Nitrites in my discus breeder

[xen]

Heya guys,

I setup a discus breeding tank on Monday. It's 3'x15"x18". I'd had a double sponge filter cycling in my main discus tank for a month before setting it up.

I filled it with water from the old discus tank, and moved the pair in there Monday. They seemed a little off, but I put it down to the barebottom tank (since they're used to lots of plants).

Today I changed 40% water, and ran through my tests. No ammonia, but ~5ppm nitrite! I immediately took them out and put them back in the main tank.

Questions:

1. What the hell? Shouldn't the sponge be cycled by now?

2. Do you guys think a double sponge is appropriate for this sized tank? Only two discus, and a total of 3 frozen cubes of food since they've gone in...

3. A friend at an LFS said I should keep an eye out for whitespot on them from the stress. Anything else I should be watching them for?

4. Any other thoughts?

Cheers!
John :confused:

[Carol_Roberts]

I would think the filter would be cycled by now. Is your test kit accurate?

[xen]

Hiya Carol,

Thanks for the quick reply as always ;-)

I believe the test kit is accurate - it reads 0ppm on both of my other tanks.

I've also tested NitrAte in the breeder since then, and it's also very high (20-40ppm; my discus tank is typically in the 5-10ppm range).

Somebody on another forums suggested that while the sponge and water may have been cycled, the tank itself might not have. I've never heard of the idea of cycling the tank itself before (i.e. the glass). Does that make sense to any of you guys?

Cheers!
John

[Carol_Roberts]

It is true that good bacteria will grow on every surface. Eventually you will have more bacteria as it colonizes the new surfaces. I still don't see how you could be showing 5 ppm nitrIte and 20ppm nitrAte after one day in the new tank?

[xen]

Well, it's been two days (we start the day a bit earlier here in Australia ;-) ).

But I'm also shocked by how high these levels are, considering all the water came from my community tank to begin with. I've done nitrate and nitrate tests on the main tank also, and they show low enough levels that I'm convinced the test kits are okay.

In the time they've been in there, I've put in a total of 3 frozen cubes of food.

Does anyone think the 3 cubes could be enough to cause these levels of nitrites / nitrates?

Cheers!
John

[Cosmo]

John,

I agree with you and Carol, the readings do seem hi considering. One thought came to mind though on your cycled filter.. assuming the tank it cycled it was cycled and had it's own filters, the one you seeded may have cycled, but, may not have accumulated a large enough bacteria colony (due to the lack of demand for it to do so in the other tank) to support your two adults once it was moved out on it's own. One would think however, it would have been sufficient to hold the water quality better while the colonies propagated ???

Were the cubes beefheart or bloodworms?? fragments of beefheart left in might explain the readings..

I had a somewhat similar situation where I replaced one of two cycled filters with a new filter (to use the other cycled one on a new tank) and all hell broke loose, despite the fact that each of the two should have been sufficient to carry the entire bio load by themselves.. was almost like they were acting complimentary to each instead of independently and each was carrying only a partial load.. the bacteria colonies will only grow large enough in relationship to the foodsource, so this kind of makes sense.

could be something similar going on here.. ?
Jim

[xen]

Hiya Jim,

Two of the cubes were brine shrimp, and one was a band name 'discus dinner' cube (mostly beefheart, and I removed what wasn't eaten after about 10 minutes).

I'm thinking along the same lines as you - I suspect the bacterial colonies didn't develop properly because the ammonia and nitrite they needed were already being dealt with in my original tank.

My community tank is moderately planted, and the plants are very well established. I'm suspicious that the plants are providing filtration of their own, but not colonies of bacteria.

Does this sound at all reasonable?

Cheers!
John