[battynatty2003]

Hi i am new at keeping fish and hope someone can help. I have had my fush 1 week and noticed they have been gasping over 48 hours. I cannot seem to lower the nitrate and nitrite levels. I have a 40 litre tank with 2 mollies, 2 swordtails, 1 betta and 2 african dwarf frogs. They get fed on 1 cube of frozen bloodworm twice a day and i have performed a 50% water change which has had no effecton the fish. Nitrite is reading 10ppm and nitrate is reading 200ppm. I am using the api 5 in 1 test strips. Can someone please help me before i start losing my fish??
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[corina savin]

I hope your strips are wrong. They usually are. No fish will survive 10 ppm nitrites.
Keep doing 50% WC with dechlorinated water matched for temperature and stop feedings for few days. Bloodworms are polluting the water more than flakes or pellets. Once a week bloodworms is more than enough. Once a day flakes is OK for adults fish, and only what they can eat in 1-2 minutes.

 

[tankman12]

Do some HUGE water changes now. And if you can get prime or have it use it.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Flint]

That is far too much food, it's not being eaten and dirtying the water. I suggest you look into a high-quality pellet such as New Life Spectrum (NLS) and do as large of a water change as your gravel vac will allow. It is not necessary but a bottle of Tetra Safe Start could help you. I suggest you stop feeding for now while we get the water under control (fish can go months without food, don't worry) and you get a quality pellet. Most of us have been down this road and we are here to help!

 

[battynatty2003]

Thank you so much! I have done a water change of just over 50% and gravel vac. Also stopped food for a while Nitrates and nitrites from my tap are reading 0ppm and 0.25ppm so hope it will make a difference once its thru a cycle. I hope they can withstand it all
Posted via Mobile Device