My nitrite levels are reading a little high in my 35 gal tank. I have fish in there because it was cycled but now the nitrite is high. I tried a 25% water change a week ago and added a bottle of tetra safe start and added a bag of bio media to my HOB filter to boost my bacteria colonies but it's still reading a little high. Will it just take a little bit for the beneficial bacteria to catch back up after adding the extra media? Or should I try something else. Fish are acting fine and there is only a very very slight milkiness to the water when looking at it from the side.
4 ppm is way high! Are you using a liquid test? Are the fish okay?
If you have 4 ppm nitrite and do a 25% water change, that leaves 3 ppm left in the tank, which is still way high. In such a situation a 75% change followed by another large change of 50% or more is needed. With the same 4 ppm, a 75% chance brings it down to 1 ppm, and the successive 50% change brings it down to 0.5 ppm, which still isn't 0, but it's way better than whole numbers
I know you've posted in other threads but could you give a timeline of events?
Before I used plants, I would get a nitrite spike pegging the test kit at 5ppm. What I found out was that by not adding food the nitrite would drop to unmeasurable in a few days or a week or so. After that, it would remain at 0 when I resumed feeding.
I guess it just took time for the bacteria to get established.
Yeah it always makes me question the test results when I see numbers like that - can't imagine the fish surviving that kind of concentration.
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