High nitrite level and cloudy water

hi, I have a 5 gallon tank with one Betta and one mystery snail (my first fish tank. I got it for my 5yo daughter). I've had the fish for about 3 months and added 3 mystery snails 2 weeks ago. 2 of them died within the first week and 1 survived. it's been 1 week since the snails died and I tested the water and pH was very low (less than 6.2), hardiness 300 ppm, carbonate 0, alkalinity 0. all other values were normal. so I added baking soda (recommended by other fish blogs) and changed the carbon filter (tetra whisper filter). two days later, I tested the water level and nitrate 80, nitrite 10 ppm (alkalinity 180, carbonate 40, pH slightly above 6.2). I then did 50% water change and added Tetra safe start, aqua safe, and API stress coat. Several hours later, nitrate 40, nitrite 10 and water is super cloudy. the Betta seems stressed, not moving much. I'm afraid they are all going to die and my daughter keeps asking me what's wrong with the water. what should I do?

 

Large water change immediately 50%. You have to get that nitrite down to 0 and will need to do water changes every few hours in order to do that. You possibly crashed your cycle and shouldn't have changed the filter media at all. Filter media can be left alone until it's falling apart, though you can "rinse" it with tank water in a bucket on occasion. You will need to keep testing it to make sure ammonia and nitrite are at 0 and watch it for a while. If the cycle crashed, then you're basically having to recycle the tank.

I would also get Seachem Prime instead of stress coat. Prime will help make the ammonia/nitrite non-toxic to fish. And I wouldn't bother trying to adjust ph. Betta can handle a ph of 6.5-8 and trying to adjust the ph can actually be more harmful than good, especially if it rises or falls quickly. And you'd have been better off having a nerite snail instead of a mystery snail with a betta who might nip at the mystery snail's long antennae.

You can start with the water change though and I'm sure others on here can help as well, but that's what I'd start with.

 

Do an emergency 40% temperature matched conditioned water change. Followed by another in 4 hours or slightly longer. I don’t care if it’s late. I don’t care if the child is sleeping in the room.

Don’t clean anything just change some water.

 

what about the cloudiness? what's causing this? should I be concerned? or just water change will fix this? I took the Betta and snail out and transferred to a small container with tank water and have been adding small amounts of conditioned water every 20 mins. is this a wise idea? should I leave them in the tank while doing water change?

 

Welcome to Fishlore!

Leave the fish in the tank while changing out water. They need to slowly acclimate to the new water you are adding. It will be a big shock going to such drastically different water.

How many water changes have you done in the 3 months?

Like Bored said dont change your filter out anymore. Just rinse it in the old tank water when you do a water change. They tell you to do this to make money on the filters. The bacteria that breaks down the bad stuff is mostly on that filter.

You do not need Tetra Safe start, Aqua safe and Stress coat. Just use the Aqua safe in the new water you are adding to the tank.

Could you test your tap water for us to see what kind of water you are starting from?

Do you have a ammonia test or just the strips?

Please stop putting baking soda in the tank for now. I suspect that is your biggest issue. pH fluctuations are very hard on fish. When you test your tap water leave a glass out for 24 hours and test your pH level again. This will tell us what your water is from tap to tank after it gasses off what the city puts in it for safety. We can go from there.

 

that's the test strips from the tap water. I've changed the filter 1x before and changed water 2x in the last 3 months. this was the 3rd water change. I've been doing it monthly.

 

that's the test strips from the tap water. I've changed the filter 1x before and changed water 2x in the last 3 months. this was the 3rd water change. I've been doing it monthly.

Do you have a ammonia test?

That kind of explains the 80 Nitrate reading. Did you use the Tetra safe start in the first month?

 

Do you have a ammonia test?

That kind of explains the 80 Nitrate reading. Did you use the Tetra safe start in the first month

I do not have ammonia test. since last night, I've done 1x 50% water change and 4x 15% water changes (2x last night and 2x this morning, 2 hrs between changes) and the levels are still high. Nitrate 30 and nitrite 3. and cloudiness is almost gone. do I continue water changes? do I do another big change? I've only been adding Aqua safe after each change now.

 

I would keep going. Do larger than 15% too. Now that the Nitrate is down you need the nitrite to zero faster. When you are going to do another WC do 50%. Remember when you change water your number goes down according to how much you change. So if Nitrite is 3 it will bring it to 1.5 and next time .75. If you do less you wont get it down fast enough for the fish.

 

I ordered seachem prime. should I be adding that to the tank?

 

Just in the new water you add, just like any other dechlor. Dont add the Aqua safe too. Just the Prime. Remember to follow the directions Prime is concentrated more than other dechlors.

 

thanks for all your help, the betta, Dumbo and snail, Rosy (names given by my daughter) survived and all level are back to normal. But now I run into another problem. The Betta seems like it can't submerge to the bottom. it can only stay at the surface and its body seems bent. and stopped eating... eating one pebble a day. is this due to expose to nitrite? is there a treatment for this?