Nitrite Spike At 25 Days Fish In Cycle

Hello all,

I am new to this site. and I look forward to getting and giving feedback. I am curious about my nitrogen cycle. I have had 55 gal cichlid tank in past. Was so long ago I don't remember doing anything but throwing fish in. didn't lose more than a few either. Anyway here is my setup and parameters. Also I was totally unaware of nitrogen cycle until after I stocked initial fish.

apI 5 in 1 strips
ammonia strips from jungle
29 gal top fin, hang on back, heater, one big fake log cave, 2 tall fake plants

started Aug 12th 2018. water stays at 77 through all of following dates, ph 7.5 as well
-top fin water conditioner and bacteria supplement
Day 3 no parameters except GH, Kh, ph etc.
added
5 guppies(doing good)
2 JuliI Cory(doing good)
Day 10 parameters show little ammonia (says safe on strip chart), little or no nitrite and nitrate
added
5 black skirt tetra
one of them had nipped and ripped dorsal and rear fin.
Day 17 ammonia reached "harmful" on strip test
nipped up he stopped eating and secluded himself
30% water change
Day 19 ammonia reads Ideal or safe (hard to tell) and now nitrite is about 6ppm, nitrate 60-80ppm
found that black skirt tetra dead on bottom with some white sores on him.
all other fish have been and continue to behave and look healthy.
Day 21 ideal ammonia, Nitrites over 5ppm, nitrate 60-80ppm
15% water change
Fish still look great, white cloudy water since 2 changes
Day 23 today 9/4/28 ideal ammonia, nitrite over 5ppm, nitrate 60-80ppm.
water is near crystal clear now and fish still look great and behave as such.

My questions are how much longer until my nitrites drop? did the water changes slow this down? Also is it possible my dead Black skirt tetra was already in a weakened state from pet store seeing as he was nipped up since I got him and all other that I got with him are doing great?

 

You need to be doing much larger, more frequent water changes. Ammonia and nitrite should stay under 1 ppm, and nitrate should be under 20 ppm. I think you’re getting extremely lucky not losing fish. The Tetra almost certainly died from water toxicity. Water changes will not hurt your cycle as long as you add dechlorinated water of the same temperature.

 

AquaticJ nailed it BUT your tests are with strips.

Get the API master test kit so we know those are your actual numbers.

If your nitrites are as high as your test strips report, I would expect more losses.

A 15% water change with nitrites above 5ppm will still be above 4ppm.

I would do 50% water changes, 3 consecutive days which will get you under 1ppm if you feed lightly.

And use Prime as your water conditioner to neutralize nitrites under 1 ppm.

 

thank you guys very much for the info. I work tonight but when I get home I will do a 50% change. as for the strips I agree it is estimation at best. colors are often not consistent and sometimes it is in between two colors. I will need to wait on that though until tomorrow 9/5/18.
good new is that my water is super clear, fish are eating, fanning fins at each other, not breathing hard or fast and acting very healthy. even if it is all due to luck I am grateful. but I will tackle the suggestions asap when I get home tonight.

parameters are now ammonia ideal, nitrite 5ppm, nitrate 40ppm 9/4/18

so hunter1... are you indicating that my parameters may be less toxic than strips are telling me since I have not lost more fish and there are no visible signs of stress?

 

so hunter1... are you indicating that my may be less toxic than strips are telling me since I have not lost more fish and there are no visible signs of stress?

The test strips are inaccurate and inconsistent compared to the liquid reagent test kits. As for what your nitrite actually is, it's hard to say. But generally people will want it as low as it can go during fish-in cycling.

As an example, de Oliveira et al. (2008) conducted a study to determine the toxicity of nitrite on cardinal tetra. Over 24 hours, these were the percent mortality reported:

0.5 ppm nitrite: 7% mortality
1.0 ppm: 40%
1.5 ppm: 65%
2.0 ppm: 100%

That being said, nitrite toxicity does variety from species to species. The presence of salt (i.e. sodium chloride) in your water source can also inhibit the toxicity of nitrite.

 

Thank you for your thorough research. Unless my fish are out of the ordinary, then my test strips must be inaccurate. according to the figures you referenced all my fish should be dead by now. I have been at near 5 ppm (according to my suspect strips) and have not lost any in this nitrite spike for going on three days. nor are they acting or looking stressed. therefore my conclusion is that the strips are reading higher than the nitrite actually is. I am still going to change some water tonight. I will fill my 4gal pale twice. so 8 gallons total. on a 29 gallon tank with about 2 gallons substrate and .75 gallons of décor volume I am looking at a total of 26.25 gals of actual water. so whatever 8/26.25 is as a percentage is what I am changing tonight with treated temp matched water

 

thank you guys very much for the info. I work tonight but when I get home I will do a 50% change. as for the strips I agree it is estimation at best. colors are often not consistent and sometimes it is in between two colors. I will need to wait on that though until tomorrow 9/5/18.
good new is that my water is super clear, fish are eating, fanning fins at each other, not breathing hard or fast and acting very healthy. even if it is all due to luck I am grateful. but I will tackle the suggestions asap when I get home tonight.

parameters are now ammonia ideal, nitrite 5ppm, nitrate 40ppm 9/4/18

so hunter1... are you indicating that my parameters may be less toxic than strips are telling me since I have not lost more fish and there are no visible signs of stress?

Exactly.

I don’t believe you would only have 1 fish death with 5ppm nitrites for as long as they have been that high.

The beauty of the API master test kit is that ammonia and nitrites are easy to read. Nitrates not so much but with nitrates 10-20ppm difference isn’t much of a difference. You either need a water change, or you don’t IMO.

 

ok well I just changed 12 gallons out of roughly 26.25 actual water in my 29gal.
9/4/18 dechlorinated and temp matched using top fin water treatment additive.
I will let it circulate for about an hour then test the nitrites and nitrates with the same strips but even if the actual value is off the comparative value should indicate a drop in either at least.

also I have been adding instructed amount of top fin bacteria supplement for routine water changes and when I add fish. (also when I first started tank. 5ml per 10 gals for water changes.) is this ok or should I stop doing it.

ok so my new parameters after 45%ish water change are ammonia ideal, nitrite about 2 ppm, nitrate 20 ppm.
fish still look and act great. should I just leave it now or no? tomorrow I'm buying the apI master test kit and will update more accurate numbers. also if I do change more water when should I? tomorrow, day after that?

 

I do back to back 50% (2 days in a row) water changes in my heavily stocked tanks about every 6 weeks to keep nitrites down.

But some will tell you fish will acclimate to ammonia/nitrites/nitrates and sudden changes can affect fish so i’ll recommend every other day.

 

ok ill get the test kit and see what the true numbers are. and then wait until day after tomorrow for another change.
but isn't the goal here for me to cycle the tank? and doesn't the nitrite need to spike for this to happen. so if they aren't dying at 2ppm then shouldn't I just ride it out and let the nitrate bacteria do its thing?
also once my tank is well established I still have to worry about nitrites? and should I get plants. and slowly remove my fake ones? would that help tank and fishies?

 

you still have to worry about nitrites b/c you can still get minI cycles. I did a large water change last week and my nitrites went up a bit.

I got into fish 2 months ago. I was new and didn't know about the nitrogen cycle, overstocked feeder goldfish in my patio ponds. Lost a lot of them. After some research, I was max dosing Prime and 50% water changes everyday, really helped, no more dead fish even though nitrite tested in the 6-8ppm range for 2 weeks while it was still cycling.