 Meq/l), nitrite conversion proceeds rapidly."

 

[86 ssinit]

Thing is you’ve had to notice the nitrate test is a guessing game. Next does nitrates really matter?? Ok from your first post 6 tetras are not too much for your tank! No where near. There is nothing wrong with the tetras? All look good? Here’s the way I test nitrate (only test once every blue moon ). Omg look how red!!! But if you put the vial over the color chart it can’t be a color seen through the vial. It’s too dark. So it’s got to be the last color you can’t see through the vial. Which is about 20 ppm . So you can cross nitrates off the list.

 

[Racerguy]

It's commonly used with fish as well without worry.

Fritz says you ideally need a KH of at least 4.5dKH with temps in the mid 70's to mid 80s as well as some phosphate present (which the fish food will provide).


"What if my nitrites will not go down in my freshwater aquarium treated with FritzZyme® Nitrifying Bacteria?
In freshwater, we occasionally run across this situation, and the first thing we recommend is testing your alkalinity. In aquariums with an alkalinity below a 4.5 dKH (1.6 Meq/l), the bacteria that convert the nitrite to nitrate simply stop the conversion process. We have found that after raising alkalinity to a minimum of 4.5 dKH (1.6 Meq/l) but ideally 5.6 dKH (2.0 Meq/l), nitrite conversion proceeds rapidly."

Yea i saw that and thats why i was worried and posted here. The API GH/KH just came in. I tested the KH ( at tap) turns yellow on the 3rd drop. From Aquarium itself on the 2nd drop.
I tested for Nitrites today and its at .25 PPM. So there is some progress there because 6 days ago or so it was neon Purple.

 

[FishDin]

If using their product, I would follow their advice and raise the KH while cycling.

 

[jdhef]

I have low KH and I put a media bag of crushed coral in my canister filter to raise the KH. This way my KH stays consistant.

I discovered I had low KH the hard way. My pH is just over 7, and I had been using Amquel+ as my water conditioner. Apparently long term use of Amquel+ can (did) lead to a pH crash.

What happened is that since the pH was low, less (non) toxic ammonium was building up in the tank. Since there was no ammonia, my ammonia converting bacteria went dormant, which then startve out the nitrite converting bacteria.

I did a large enough water change to raise the pH and all that ammonium converted into ammonia. The ammonia converting bacteria woke up and converted all that ammonia into nitrites, but since all the nitrite converting bacteria starve off, almost all of my fish suffocated overnight.

 

[Racerguy]

I have low KH and I put a media bag of crushed coral in my canister filter to raise the KH. This way my KH stays consistant.

I discovered I had low KH the hard way. My pH is just over 7, and I had been using Amquel+ as my water conditioner. Apparently long term use of Amquel+ can (did) lead to a pH crash.

What happened is that since the pH was low, less (non) toxic ammonium was building up in the tank. Since there was no ammonia, my ammonia converting bacteria went dormant, which then startve out the nitrite converting bacteria.

I did a large enough water change to raise the pH and all that ammonium converted into ammonia. The ammonia converting bacteria woke up and converted all that ammonia into nitrites, but since all the nitrite converting bacteria starve off, almost all of my fish suffocated overnight.

Sorry to hear about your fish loss. I had bought Seachem Prime which everyone is always saying to use when cycling a tank. However, i only used it once ( or twice) i was using API Stress Coat. I didnt know that having a low KH can stall a cycle until i ordered the Fritz 7 and headed over to their website. No mention of it when i was searching for info on cycling tanks before that. I did order some Arragonite Coarse but stuff is too fine and want to put it in a media bag and put some on my HOB as much as i can fit in there. So i may just order some crush coral and send that back...

BTW i checked last night and about an hour ago...Im now getting Zero Nitrites using API MK...I havent done any water changes the last 2 days....