# nitrites high



## birbeck (Jan 17, 2006)

hi, i have a 40 gallon tank with 6 medium sized goldfish in. i was feeding them flake food, but as they got bigger and i was putting more in it was making the water dirty for some hours before it settled. so i switched to pellets. i've been putting too many in and the water has turned greenish and i tested it today after doing my weekly 10% water change. ph is 7, ammonia is 0 but nitrites are 1.5, were as with the flake food they were very low. i'm gonna do a 20% water change for the next 2 days and put half the food in in future, do you guys think this is enough. the fish eat about half of the pellets i've been putting in and the rest settle on the bottom until they disintegrate. unfortunately the pellets on the bottom aren't being sucked up by my vacuum very well.


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## Sable (Nov 6, 2006)

Couple of suggestions:

1. Your tank is overstocked. The best setup is a tank with 10 gallons per goldfish.

2. Put in only as much food as your goldfish will eat. Goldfish are very messy to begin with, but adding too much food to the mix creates a lethal situation.

3. Do a 20-25% water change every other day or every third day for about two weeks. This will bring your nitrites down.


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

you should only have 2-3 fish in there, thats the problem


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