# nitrites and nitrates



## stooo (Apr 17, 2005)

Hi my tank is 1 month old water tests were ok for the first 2 weeks (Ammonia 0mg/L, Nitrites 0mg/L, nitrates 20mg/L) then Nitrites shot up to 5mg/L (which is as high as the color chart reads) and Nitrites 160 mg/L (again as high as it goes)
Ammonia has never been above 0.25. levels have stayed like this for 2 weeks now

The tanks is a 125 litre Juwel Rio 125 its got 5 glowlight tetra's, 1 guppy and a couple of plants in it.

I've been told to reduce the ammount of water changes I'm doing (was doing about 15% twice weekly) as this is getting rid of the good stuff in the water.  The guy in the fish shop reckons drop down to about 3 or 4 litres every couple of days.

What can I do to get these levels down?

I've bought this polyfilter stuff to go in underneath the sponges which is meant to remove any ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, copper, medications etc. it changes colour when it needs changes, and is doing this after 24 hours, but seems to make no difference to the nitrite readings.

What can I do to get these levels down?  

Cheers


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

The water itself does not contain the benefical bacteria needed to complete the cycle. If when you do water changes you just pull water and dont do a gravel vac you should be ok. The only way to lower these readings is through water changes.


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## stooo (Apr 17, 2005)

a local aquarium shop sells Reverse osmosis water, is this going to be better than tap water with 'tap safe' in it?


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

unless your water contained ammonia nitrites or nitrates in substantial amounts, no. Of coarse there could be other stuff that isn't great in your tap too but this is highly unlikely that its contributing to your current problem... you should keep doing water changes, (I'd say 20% every other day or every day depending on how high your ammonia/nitrites are).


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## TANKER (Apr 28, 2005)

If your lfs told you to change water less frequently and in smaller quantities I would avoid that place if I were you. The only way to get rid of amonia, nitrite and nitrates short of chemical filtration before your bio cycle completes is through water changes. Chemical filtration should be avoided while cycling your tank as you are defeating your purpose by removing everything that feeds your biofilter, stick to water changes and lose the strips things you are using.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

> The only way to get rid of amonia, nitrite and nitrates short of chemical filtration before your bio cycle completes is through water changes.


By chemcal filtration here, I presume you mean something that you put into your filter to remove these things? (As OldSalt points out, there are lots of things other than this that can be called chemcal filtration.) If this is what you mean, then I disagree with this.

An excellent way to get rid of much of the excess ammonia and nitrite while you're cycling your tank is to use lots of floating plants. They absorb most of the ammonia that the bacteria don't eat up, thus protecting the fish from ammonia. Since you don't get a big ammonia spike, then you later don't get a big nitrite spike when the ammonia -> nitrite bacteria finally get going. This doesn't slow down your cycle, as the bacteria get to the ammonia first, and the plants only get what's left, but it does keep the levels of nasty chemicals way down, protecting your fish during cycling. The last time I tried this ammonia and nitrite stayed at 0.5ppm or below during the cycle.

Actually, it just occurs to me that not having the big ammonia spike may speed up the process a little bit, as I read somewhere that the large concentrations of ammonia actually inhibit the growth of the nitrite -> nitrate bacteria. Or something like that... I can't find the web page where I read that now!


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## TANKER (Apr 28, 2005)

Actually, what I am referring to is items such as ammo chips or pillows or other such items which remover the amonia, nirtrites, and nitrates. Better to leave these things in so they can complete the cycle and just do frequent water changes. I agree with using plants to absorb some of these compounds, but then I wouldn't call plants chemical filters. More along the lines of an organic filter perhaps?


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