High Nitrites- Fishless Cycle

No luck the nitrites are still the same after one week with no water changes.

 

No luck the nitrites are still the same after one week with no water changes.

I am at a total loss as to what is happening with this tank. I know you can't get Tetra Safe Start but maybe there is another brand of bacteria in a bottle that you can get there. Maybe you can start another thread asking for advice from folks in Australia about which products they have had success with.

At this point though I am not sure even a bottled bacteria would complete this cycle. I've never come across this problem before and have no answers.

If it were me and if my plan was to get a Betta I would do a 100% water change and go ahead a get my fish and just be sure to keep up with water changes.

 

I am at a total loss as to what is happening with this tank. I know you can't get Tetra Safe Start but maybe there is another brand of bacteria in a bottle that you can get there. Maybe you can start another thread asking for advice from folks in Australia about which products they have had success with.

At this point though I am not sure even a bottled bacteria would complete this cycle. I've never come across this problem before and have no answers.

If it were me and if my plan was to get a Betta I would do a 100% water change and go ahead a get my fish and just be sure to keep up with water changes.

I also can't understand what is going on but thanks for all your help and advice.

I have a bottle of Seachem Stability (bacteria in a bottle) which I added daily for a week when I first started the tank and I add it in every time I do a water change.

My plan is to get a Betta fish so I'll do a 100% water change and get the fish. When should I be doing the water changes? I have Seachem Prime to dose the tank as well.

 

I also can't understand what is going on but thanks for all your help and advice.

I have a bottle of Seachem Stability (bacteria in a bottle) which I added daily for a week when I first started the tank and I add it in every time I do a water change.

My plan is to get a Betta fish so I'll do a 100% water change and get the fish. When should I be doing the water changes? I have Seachem Prime to dose the tank as well.

Since it seems the Stability isn't doing anything and now I am wondering if it is possible it is where the nitrites are coming from. I know I am reaching for straws now since I can't figure this one out. I think I would stop adding it or anything other than Prime when you do water changes.

Just let your tests be your guide. Apparently you are going to always have nitrites so water changes aren't going to do anything for them. With just the one little guy in there you may only need to do water changes a couple of times a month. Since you have ammonia in your source water you may not want to do water changes as often as I would. Personally I would have to do a 50% every week but I don't have ammonia in my source water.

It is possible that eventually the nitrites will finally go away but at this point I am thinking they are going to hang on forever. I don't understand it at all but it is what it is.

I hope you will share a photo of your little guy when you get him and keep me updated as to how it is going. I have my fingers crossed for a very happy ending to this saga.

 

I tested my water after the 100% only adding in the prime. Can the nitrite level kill a fish? I read online that nitrite is more poisonous than ammonia and now I'm worried that I will kill my fish as soon as I put it in the tank.

 

I don't know what it is but something in this tank is conflicting with your nitrite test. I just can't for the life of me see how it is possible for you to still be getting a nitrite reading like that after a 100% water change. We know your test isn't faulty because you are reading zero nitrites in your source water so it has to be something in the tank.

What kind of substrate do you have in there? I know you said gravel but is it one sold for aquariums? If it is then it probably isn't that. I would remove all of the decorations. Do another huge water change and see it the nitrites are gone. Something is leaching something into the water causing these nitrite readings. There just isn't any other explanation for them to still be there.

 

It’s completely stump me to as to why they aren’t dropping.
Yes the substrate is aquarium gravel and so are all the decorations but I’ll try removing the decorations and doing another water change and see if that has any change.
I’m getting my fish today I’ll post a photo once I have it.

 

It’s completely stump me to as to why they aren’t dropping.
Yes the substrate is aquarium gravel and so are all the decorations but I’ll try removing the decorations and doing another water change and see if that has any change.
I’m getting my fish today I’ll post a photo once I have it.

You want to be sure the cycle has processed the ammonia in your source water before you put your new water pet in there. Or at least most of it. Prime will protect the little guy from it as long as it is below one.

If the nitrites go away after taking all the deco out it will at least give us an answer to this mystery. If we find that the nitrites are coming from one of them you may want to put them back in there one piece at a time. Give it a couple of days before running the nitrite test. That is the only way I can think of to see if one of them is causing this mystery.

 

Personally I wouldn’t put fish in a tank with .5 nitrites.

I understand your frustration. I would be frustrated in this situation too.

You have asked for advice, received good advice, followed the advice and still no resolution to the problem. Frustrating.

But I still wouldn’t put fish in with that high of nitrites.

Good luck if you do.

 

Thought I would give an update and introduce my fish. It was the decorations all along as soon as I removed them did a 100% water change and retested the water it read 0 nitrites.
This is my fighting fish Mustard and my mystery snail. Thanks for all your help in working out the mystery haha.

 

I am sooooooo happy to hear this. That is an absolutely gorgeous fish. Love that name

 

This cycling journey is going to go on my list of one of the longest running nitrite mysteries I have encountered. I am just happy that we finally solved it. I will remember this though and if it should happen again I might not have such a hard time getting to the bottom of it.

Thank you for the update.

 

This cycling journey is going to go on my list of one of the longest running nitrite mysteries I have encountered. I am just happy that we finally solved it. I will remember this though and if it should happen again I might not have such a hard time getting to the bottom of it.

Thank you for the update.

That’s alright I’m just glad we finally worked out what was causing the problem.