Nitrite and nitrate spike, help!

Hey. I have an 8.5 gallon tropical tank with a male betta, 2 bronze catfish, about 13 shrimp and one nerite snail.

Yesterday when I was doing my weekly water test, I found the nitrite and nitrate levels have gone up much more than usual.

Nitrites are reading at 5ppm and nitrates are reading between 50-100ppm. I can’t do an ammonia test because I ran out of the strips for that currently but everything else (ph, gh etc) seem ok. I’ve done two 15-20% water changes so far since yesterday evening and the above are the readings I took just now.

I’ve also added a tablespoon of aquarium salt into the tank because I read it aids the fish to breathe during nitrate/ite spikes but now I’m worried that the shrimp and snail might get affected by this. For some reason the thought didn’t cross my mind that it could be bad for them.

Anyone knows of anything else that I can do? I’m thinking of amazon priming some seachem prime solution to try to detoxify the nitrites tomorrow or some nitrite and ammonia remover solution. This is the only thing I can think of, apart from the daily water changes. Anyone can suggest anything else? I’m really worried about my fish and shrimp

 

I think water changes are your only option to get those levels down.

Prime is a good idea, but it’s only effective for a combined level of ammonia and nitrites of 1 ppm.

 

I had a crazy nitrite spike when I started. We did every 2nd day or 3rd day water change round abt 30%. The smaller the tank the more difficult it is to control the nitrite/nitrate spikes I think.

 

I had a crazy nitrite spike when I started. We did every 2nd day or 3rd day water change round abt 30%. The smaller the tank the more difficult it is to control the nitrite/nitrate spikes I think.

Yeah, the smaller the tank the less stable it is.

 

Do you have spider plants or any other kind of plant that has roots protruding? They will not solve the problem, but they can help take away some nitrates or prevent them from rising a lot more while you get things in order. This is just something that I have heard that people do, so give it a try if you can, but don't depend on it too much.

 

Do you have spider plants or any other kind of plant that has roots protruding? They will not solve the problem, but they can help take away some nitrates or prevent them from rising a lot more while you get things in order. This is just something that I have heard that people do, so give it a try if you can, but don't depend on it too much.

This is a good idea for when the tank is cycled, but during cycling or during spikes this is counterproductive, taking away the nitrogen compounds from the bacteria.

 

How long have you had this tank, how long have you had each of the creatures in it? Your description makes this sound like the later stages of a new tank cycle.

 

This is a good idea for when the tank is cycled, but during cycling or during spikes this is counterproductive, taking away the nitrogen compounds from the bacteria.

Oh okay, thanks for the info. But, I'm kind of confused though. If you have a spike and you want to lower the amounts anyway (take some away from the bacteria), why would this be counterproductive? Does it not achieve the same final goal of lowering them to a level that is still high enough for the bacteria, but not too high that it harms the fish in an uncycled aquarium?

 

Do you have spider plants or any other kind of plant that has roots protruding? They will not solve the problem, but they can help take away some nitrates or prevent them from rising a lot more while you get things in order. This is just something that I have heard that people do, so give it a try if you can, but don't depend on it too much.

The only live plants as such that I have is two moss balls. Would it be a good idea to get hold of some live plants ASAP or wait till everything’s stable?

How long have you had this tank, how long have you had each of the creatures in it? Your description makes this sound like the later stages of a new tank cycle.

The tank finished cycling around 1.5-2 months ago and that’s when I put my fish in. The newest additions are the two catfish which were added a few days ago. Could that be something to do with it do you think?

 

The only live plants as such that I have is two moss balls. Would it be a good idea to get hold of some live plants ASAP or wait till everything’s stable?

I will let someone with more experience answer this, but based on your other reply where you say the tank was cycled, I hope that you did not wash your filter at the time you changed your water and if you did I hope you did not use chlorinated water, these things would lower the count of your beneficial bacteria.

 

I will let someone with more experience answer this, but based on your other reply where you say the tank was cycled, I hope that you did not wash your filter at the time you changed your water and if you did I hope you did not use chlorinated water, these things would lower the count of your beneficial bacteria.

Nope! I always use aqua safe before adding any new water and I haven’t rinsed the filters yet, those should still have all beneficial bacteria inside

Also, can anyone calm my nerves about the aquarium salt and my shrimp? Should I be worried or are they likely to be ok?

 

Oh okay, thanks for the info. But, I'm kind of confused though. If you have a spike and you want to lower the amounts anyway (take some away from the bacteria), why would this be counterproductive? Does it not achieve the same final goal of lowering them to a level that is still high enough for the bacteria, but not too high that it harms the fish in an uncycled aquarium?

I accidently phrased that a bit wrong, sorry.
The goal during a spike is to reduce the ammonia and nitrite in the water quickly so fish and inverts don't get poisoned. So waterchanges that dilute quickly are better. The animals will still produce waste and thus ammonia, so the bacteria have enough to live on.
If you have a cycling situation, you want the ammonia and nitrites build up to a certain point so they get transformed to nitrates by the bacteria. If you use too many plants they will likely use up more of the ammonia and nitrites instead of nitrates, before those can even be formed by the bacteria, thus the plants at that point can (can, I don't say will!) stall the cycle.

Also, can anyone calm my nerves about the aquarium salt and my shrimp? Should I be worried or are they likely to be ok?

That little salt should still be fine, but stop dosing it, because with your setup all fish and all inverts are sensitive to it. The cories don't like salt either.

 

The tank finished cycling around 1.5-2 months ago and that’s when I put my fish in. The newest additions are the two catfish which were added a few days ago. Could that be something to do with it do you think?

I would blame the spike on your new fish then, yes. In a tank so small where you only had 1 fish before, you've now tripled the number of fish & thus substantially increased the bioload. Your biofilter is going to take time to catch up, and until then you should expect ammonia/nitrite spikes on a running basis. I'm not sure how long the adjustment will take, but so long as you keep on top of water changes and carefully observe how all the critters are doing, I think you'll be ok.

Adding plants won't substantially reduce the spikes, since the plants will take time to establish and any die-off you get from them will only add to the ammonia load.

I would try to stick to one 20-30% water change per day to minimize that stress on the system. Test your water at a consistent time of day, and I'd even test it before & after each change & keep a log so you can really get good data on how the tank is doing.

 

50-100 and 5 is WAY too high for most sensitive fish and inverts.

If you do the math, 20% wc only brings it down to 40-80 and 4, which is still extremely high.

You need to get the nitrates to around 20 and the nitrites to less than 1. More is constantly being added, so doing regular 20% changes daily will not drop it low enough, ever.

Some people on this forum think less than 50% water changes are pointless, at any time. It does very little.

You need to do an 80% water change, which will bring the nitrates down from 100 to 20, and the nitrites to 1 ppm.

Then you can retest tomorrow and do enough of a water change (using math) to keep nitrites at 1 or less.

You basically just set off a mini cycle with the new corys, which should catch up quickly, so you won’t be doing all this extra work for too long. I do recommend getting some floating plants. You have a pretty small tank, so just one type of floating plant will be fine, whichever you choose. NOT duckweed - it’s huge and takes over!

 

I would blame the spike on your new fish then, yes. In a tank so small where you only had 1 fish before, you've now tripled the number of fish & thus substantially increased the bioload. Your biofilter is going to take time to catch up, and until then you should expect ammonia/nitrite spikes on a running basis. I'm not sure how long the adjustment will take, but so long as you keep on top of water changes and carefully observe how all the critters are doing, I think you'll be ok.

Adding plants won't substantially reduce the spikes, since the plants will take time to establish and any die-off you get from them will only add to the ammonia load.

I would try to stick to one 20-30% water change per day to minimize that stress on the system. Test your water at a consistent time of day, and I'd even test it before & after each change & keep a log so you can really get good data on how the tank is doing.

Thank you!

50-100 and 5 is WAY too high for most sensitive fish and inverts.

If you do the math, 20% wc only brings it down to 40-80 and 4, which is still extremely high.

You need to get the nitrates to around 20 and the nitrites to less than 1. More is constantly being added, so doing regular 20% changes daily will not drop it low enough, ever.

Some people on this forum think less than 50% water changes are pointless, at any time. It does very little.

You need to do an 80% water change, which will bring the nitrates down from 100 to 20, and the nitrites to 1 ppm.

Then you can retest tomorrow and do enough of a water change (using math) to keep nitrites at 1 or less.

You basically just set off a mini cycle with the new corys, which should catch up quickly, so you won’t be doing all this extra work for too long. I do recommend getting some floating plants. You have a pretty small tank, so just one type of floating plant will be fine, whichever you choose. NOT duckweed - it’s huge and takes over!

I’m just very worried that if I do a water change that big, it will shock the fish and shrimp... I’ve never done one that big before. I do definitely want to add some live plants but my pet store has absolutely nothing in at the moment, I’m assuming due to corona, not sure. Which would you recommend?

 

I’m just very worried that if I do a water change that big, it will shock the fish and shrimp... I’ve never done one that big before. I do definitely want to add some live plants but my pet store has absolutely nothing in at the moment, I’m assuming due to corona, not sure. Which would you recommend?

I’d at least do 50%, temp match it within 1-2°. As long as your new water is similar to the tank water, it’ll be fine. Sometimes the tank water ends up dropping in ph, which means a large water change could shock the fish from a sudden ph change. But if your tap and tank water are similar in ph and temp, it should be fine. I know some newer people are afraid because shrimp are very sensitive, but some of our older folk here have said they’ve had no troubles with shrimp while doing larger water changes. Ultimately, I think nitrites and (probably) high ammonia as well is more toxic than a possible shock.

If you can do 20-30% water changes and see a decrease in nitrites over the next 2-3 days you could get away with the smaller water changes since you are nervous about it. Just watch your fish carefully, if they have red gills or gasping at the top (corys do this normally so watch your other fish), if the snails are staying out of the water and never coming down, then you need a large water change asap.