10 Gallon Tank Nitrite spike problem/ Afraid of stall.

Hi all.

Been cycling my tank for about a month now. It’s a fluval spec 9 gallon/37L. Ammonia is being t filtered now at a rate of 2ppm every 12 hours or so. (I’m adding liquid ammonia). The nitrites however are a different story. I’ve been in the nitrite stage now around 3 weeks. I’ve been adding ammonia every other day and I’ve also being adding bacteria (fluval biological enhancer). Upon research, I learned that water changes can be used to reduce nitrite. So Ive done 2 80% water changes and my nitrites are still sky high.

They have been a dark purple anytime I’ve tested from around 2-5. As you know it’s hard to tell because I’m using the API test kit for nitrite. I’m worried that my cycle has stalled due to the large amount of nitrites. I did my last water change on Monday. It’s now Wednesday and it’s still 5+. Should I keep doing water changes to get the levels down to a readable level as I’m afraid cycle will stall, or should I just keep adding ammonia and bacteria and wait for that glorious day when I see a light blue?

Thank you.

Some details
-9 gallon tank
-Gravel substrate
- assortment of live plants

 

in your fluval filter what mediums do you have? You should probably think about what are the possible limiting factors. for both types of bio filtering ( ammonia => nitrite and nitrite => nitrate ) you need to have some form of bio media: bio balls, ceramic whatever for the bacteria to grow on. Some will colonize things like filter wool and any surface in the tank or filter container, but not much. Be also aware that the best biological filters are wet/dry ie usually sump filters because they the mix of damp and oxygen is ideal. Canister style filters are generally less effective because the oxygen is limited. If you do have a problem there are a series of things that may limit the growth of bacteria. Firstly sufficient room for the bacteria to colonize. It is entirely possible to do without a filter at all if your biological load is low enough to be dealt with by bacteria in the tank itself. The Victorians used to run this style of balanced tank. In modern times we generally add bio medium of some type to increase surface area for bacteria to colonise. Secondly is that like all things the bacteria will expand to the amount of food source -Ammonia or Nitrite in this case. Generally it is a bad idea to add a lot of biological load all at once. You know this because you are talking about cycling a tank. However remember as you add livestock you are planning to replace the ammonia that you are adding by their waste. So after cycling it is possible to overrun your biological filtering capacity simply by adding too many fish at a time. Add them slow and then watch the capacity expand to cover the increase until it runs into the first issue. Applying the principle again, nitrite eating bacteria are different to ammonia eating bacteria, The first won't grow until nitrite is present, so you need to have an established colony of ammonia eating bacteria before the nitrite eating bacteria will grow, if you don't have the required surface area or some other limiting factor....

You could wait, after all cycling can take a long time. You could think about whether you have sufficient bio media.You could think about whether you are adding too much ammonia - have you grown so much ammonia eating bacteria there is insufficent space for the nitrite eating bacteria? Is there sufficient oxygen in the water for the nitrite eating bacteria after the ammonia eating bacteria have had the first bite of the cherry?

If you do decide to try reducing ammonia be aware that it will cause a die off of ammonia eating bacteria as the colony shrinks to match the ammount of ammonia - food - available. The bacteria decomposing will also add bio load. So as with everything make changes slowly, test and think.

hope this helps

Paul

 

in your fluval filter what mediums do you have? You should probably think about what are the possible limiting factors. for both types of bio filtering ( ammonia => nitrite and nitrite => nitrate ) you need to have some form of bio media: bio balls, ceramic whatever for the bacteria to grow on. Some will colonize things like filter wool and any surface in the tank or filter container, but not much. Be also aware that the best biological filters are wet/dry ie usually sump filters because they the mix of damp and oxygen is ideal. Canister style filters are generally less effective because the oxygen is limited. If you do have a problem there are a series of things that may limit the growth of bacteria. Firstly sufficient room for the bacteria to colonize. It is entirely possible to do without a filter at all if your biological load is low enough to be dealt with by bacteria in the tank itself. The Victorians used to run this style of balanced tank. In modern times we generally add bio medium of some type to increase surface area for bacteria to colonise. Secondly is that like all things the bacteria will expand to the amount of food source -Ammonia or Nitrite in this case. Generally it is a bad idea to add a lot of biological load all at once. You know this because you are talking about cycling a tank. However remember as you add livestock you are planning to replace the ammonia that you are adding by their waste. So after cycling it is possible to overrun your biological filtering capacity simply by adding too many fish at a time. Add them slow and then watch the capacity expand to cover the increase until it runs into the first issue. Applying the principle again, nitrite eating bacteria are different to ammonia eating bacteria, The first won't grow until nitrite is present, so you need to have an established colony of ammonia eating bacteria before the nitrite eating bacteria will grow, if you don't have the required surface area or some other limiting factor....

You could wait, after all cycling can take a long time. You could think about whether you have sufficient bio media.You could think about whether you are adding too much ammonia - have you grown so much ammonia eating bacteria there is insufficent space for the nitrite eating bacteria? Is there sufficient oxygen in the water for the nitrite eating bacteria after the ammonia eating bacteria have had the first bite of the cherry?

If you do decide to try reducing ammonia be aware that it will cause a die off of ammonia eating bacteria as the colony shrinks to match the ammount of ammonia - food - available. The bacteria decomposing will also add bio load. So as with everything make changes slowly, test and think.

hope this helps

Paul

Hi Paul.

Thanks for the reply and mind of information! A lot to digest but all goodness! I have two fluval spec bio max rings in there as I added another because I thought one wouldn’t be enough. As I’ve mentioned I’ve a rock, a large piece of wood and 5-6 live plants in there like Java fern, Java moss, Amazon sword, bacopa…. So I’m no expert but im presuming this is enough surface area for my sized tank?

 

Hi,
you know those pictures fractals that as you look closer the more detail appear. Bio media is like that. Huge amounts of surface area outside and in the middle of them. This is why they cost so much more than gravel. The live plants will make an impact on the final resulting nitrate but by the sounds their value will be more decorative than in reducing nitrate. My tank is a jungle of plants and is only just beginning to impact nitrate level. Anything apart from bio media - due to surface area - will not make enough difference for you to notice. In summary my suggestion to you was to experiment: Try one at a time:

1) increasing oxygen
2) reducing ammonia - try it for a couple of weeks and don't reduce too much and see whether the nitrite lowers
3) consider the balance between mechanical filtration (filter wool etc) and bio filtration. I run 50% each. If you can catch all the mechanical in 25% then put the rest into bio. But as I said it will only be colonised to the limit of food source for the bacteria or until they run out of room.

Note each change needs time for the bacteria to adjust. You are probably more current than I am on timeframes in cycling.

Cheers Paul

 

Hi all.

Been cycling my tank for about a month now. It’s a fluval spec 9 gallon/37L. Ammonia is being t filtered now at a rate of 2ppm every 12 hours or so. (I’m adding liquid ammonia). The nitrites however are a different story. I’ve been in the nitrite stage now around 3 weeks. I’ve been adding ammonia every other day and I’ve also being adding bacteria (fluval biological enhancer). Upon research, I learned that water changes can be used to reduce nitrite. So Ive done 2 80% water changes and my nitrites are still sky high.

They have been a dark purple anytime I’ve tested from around 2-5. As you know it’s hard to tell because I’m using the API test kit for nitrite. I’m worried that my cycle has stalled due to the large amount of nitrites. I did my last water change on Monday. It’s now Wednesday and it’s still 5+. Should I keep doing water changes to get the levels down to a readable level as I’m afraid cycle will stall, or should I just keep adding ammonia and bacteria and wait for that glorious day when I see a light blue?

Thank you.

Some details
-9 gallon tank
-Gravel substrate
- assortment of live plants

Hi there, microbiologist here.

What you need to do is stop dosing ammonia. Because you keep dosing ammonia, you keep adding more and more nitrite. The best case scenario is that it prolongs the cycle as far more nitrite oxidizers than actually needed needs to grow. The worse case scenario is yes, the concentration of nitrite is high enough it straight up stalls nitrification. It is unlikely to be 5ppm like some guides suggest, but definitely possible to hit. 2ppm ammonia converts to 5.4ppm nitrite, so even two weeks (7x) dosing of 2ppm ammonia would have produced almost 40ppm nitrite.

It also makes it hard to determine if there may be other issues. For example, it may be a lack of biomedia issue, or some other problem. But this is hard to say when nitrite is just off the charts.

If you want, you can do a 100% water change, especially given your tank size is small. That resets the numbers to zero (note: this is NOT resetting your cycle, your progress is kept). From there, what you need to do dose 2ppm ammonia again, yes, but ONLY re-dose ammonia when nitrite hits zero. Repeat until both ammonia and nitrite can read zero within 24 hours. It is also through this that we can see if there are actually any other issues. Ammonia oxidation is obviously not a problem, but say with nitrite, if the oxidation rate does not increase, then we may consider that there can be other issues - but right now there is not yet that concern.

As for dosing bacteria, you really do not need to keep on adding them. Just need once.

 

Hi all.

Been cycling my tank for about a month now. It’s a fluval spec 9 gallon/37L. Ammonia is being t filtered now at a rate of 2ppm every 12 hours or so. (I’m adding liquid ammonia). The nitrites however are a different story. I’ve been in the nitrite stage now around 3 weeks. I’ve been adding ammonia every other day and I’ve also being adding bacteria (fluval biological enhancer). Upon research, I learned that water changes can be used to reduce nitrite. So Ive done 2 80% water changes and my nitrites are still sky high.

They have been a dark purple anytime I’ve tested from around 2-5. As you know it’s hard to tell because I’m using the API test kit for nitrite. I’m worried that my cycle has stalled due to the large amount of nitrites. I did my last water change on Monday. It’s now Wednesday and it’s still 5+. Should I keep doing water changes to get the levels down to a readable level as I’m afraid cycle will stall, or should I just keep adding ammonia and bacteria and wait for that glorious day when I see a light blue?

Thank you.

Some details
-9 gallon tank
-Gravel substrate
- assortment of live plants

Welcome to Fishlore.

I don’t think your cycle is stalled. The nitrite level of your tank doesn’t appear to be coming down (even with water changes) because they were “off the chart” or likely much higher than the 5 ppm maximum measured by the API test kit.

Can you do another 80% change and post a picture of the test result here?

 

Hi guys thanks for all the replies.

So I did another large 80% water change. I tested for nitrite much later in the day and… BOOM! 1.0 , nitrites. Finally a readable number. So I then added 2ppm ammonia and bacteria (Fluval bio enhancer). Today when I got home from work I tested and finally… 0 nitrites. Never thought I’d see the day. Will do one last water change when I get home tomorrow and add the beta fish I’ve had my

again cheers all for the help. Much appreciated.

 

Hi guys thanks for all the replies.

So I did another large 80% water change. I tested for nitrite much later in the day and… BOOM! 1.0 , nitrites. Finally a readable number. So I then added 2ppm ammonia and bacteria (Fluval bio enhancer). Today when I got home from work I tested and finally… 0 nitrites. Never thought I’d see the day. Will do one last water change when I get home tomorrow and add the beta fish I’ve had my

again cheers all for the help. Much appreciated.

View attachment 849564

Just one more question. Is your ammonia going to zero in 24 hours also? I would add for a few days to make sure myself.

 

Hi guys thanks for all the replies.

So I did another large 80% water change. I tested for nitrite much later in the day and… BOOM! 1.0 , nitrites. Finally a readable number. So I then added 2ppm ammonia and bacteria (Fluval bio enhancer). Today when I got home from work I tested and finally… 0 nitrites. Never thought I’d see the day. Will do one last water change when I get home tomorrow and add the beta fish I’ve had my

again cheers all for the help. Much appreciated.

View attachment 849564

Nice. But yeah as per StarGirl - I just want to check that ammonia went to zero too.

Also, since you are gonna test again - I'd recommend against dosing bacteria, just so we can be absolutely certain oxidation of the 2ppm ammonia is done entirely by nitrifiers already in the tank, rather than temporarily due to the additional bacteria dosed.

Also, unless your nitrate is super duper high or something, you don't need to do another water change. You can, but you don't need to.

 

Hi all guys. Yeah ammonia is gone back to 0 in 24 hours too, it’s been doing that for the past week anyways! It was just the nitrite that wasn’t changing, the ammonia as I said has been removed within even 12 hours now so it was just the nitrifying bacteria that needed some growing

will post the ammonia results when I’m home too! My nitrates are around the 30ppm mark, should I do one last water change before I add livestock or should that be fine? My tank is planted so was considering leaving it for the plants.

 

So!
Got home today and double checked. As you can see below, 0 ammonia + nitrite! I’m out of nitrate testing solution so going to buy some tomorrow when I get my fish and do a water change before putting him in!
Also a pic of the fish tank.

 

Grats! Looks great.

 

So!
Got home today and double checked. As you can see below, 0 ammonia + nitrite! I’m out of nitrate testing solution so going to buy some tomorrow when I get my fish and do a water change before putting him in!
Also a pic of the fish tank.View attachment 849606View attachment 849607

Congrats! Often it’s just a matter of time!