Small nitrite spike

Hello, so ive had a 26 litre qt tank going for a week now, i matured the sponge in my.main tank, in the qt i have 2 small platy ans 6 cloud.minnows, up until now my levela have been fine, 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 10ish nitrate....today i have 0.25 nitrite!? Last night i saw.one of the platy flashing but she looks healthy, so could the nitrite of made her flash? Im about to do a water change, could there be too many fish for the filter to handle hence the nitrite spike?! Thanks

 

It sounds like your tank is cycling if you have a nitrite spike. It's not that high which is good but Nitrites can be toxic. Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle?

Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

If your tank is cycling, it also means there is beneficial bacteria growing in your tank to help produce nitrates which should help get rid of the nitrite.

 

It sounds like your tank is cycling if you have a nitrite spike. It's not that high which is good but Nitrites can be toxic. Are you familiar with the nitrogen cycle?

Aquarium Nitrogen Cycle

If your tank is cycling, it also means there is beneficial bacteria growing in your tank to help produce nitrates which should help get rid of the nitrite.

Hi yes i know the nitrogen cycle, the sponge in my qt tank came from my main tank which has been cycled for over a year. And for a week ive had readings on the qt tank if 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate only today getting a reading of nitrite, so thought because i had a week or normal readings the tank was cycled? Ive just done a 40% change and used prime so will retest tomorrow! Thanks, would the nitrite of caused the platy.to flash?

 

Hi, I'm sorry I haven't gotten back to you. The last few days have been hard because my Betta is sick.
I did try to respond to you over the weekend but for some reason I couldn't access this site and an error message kept coming up.
How is your Betta doing? Is the Nitrite still spiking?
I'm still learning about water parameters and Bettas overall. I have had my little guy since March.
Even though you have the same sponge from your main tank I don't think it means that your quart tank will necessarily be cycled right away. It takes time for a new tank to cycle. And if the colonized bacteria in your sponge is well established with beneficial bacteria from the main tank, then you should be seeing the numbers in your Nitrates increase, which should help Nitrites go back down to 0. Also, do you have a water heater and filter in your tank? What is the pH level?
Regarding your fish flashing I have read that sometimes when they do that, they may end up having Ich. Does he have white spots all over his body?
If anyone else reads this post and wants to weigh in their thoughts on this, please do.

 

How long did you have the tank running before you added the fish you’re currently quarantining?

If BB doesn’t have any food (ammonia and nitrite) it will die down. It sounds to me like you’re just going through a mini cycle which happens sometimes, it just means the BB is catching up to the bioload of the tank.

 

Thank you both! Ive got the spike under control but been dosing with prime to be safe