what to do when my nitrite goes up..

[leechiahan]

what is the symptom discus do when nitrite goes up...
my nitrite is going up quicky.
I do 60% water change at night and in the morning the nitrite is go up again .
so I did a 50 water change again.
help.
Henry

[Carol_Roberts]

Discus may get brightly colored and dash about the tank. A couple of tablespoons salt per 10 gallons will help, but water changes are your best defense. You may need to make 50% water changes 3 times a day. You want to keep the nitrIte as close to zero as possible. Cut way back on food. Do you have another cycled filter or filter media you could borrow for this tank?

[Chris-C]

Henry,
The fact that youre nitrite is going up points to lack of sufficient biological filtration. Adding salt at 1 tablespoon per gallon will help protect against the nitrite toxicity. Keep up with the water changes and make sure the water you are adding in is not high in nitrites ( I've had this before).
The Prime bottle says that it protects against nitrite toxicity so this may be another way to go. Also feed lightly as more crap=more ammonia = higher nitrites

Your sponges will slowly be colonized with the nitrifying bacteria that will convert the nitrite to nitrate.

HTH

Chris C

[Chris-C]

Need to lget faster with the typing, Carol beat me to it. Listen to her

D ;D ;D

Chris C

[tony1313]

Henry,

I think 1 table spoon per gallon may be a type O by Chris. Chris correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Carol's suggestion of 1 table spoon per 10 gallons a little closer ???. I also wanted to add I am new to this site and it is great (a wealth of info). Keep up the great work all!

Tony
;D

[angel12]

Perhaps a realy stupid question and Im sorry to ask but how long has your tank been set up for ... Perhaps this is a normal Nitrite spike due to an incomplete Cycle ... but as has been pointed out above the salt and W/C and reduction in feeding will help ...

Perhaps You could let us know re the above point of how long the Tank has been set up also the stocking levels of this tank

[leechiahan]

I dont have another spong ..
But I will go what you said 3 times 50% wc and some salt..
what is nitrite poison?
Henry

[leechiahan]

The Tank is fairly new it's about 2 month.

my tank is 77g and I have 8 Discus.
50% water change every other day but
now I did wc 3 times a day.
I have add 1tsp per 10g

Henry

[Carol_Roberts]

NitrIte poisoning affects the red blood cells so they can't bind oxygen.

Do you know what happened to your biofilter?

[Mike_Selley]

Henry,

If you have a LFS around that carries Bio-Spira you could possibly buy some of it and throw it in your tank with an unseeded filter. Hopefully the Bio-Spira bacteria would seed your additional filter or filter material instantly. I had an Emperor 280 on a tank and kept getting nitrite readings until I pulled a cell pore cartidge off another filter and put in there. Nitrites went down almost instantly. I guess I just didn't have enough bio filter for my fish load. Any possibility of borrowing some filter material from someone else or maybe your LFS?

[leechiahan]

I did nothing to it..
but would it because my tank is fairly new like 2 month.

one of my fish looks like he have a slim white coat on his body and eyes ..
is the due to the high in nitrite?

I will buy more cycle to add to it.. $$$$$$$
and do alot of wc...
for 2 to 3 day..

keep you people update..

[Carol_Roberts]

Cycle is NOT biospira and may be a waste of money. Your fish is reacting to the bad water and stress.

Question . . is the water you are using for the 50% water changes the same pH and temperature as the water in the tank? You don't want the added stress of big swings in pH and temperature.

Keep up salt and water changes, your filter should kick back in soon if it was fully cycled prior to this.

[Chris-C]

Carols right, Cycle is not biospira and did nothing to help cycle my tank.

Tony youre absolutely right, 1 tbls/gallon is a typo it was supposed to be 1 per 10 gallon, good catch. I really need to work on my typing skills
;D ;D ;D ;D

Chris C