# Sudden Nitrite problem. What should I do?



## lovswr (Aug 19, 2006)

Hello, this is my first post (as I just found this most excellent forum yesterday) & I have just recently (like 7 days ago) decided to get serious about plants.

Yesterday I received my shipment of Seachem products & after a 30% water change/algae scrub from the glass, I proceeded to dose per the instructions for 75G tank. To my dismay, this morning, I had a general whitness/cloudiness in the tank, & a few of the 25 or so Neon Tetras were gasping at the surface. I immediatly suspected Ammonia, but a quick test proved it was Nitrite. I tested yesterday before my water change & before I added any of the Seachem product & my Nitrite was a little less than .5 ppm. This morning it was just about 1 ppm.

I added some AmQuel, but I see that my Neons are getting more & more distressed. What should I do.?

edit: Whoops I forget the particulars! 

pH = 6.8
KH = 80 ppm
GH = 75 ppm
Nitrite = 1.0 ppm
Nitrate = 20 ppm
Fluval 304 Cannister filter (w/Surface Skimmer)
gravel = 2 inches of Flourite (5 years ago) with 10 tablets of Flourish Tabs added this past Wed.
Flouresh excel, Flouresh iron, & Flouresh added yesterday along with Aquarium Pharmeceuticals salt.

1 Banana Plant
2 Water Wisteria
Several bunches of unidentified "crypt" like plants 
1 medium Amazon Sword
25 dying Neons
5 Hatchet Fish
1 Red Tailed shark

6 baby Convicts: Until a week ago this past Friday this tank was home to 4 breeding pairs of Convicts & the odd female out. I traded them at a LFS for the Neons & the Wisteria. I was hoping that the babies would die, but instead (what was that Jeff Goldblum said in _Jurasaic Park_ they have been attacking, en masse, the smaller neons. Does anyboody know how can I get rid of them & also could someone recommend a LFS in the Atlanta, GA. Metro area that has Otto's or better yet SAE's?

edit 2: Could a mod change my mispelling of Nitrite in the header please?

Here are a couple of fuzzy pictures from my cell phone.


----------



## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

I'd do a partial water change to try and reduce nitrIte levels and increase surface agitation. nitrIte enters thru the gills and binds up the red blood cells keeping them from being able to carry oxygen. Adding some salt may also help because the chloride in salt competes with niitrIte for uptake thru the gills. Dunno about with neons (depends on whether they have chloride cells in their gills or not), but with goldfish, 1 teaspoon per gallon should protect up to 60ppm nitrIte. So you shouldn't need much salt at all.

How long has the tank been set up?


----------



## titan97 (Feb 14, 2005)

I've got two ideas:

1) The Florish Iron combined with the phosphate in your tank to produce the haze. This is a well known occurance. It would not answer as to why your neons are gasping at the surface.

2) You are seeing a bacterial bloom. Any changes to the tank can disturb the equilibrium of the bacteria. This would explain the high nitrites. Usually, the cloudiness disappears in a few days as the bacteria get back to normal.

BTW, plants prefer nitrites over nitrates, and they prefer ammonia over the nitr*tes. Looking at your pictures, adding more plant mass would help out your NO2 problem. It would also put more oxygen into your tank, perhaps helping out those gasping neons.

-Dustin


----------



## lovswr (Aug 19, 2006)

Thanks to both of you for your quick replies. Just after my post, I saw the sticky for setting up new tanks (this tank has been up since july of 01 though) . I saw the pictures of the moderately planted tanks & it was off to PetsMart & got more plants. I will add the salt now.


edit: Just made a 30% water change. Everybody stopped doing a "headstand" & resumed normal swimming positions. I lost 3 more neons, but I hope the worst is over.


----------



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Welcome to APC :high5:

_Why are you adding salt?_

_Did you do any major cleaning of your filter_?

When adding ferts always start out with half of the recommended dosage, then build up slowly. With your plant mass going with much less will do.

Adding a lot of fast growing plants is going to help suck up bad stuff like ammonia & nitrites.

Spelling fixed!


----------



## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

How much and what kind of lighting do you have on the tank?


----------



## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

Trena: If you'll read my earlier post, you'll see why he added salt. It should help protect against nitrIte poisoning.


----------



## Jimbo205 (Feb 2, 2006)

You are in excellent hands with the Senior Members.



> I saw the pictures of the moderately planted tanks & it was off to PetsMart & got more plants.


In my opinion, you may be able to get a much more generous amount of plants from one of the members or vendors on APC than your local pet store. 
I know for one vendor you just need to let them know the size of your tank, and possibly the specifics of your tank and they will send you a nice package for a good price. (I wish I remembered the name of the vendor.)


----------



## lovswr (Aug 19, 2006)

Laith said:


> How much and what kind of lighting do you have on the tank?


I have the 48" black enclosure on that page. It has 2 55W compacts, but not those new ones on that page, as I have had this setup for 5 1/2 years.


----------



## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

110w over a 75g gives you under 1.5 watts per gallon. This puts your tank in the lower end of lighting. Which will limit to a certain extent the types of plants you will want to plant in there and will also require less ferts.

So I'd suggest either to go for the low tech approach (one method of which is the Natural method: more info can be found in the El Natural forum) or to get your lighting up to around 2.5wpg (but then CO2 becomes necessary).

I agree with the comments above; the only thing I can think of that could cause the appearance of Nitrites is a disturbance of the bacteria load. And with few plants, the Nitrite is not taken up but sits in the water affecting the fishes gills as described. Or, alternatively, your NO2 test kit is off.

And welcome to APC!


----------



## lovswr (Aug 19, 2006)

Thanks again for all of the informative replies. I have been thinking that I needed more light. I may look into that soon.

I think getting those extra plants really did the trick. The cloudiness is basically gone & my Neons have really calmed down. Here is a couple of picks of the new green additions.


----------

