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Struggling with Nitrites

988 views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  jaysee 
#1 ·
Looking for a bit of advice please. Have a new 360L tank (had 30L previously) thought I had cycled it, as ran it for about ten days, with fluval starter. Had water tested at LFS and showed fine.

So moved my old fish (1 pleco, 2 rummy nose, 1 danio, 2 serpae tetra, 1 glass cat fish, 1 cory) into their new home, all fine.

Waited a week and added more fish (danios and corys) parameters were fine. (Bought my own testing kit)

Waited another week and added gouramis and barbs and nitrites started to rise, fish still all good, but nitrites wouldn't go down.

I have a Sump filter with Varios 4 pump.

1 Pleco
3 honey Gouramis
5 Corys
5 danios
2 rummy nose
2 serpae tetra
4 pencil fish
1 glass cat fish
1 betta
5 cherry barbs

I am feeding fish every two days, and doing water changes every few days and dosing with Prime to keep the fish 'safe'..but not sure what else to do as the parameters are constantly high. Ammonia is fine, Nitrate and Nitrite high. Wondering if sump is set up wrong...or anything else.
 
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#2 ·
Since you have your own test kit now, can you share with us what the actual readings are?

Ammonia and nitrite will kill your fish, nitrate will not so you needn't be concerned about them at the moment.

Until your tank reaches and stays at 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite without any water changes or anything, it's not cycled. Might be that you're just experiencing a mini cycle, versus still working on the completion of the initial cycle - without the details of where you've been it's hard to say where you're at.
 
#4 ·
Yeah that's not how prime works, or any water conditioner for that matter. It only locks up the ammonia and nitrite so that it is not toxic to the fish, but still available for the bacteria to consume. The only way to lower ammonia and nitrite is with water changes or the bacteria consuming it.
 
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