Ok for like a week now my nitrites and nitrates are way too high. It is a ten gallon with 15 fry in it. I have a med pleco and feed them twice a day. I am doing water changes each day to help lower them. I also have used prime here and there to neutralize the nitrites. Why is this happening?? Ammonia is 0.25 ppm. Nitrates and nitrates are over 2 ppm
water chemistry
- Thread starter vaquero
- Start date
A
Anonymous
Guest
Low ammonia, high nitrates, high nitrites. Sounds like the tank is cycling...
A "medium" sized Pleco? Perhaps your Pleco, and the food that's being fed (or the amount being fed) is to much for the filter system to handle? What type filtration are you using , (how many gallons is it rated for)?
How Long has this system been running? Just how big is this Pleco?
A "medium" sized Pleco? Perhaps your Pleco, and the food that's being fed (or the amount being fed) is to much for the filter system to handle? What type filtration are you using , (how many gallons is it rated for)?
How Long has this system been running? Just how big is this Pleco?
A
Anonymous
Guest
Madness said:
lus1: Tank has an aqueon20 hob filter and the fry are close to 1/2" long and the plecos was just bought he is a small one sold from petsmart. I just today took out the old used filter I had behind the newer filter I puts in about a week and a half ago. Tank is cycled so that's couldn't be the problem, this has been happening for around a week nowfishNAbowl said:
Tank has been running two months now. All cycled so I dont understand the problem
A
Anonymous
Guest
I could be wrong but it sounds like a bio overload. Yes, your filter maybe newly cycled. This filter is rated for up to 20g but something is up with this thing. You may want to consider putting the other filter back in...
Madness, using an AC70 on a 20 gallon tank means you are running a filter designed for tanks 2.5X larger than a 20g. I too am using a AC70 on a 30G tank, water flow turned all the way down. I use this bigger filter primarily for the extra media it holds.
Madness, using an AC70 on a 20 gallon tank means you are running a filter designed for tanks 2.5X larger than a 20g. I too am using a AC70 on a 30G tank, water flow turned all the way down. I use this bigger filter primarily for the extra media it holds.
cichlid-gal
New Member
If you are seeing "nitrite" counts then your tank is NOT cycled. It's as simple as that. Changing media/equipment, adding the pleco and higher bioload could all have contributed to a new cycle on the tank. As fishnabowl said, adding the old filter back on (if the media is still good) will help. Or adding media from another cycled tank could help also.vaquero said:
In the meantime, you need to test parameters daily, do large water changes to try to keep the nitrites in check until the tank cycles, and add Prime dosed for high nitrites on a 24 hour basis. This can take time so you will have to keep after it until the cycle completes.
Another option is to move some of the fish immediately to another cycled tank to decrease the bioload. But, you will still have to get those nitrites down before you can go back to normal maintenance on the tank.
Good luck.
Don't have old filter anymore, so not an option. I have even used the old dirty water to rinse the new filter media in, and had the old filter with the new just to help maintain bacteria, but maybe for not long enough, this may be the problem after reading up on the subject.fishNAbowl said: