nitrate/nitrite wont go!!!!

[greenphantom1994]

basically, I did a bit too thorough clean on my sponge filters and lost a lot of beneficial bacteria and now im having a spike in my tank. I have been doing 50% wc everyday and using seachem prime and stability to try and fix the problem.... but its not working!! all fish seem fine as I am keeping fresh water going in everyday. this has been going on for 2 weeks! taking a lot longer than expected. the nitrate/nitrite levels are not too bad, maybe 1.5-2

[doublediscusjack]

It might be a good idea to exchange higher percentage of water daily, maybe as much as 90 to 100%, if you have good clean water at right temp., until biological filtration is working again, and has settled down.

[klannin]

I had a problem doing large water changes, a large ph change killed at least a portion of my culture, cause it is super low coming or of my tap. If you decide to do huge changes, make sure the water you are replacing is perfect ph and temp, or you will keep having problems despite changing a lot of water. Pat recommended doing smaller changes, and that worked, the fish are doing great and my biological filter seems to be more stable.

But is just a thought. I am pretty new to discus, thought maybe others can learn from my mistakes!

[Ryan]

You say nitrate/nitrite but they are two very different things. Nitrite is broken down by bacteria in your filters, which in turn produces nitrate. So one is the product of another. You do not want to see nitrite, but nitrate is a sign that the biological filtration is working at least partially.

There are only a handful of things that remove nitrates (plants, nitrate-absorbing resins or chemicals, and water changes) but your standard sponge filters are not one of those things. You can overfilter your tank all you want and never get rid of nitrate without manually changing the water or using one of the other methods I mentioned. This is why cichlid hobbyists do water changes.

As for the nitrite, your best bet is to do large water changes (75%+ daily) if you can handle that much water, and continue to add the Prime. Also keep in mind that Prime causes false positive readings on ammonia test kits and it may do the same for nitrites, I'm not sure. It may be something to research. So your test kit reading may be picking up the Prime in the water and you may not actually have a nitrite issue. Again, I know this happens with ammonia but I'm not sure about nitrite. Maybe someone can chime in.

At any rate, if the fish act fine, just keep up your water changes and the filters will catch up as the bacteria colony regrows.


I had a problem doing large water changes, a large ph change killed at least a portion of my culture, cause it is super low coming or of my tap. If you decide to do huge changes, make sure the water you are replacing is perfect ph and temp, or you will keep having problems despite changing a lot of water. Pat recommended doing smaller changes, and that worked, the fish are doing great and my biological filter seems to be more stable.

But is just a thought. I am pretty new to discus, thought maybe others can learn from my mistakes!

You can also work around this problem by aging your new water overnight in a Brute trash can or spare tank. Heat it and aerate it strongly overnight and the pH should stabilize. Your water probably comes out of the tap saturated with gases and as those off-gas the pH will rise. This process is sped up by strongly aerating the water. Fill up a small bucket and try this overnight. Test the pH the next day and if it's the same as the tank pH, you'll have your answer. Then you can store and age as much water as you want, and change as much water as you want per day.

[DC Discus]

good info on pH! +1 for Prime binding up NH3 and detoxifying NO2/NO3, so your test kits might be giving you false readings. Or there's nothing left after your water change regime for the bacteria, which is good. Just slows the bacteria seeding process.

Cheers,
DC

[Ryan]

Slightly off-topic, but this gives some more info about how dissolved gases can affect your water: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/dissolved-co2-ph

I know this is a common question on Simply when we talk about pH swings and why it's sometimes important to age water, but it's probably best to have a general explanation as to what is actually causing that pH swing to occur.