# Nitrites not going down



## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

Will water lettuce remove nitrites from water?

The stupid nitrites are still at 0.25ppm and I want to get rid of them. Will this type of plant remove nitrites from the water or am I just going to have to wait for them to lower? I want to put my betta back in there but I also don't want him to get nitrite poisoning either.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



Red_Rose said:


> Will water lettuce remove nitrites from water?
> 
> The stupid nitrites are still at 0.25ppm and I want to get rid of them. Will this type of plant remove nitrites from the water or am I just going to have to wait for them to lower? I want to put my betta back in there but I also don't want him to get nitrite poisoning either.


Daily 20% water changes should do the trick if you are trying to speed the process up, otherwise, you will have to wait it out. What type of dechlroniator are you using? Seachem's Prime is supposed to remove nitrites but it may not work if you have very hard water. You can also take biomedia from an established tank and place it in the filter of the problem tank. This may help.

Normally, if you start with sufficient plant mass, the plants should be able to absorb the ammonia and you should never see a nitrite spike, and if you do it shouldn't last that long. A prolonged nitirite spike normally occurs when a tank is cycling normally without plants. It is the second phase of cycling. Nitrities will go sky high during cylcling and then drop to zero which will correspond to a nitrate spike and increasing nitrate levels. During that time, the tank is said to be fully cycled and the ammonia and nitrite will read zero. Most people will do a 90% water change during this time to remove excessive nitrates or will add additional floating plants to naturally absorb the excess nitrates. Keep in mind, you never really want to shoot for zero nitrates in a planted tank as plants need nitrates and zero nitrates can also set the stage for blue green algae.

With respect to plants to remove nitrites, perhaps someone else can speak to this. I always thought that plants only work to absorb ammonia and nitrates. I am/was not aware of any plants absorbing nitrites.


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

*Re: Nitrites*

I totally agree with Homer on the filter and biomedia. Run your filter with established biomedia, or wait it out. Not necesarily on the 20% water change, not saying it won't help, but only because your still taking away whatever established bacteria or nutrients are present. Everything will settle out, just give it time. Time depending on whether you add biomedia or wait it out.
I ran my filter for the first few days when I first set up my NPT just to give it a kickstart, then removed everything, and currently do not filter anything.

In reference to adding in on the uptake of Nitrites by plants, page 22 & 23 in Ecology for the Planted Aquarium discusses this topic.
If you don't have it, I can give a nutshell version later if anyone wants.

If I remember right Rose has had this tank going for a couple weeks? Only reason I disagreed with the water change.

_edit:_ I really need to stop editing.  The water lettuce should help reduce the nitrites. What other plants do you have in your tank Rose? I forget, and am starting to get my threads confused.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



rohape said:


> I totally agree with Homer on the filter and biomedia. Run your filter with established biomedia, or wait it out. Not necesarily on the 20% water change, not saying it won't help, but only because your still taking away whatever established bacteria or nutrients are present. Everything will settle out, just give it time. Time depending on whether you add biomedia or wait it out.
> I ran my filter for the first few days when I first set up my NPT just to give it a kickstart, then removed everything, and currently do not filter anything.
> 
> In reference to adding in on the uptake of Nitrites by plants, page 22 & 23 in Ecology for the Planted Aquarium discusses this topic.
> ...


Well I don't have any other tanks and I don't know anyone that does so it may be difficult to get some established biomedia. I was tempted to do another water change but I wanted to get some input from the people here first before doing that.

I had set up my tank on July 6/07 so it's been a couple of weeks. As for the plants, I just got some water lettuce today so it's in the tank right now. I also have hornwort, small bits of duckweed that was in the water lettuce's roots, Cryptocoryne walkeri, Cabomba, Wisteria, java moss and Ludwigia glandulosa. The wisteria is growing like a weed as well as the hornwort and the Crypt, Cabomba and moss are doing well. Some of the ludwigia's have some lateral shoots coming from the stem.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*

A few months ago, I set up a buddha tank using a fishless cycle and a product called septobac(it is a natural bacteria used to breakdown septic sewage waste and the research I did confirms that many people have successfully using it to quickly cycle huge tanks without any problems. We are talking 175 gallon cichlid tanks in like 10 days with no harm to cichlids added after. It is said that the bacteria are the same as those found in such reputable but far more expenisve products like Bio-Spira. The Septobac is a box of 8 envelopes for like $5.00 and that is enough to cycle a whole lake).

I will post a detailed log of my 5 Gallon Buddha Project once I am happy with plant growth and aquascaping. It is in it's final stages and pictures and log will be posted within one month or sooner. Basically, I did a fishless cycle using household ammonia and septobac. Yes, I know, it would have been better to cram the tank with plants. Unfortunately, I did not have a good selection of healthy plants to cycle with. It was funny because the nitrite phase is supposed to be the longest and some claim that they have been stuck in this phase for a month or longer while cycling their tanks. When I started cycling with household ammonia, the ammonia spike lasted 7 days, and with the addition of the Septobac the nitrite spike only lasted 7 days. I added plants in the final stage when nitrates rose through the roof nad nitrites dropped to zero, the floating plants that I used(duckweed, hornwort, etc.) soaked up the nitrates like a sponge and the additional plants(ambulia, java fern, and java moss appeared to benefit from the high nitrates). The project has been up and running for a couple of months. The Amano shrimp, dwarf aquatic frog, otto and snails appear to be doing well. Weekly testing of water indicates no ammonia or nitrite spike. The tank is fully cycled.

While doing my research, some people who had succesfully cycled found that at some point they had experienced a stall in cycling brought on my a PH level too low, so they began doing frequent water changes to bring the PH up a bit and jump start the cycling process. Some theorized that too low a drop in PH may interfere with the establishment of bacteria necessary for consumption of nitrites. They found that the cycling process was not effected by 20 % or so water changes daily and if anything these water changes served to stabilize PH level and the nitrites quickly fell to zero and this was accompanied by a rapid increase in nitrates. A sign that the water changes did not effect cycling(or you would not see a rapid drop in nitrites accompanied by a rapid rise in nitrates you would see zero nitrites and zero nitrates at that point) and the final stage of cycling was on target.

Make a long story short: I don't believe 20% water changes every day or every 2-3days to bring down nitrites will intefere with the cycling process and if anything may speed it up.


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

*Re: Nitrites*



Homer_Simpson said:


> While doing my research, some people who had succesfully cycled found that at some point they had experienced a stall in cycling brought on my a PH level too low, so they began doing frequent water changes to bring the PH up a bit and jump start the cycling process. Some theorized that too low a drop in PH may interfere with the establishment of bacteria necessary for consumption of nitrites. They found that the cycling process was not effected by 20 % or so water changes daily and if anything these water changes served to stabilize PH level and the nitrites quickly fell to zero and this was accompanied by a rapid increase in nitrates. A sign that the water changes did not effect cycling(or you would not see a rapid drop in nitrites accompanied by a rapid rise in nitrates you would see zero nitrites and zero nitrates at that point) and the final stage of cycling was on target.
> 
> Make a long story short: I don't believe 20% water changes every day or every 2-3days to bring down nitrites will intefere with the cycling process and if anything may speed it up.


I don't mean to speak for Rose, but on another post about PH, her PH is around 8. So I wonder if according to your research and experience, if the high PH will actually serve to help cycle her tank faster?
My main concern was that she has been having some issues with PH, ammonia, now nitrites that doing a water change may start the vicious cycle over again.

_edit:_ So I did some looking and timelining. 10 days ago Rose had an ammonia spike, 3 days later Planaria, today Nitrite spike. So 10 days now, I haven't heard of cycling taking this long. It makes me wonder if it's possible it could be the soil?


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



rohape said:


> .... So 10 days now, I haven't heard of cycling taking this long. It makes me wonder if it's possible it could be the soil?


You are right. With planted tanks, "in theory," a cycle should never occur like this. The plants would absorb and use the ammonia that a nitrite spike would not/should not occur. It would be bypassed. Now if ammonia is being released faster(possibly from the soil) than it is being absorbed, I can see this leading to a drawn out nitrite spike cause then the tank would begin to try and cycle like a regular non-planted tank. Increasing plant mass even more should absorb the ammonia and put an end to the nitrite spike. the confusing part about Rose's case is that she would seem to have more than enough plants to prevent this and the plants appear to be displaying healthy growth. Ammonia may not be detected in Rose's case because the bacteria responsible for consuming it and converting it to nitrites are in mass numbers but the bacteria responsible for consuming the nitrite producing bacteria and producing nitrates have not kicked in. This is just my theory. Another thing, what kind of test kit are you using to test the nitrite. Some test kits are known to give inaccurate readings. Have you had the water tested through your local fish store???? Many do it for free. If they find that your nitrite level is in fact zero, your nitrite test kit may be the problem. I used Aquarium Pharmaceutical Test Kits(APC) to test ammonia and Nitrite levels and they proved to be pretty accurate.

When I was fishless cycling my Buddha Tank(without plants to begin with), the ph always registered a steady 6.5 and I was worried as others had experienced that cycling was stalled when PH dropped to 6.0 or less so I was keeping a close eye on it and testing it every 3 days. When the cycle neared the end with nitrates climbing and ammonia and nitrites at zero, the PH still remained at 6.5. It was only a week after when I did a 90% water change that the PH climbed to 7.5. The tank remains cycled, daily testing for the last month indicate a zero ammonia and nitrite reading, and the frog, ammano shrimp, and oto all seem to be doing well. I did lose one oto and a couple of cherry shrimp but there was no detectable ammonia or nitrite spike that could account for their unexpected deaths. I am still not sure what killed them. The dead oto had a pot belly when he died which would mean he did not die of starvation. In my case, I did not set up the tank as per NPT principles. My substrate was alternate layers of Schultz Aquatic Soil and Fluorite. I started with Fluorite and ended with Fluorite. And I only added plants towards the end when the nitrates began increasing.


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

*Re: Nitrites*



Homer_Simpson said:


> Another thing, what kind of test kit are you using to test the nitrite. Some test kits are known to give inaccurate readings. Have you had the water tested through your local fish store???? Many do it for free. If they find that your nitrite level is in fact zero, your nitrite test kit may be the problem. I used Aquarium Pharmaceutical Test Kits(APC) to test ammonia and Nitrite levels and they proved to be pretty accurate.


As I started reading your first paragraph that thought came to me also. I would take a water sample in to be tested, maybe try a couple different places if you don't like the outcome. Like a second opinion. Maybe you should start there Rose, easy stuff first.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*

Also, if alternate test results indicate that you still have nitrites increase aeration, via airstone and air pump. When I was cycling, I found this helped a lot. I did not even use a airstone. I just left the tip of the tubing coming from the air pump in the water. If you are already using a aistone and airpump for aeration, add another. You can never have too much oxygen/surface agetation when you are trying to cycle. Good luck.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



> Another thing, what kind of test kit are you using to test the nitrite. Some test kits are known to give inaccurate readings. Have you had the water tested through your local fish store???? Many do it for free. If they find that your nitrite level is in fact zero, your nitrite test kit may be the problem. I used Aquarium Pharmaceutical Test Kits(APC) to test ammonia and Nitrite levels and they proved to be pretty accurate.


I should be using a test kit? All of this time I've been using my hand to determine the ammonia and nitrite levels.







I'm using a very accurate test kit. It's the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater *MASTER* test kit. A kit that has been recommended to me by quite a few hobbyists. I really don't appreciate you just assuming that I'm not testing the water correctly or not at all. I normally don't pull this feminine crap on people but if I was a man, would you have assumed the same thing? My guess is no.

Now here's a little something for both you and Rohape to read. This was taken by a page that DataGuru made on creating a Walstad tank. I'm going to make the key sentence in larger font and bolded so you can see them better. The underlined part is the main section that you need to read. Although the ammonia is mentioned, it can also apply to the nitrites as well.

"Diana says you can immediately moderately stock the tank. (*Keep an eye on ammonia, because I've had soil that immediately cycled a tank and other soil that took a month to be habitable.*) Avoid plant eaters or fish that dig in the substrate."

Flagg had also said to me that it could take days, weeks or even months for this type of set up to be ready for fish and since he has tanks like this, I'm assuming that he said this to me because of the experiences that he's had while doing this kind of set up.

Now that being said, I realize that you two are trying to help but making a person feel like they've done something wrong because the stupid nitrites aren't lowering is not a good way to go. You need to keep in mind that this is my very first tank that I've set up so I'm all new to this. Saying things like _"So 10 days now, I haven't heard of cycling taking this long. It makes me wonder if it's possible it could be the soil?"_ can make a person feel really ****ty about themselves so please chose your words better next time, gentlemen.

As for adding oxygen, I'm using a small filter instead of an airstone because I don't want the airstone to remove the CO2 for the plants and I plan on using some peat to lower my pH.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

*Re: Nitrites*

Rose: I don't think the comment about the test kit was meant to offend. Simply to point out that sometimes test kits are innacurate b/c of bad reagents or whatever. That being said, AP does make good test kits and I doubt that yours is bad. I'm currently doing a bottle test on two different soils and just the other day, after almost two weeks of being set up, I'm noticing a HUGE nitrite spike. The purple color the water turned was almost off of the chart (I'm using Hagen test kit). The ammonia, however, is zero. The same thing happened when I used a totally different soil when I first set up my 30gal. That ended up being a huge problem for the tank b/c I had stocked it shortly after setting it up, and I had nowhere to put the fish while the nitrite spiked. I lost a lot of fish as the nitrite didn't go back down for a couple of weeks. And this was in a pretty heavily planted tank w/ fast growing plants.

More than likely, the high nitrite levels in your tank aren't the result of incomplete cycling, but rather the release of nitrite from the soil at a rate higher than the plants can absorb. Did you by any chance notice if the soil contained any composted manure? The soils that I get around here all seem to have some amount of manure and I recall from a previous thread (months? years? ago) that manure-laden soils will release nitrites into the water column.

You had mentioned doing water changes and wondering if that would help, and yes, but only temporarily. When I changed the water in my 30 gal. during the time it was going through its spike, the nitrite level would always go down immediately afterwards, but then climb back up the next day. I think it's probably best to just let the tank be and let the plants do their thing as they take up the nitrite. You'll probably see tremendous growth during this period. (I wouldn't worry about pH either, as 8, while alkaline, isn't terrible and it might come down after a water change.) Your nitrates might even increase during this time (especially if you add a little food to the tank every couple of days) as plants prefer nitrite (and ammonia) over nitrates for their nitrogen source (Diana's book, don't remember what page...).

Good luck!

-ricardo


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

*Re: Nitrites*

Wow, I think you misunderstood what we were saying, and doing. First, we said your test kits may be inaccurate. Test kits have been to known to expire, or just be plain wrong. We never once said or suggested that you were doing it wrong, or didn't know what you were doing. 
Second, the 10 day issue. We were trying to figure out if it may be something other than your tank just cycling. If there is some underlying issue, maybe your soil has some impurities or something wrong. _edit:_The only reason *I* brought it up is because I have posted on just about all your threads, and felt some more background would be helpful instead of chasing. It was by no means meant to offend.

It does bother me that we were trying to help you and you took it completely wrong! But, this site is just to nice to make an issue. There are very few times when people on here are demeaning or rude, usually if it happens it starts on the intial posters end being rude or inconsiderate.

Sorry for this misunderstanding. You aren't doing anything wrong at all. If anything your doing right, by looking for help instead of going this venture alone, getting discouraged and quitting. Thats what we are all here for, for help, that's why we are all here is for help and friends. :mrgreen:


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*

Sorry for sounding snippy and misunderstanding all of you in my last post but this is really frustrating because if it was up to me, there would be no nitrites and my betta would be in his new home right now but unfortunately, that's not how things are turning out.



flagg said:


> I'm currently doing a bottle test on two different soils and just the other day, after almost two weeks of being set up, I'm noticing a HUGE nitrite spike. The purple color the water turned was almost off of the chart (I'm using Hagen test kit). The ammonia, however, is zero. The same thing happened when I used a totally different soil when I first set up my 30gal. That ended up being a huge problem for the tank b/c I had stocked it shortly after setting it up, and I had nowhere to put the fish while the nitrite spiked. I lost a lot of fish as the nitrite didn't go back down for a couple of weeks. And this was in a pretty heavily planted tank w/ fast growing plants.
> 
> More than likely, the high nitrite levels in your tank aren't the result of incomplete cycling, but rather the release of nitrite from the soil at a rate higher than the plants can absorb. Did you by any chance notice if the soil contained any composted manure? The soils that I get around here all seem to have some amount of manure and I recall from a previous thread (months? years? ago) that manure-laden soils will release nitrites into the water column.
> 
> ...


When I did my bottle test, the nitrites and ammonia were through the roof at the end of the first week. At the end of the second week, the ammonia was still incredibly high but there were no nitrites to be found. In my tank, the plants are growing very well and now that I have some water lettuce, I hope that the nitrites will start to lessen as the days go by.

As for the soil, the only things it contains is Loam and Humus. I made sure I checked the contents on the bag as well as smelling it for fertilizers. There was no manure smell to the soil.

I have considered doing a partial water change to see if it does help but if it would only be temporary, then I might not. I do remember reading in Ms. Walstad's book that plants also prefer nitrites over nitrates but I thought it was just certain plants that removed the nitrites.



rohape said:


> Wow, I think you misunderstood what we were saying, and doing. First, we said your test kits may be inaccurate. Test kits have been to known to expire, or just be plain wrong. We never once said or suggested that you were doing it wrong, or didn't know what you were doing.
> Second, the 10 day issue. We were trying to figure out if it may be something other than your tank just cycling. If there is some underlying issue, maybe your soil has some impurities or something wrong. _edit:_The only reason *I* brought it up is because I have posted on just about all your threads, and felt some more background would be helpful instead of chasing. It was by no means meant to offend.
> 
> It does bother me that we were trying to help you and you took it completely wrong! But, this site is just to nice to make an issue. There are very few times when people on here are demeaning or rude, usually if it happens it starts on the intial posters end being rude or inconsiderate.
> ...


I do realize that you were trying to help but when a person is going through something like this(especially if they're new to this hobby), hearing things like it shouldn't be taking this long and whatnot can really lower one's morale. Not only that but it kinda made me feel like I was doing something wrong even though I may not have, especially when you hear of some people being able to stock their tanks after one day and they have no problems yet here I am still waiting. That sounds silly, doesn't it?

When it came to the soil I used, there was only two things that it contained so I didn't think I'd have a problem with it but apparently it's being difficult for me and as for my test kit, I had to put it on order because the store where I bought it from was out of stock so I knew that it wasn't an old kit or in accurate. I just wish these stupid nitrites would just go away so I can put my betta back in there but I know that I'll have to wait for that to happen.

Don't get me wrong. I love this site and it's one of the very few forums out there that doesn't favor long-time members or has members that only help those who have high post counts or are considered as "popular". That's one of the reasons why I like to post here. 

Again, I'm sorry for getting angry.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*

Here's an update on my tank if anyone's interested.

A few days ago, I did a partial water change(about 3 gallons, if that) and today I tested my water. My ammonia and nitrites are now at zero! The ammonia has been at zero for quite some time but I've just been waiting for the nitrites to lower. I don't know if it was the water change that helped to lower it, the water lettuce or the filter I have going in the tank but I'm just glad that it's down to zero again!


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

*Re: Nitrites*

That's awesome news, and great advice here. It sounds like a combination of the plants (water lettuce), filter maturing, the waterchange, and maybe some time and patience helped reduce the ammonia and nitrites and further the chemical cycle. Looks like your betta is going back to his home! 

-John N.


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

*Re: Nitrites*

Glad to hear you've gotten past the problem! I bet your betta is going to be happy to be back in his new home.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



John N. said:


> That's awesome news, and great advice here. It sounds like a combination of the plants (water lettuce), filter maturing, the waterchange, and maybe some time and patience helped reduce the ammonia and nitrites and further the chemical cycle. Looks like your betta is going back to his home!
> 
> -John N.


Thank you! I'm not sure if it was the media in the filter since I only have the sponge media in there and it was only running for two days. The only reason I turned it on was because I wanted to get some more oxygen circulating through the tank and get rid of some of the small bits of plant that were floating around in the water.

I'm just glad that the nitrites are back down to zero!



cs_gardener said:


> Glad to hear you've gotten past the problem! I bet your betta is going to be happy to be back in his new home.


Thanks! He keeps looking over at his new home so I know he'll be glad to be back in there!


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

*Re: Nitrites*



Red_Rose said:


> Here's an update on my tank if anyone's interested.
> 
> A few days ago, I did a partial water change(about 3 gallons, if that) and today I tested my water. My ammonia and nitrites are now at zero! The ammonia has been at zero for quite some time but I've just been waiting for the nitrites to lower. I don't know if it was the water change that helped to lower it, the water lettuce or the filter I have going in the tank but I'm just glad that it's down to zero again!


Awesome news! Now you can put your little betta back!

-ricardo


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



flagg said:


> Awesome news! Now you can put your little betta back!
> 
> -ricardo


I'd put him back in right now but he ended up with a mild case of fin rot from the Columnaris that he got from the stress from the ammonia exposure. It's clearing up rather nicely and once he's healed up, he's going back in! 

I know this sounds stupid but I'm all excited for him!\\/


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

*Re: Nitrites*



Red_Rose said:


> I know this sounds stupid but I'm all excited for him!\\/


I'm sure we've all have, or at least I have had that good feeling when we put fish in a clean and wonderfully aquascaped aquarium. Now where are the pictures? 

-John N.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



John N. said:


> I'm sure we've all have, or at least I have had that good feeling when we put fish in a clean and wonderfully aquascaped aquarium. Now where are the pictures?
> 
> -John N.


That's cool. At least I'm not the only that has felt that way! 

I'll be taking some pictures of the tank tomorrow and some more when he's back in there. :biggrin1: After I take and upload some pics tomorrow, I'll post them here.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

*Re: Nitrites*

Rose have a good look with a flashlight and a magnifying glass. A lot of times what we think is columnaris is actually oodinium ("velvet"). Jim Lanhammer turned me on to this - he said he's never actually seen a real case of columnaris. Just lots of misdiagnosed velvet.

Acriflavine cures velvet.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



rs79 said:


> Rose have a good look with a flashlight and a magnifying glass. A lot of times what we think is columnaris is actually oodinium ("velvet"). Jim Lanhammer turned me on to this - he said he's never actually seen a real case of columnaris. Just lots of misdiagnosed velvet.
> 
> Acriflavine cures velvet.


Velvet is one of the first diseases I did research on. I always check my betta with a flashlight and magnifying glass once a week to make sure that he doesn't have any external parasites. He's also a very dark blue so I know that goldish dustings would be easier to see on him.

Columnaris or Flexibacter Columnaris is quite common, actually. I know of quite a few people who have had bettas and other fish get infected with this bacteria. Also, I do know that when a fish has Velvet, you need to raise the water temperature since it is a cold water parasite and when Jake had gotten Columnaris, I gradually lowered his water temps down to 76F and it cleared it up in no time(along with meds, of course). I don't think he would've ended up with fin rot if I had done one more round of the meds.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*

Here's a couple of pics. They're not the greatest but you can still see the tank fairly well. I have more but imageshack is being a bit of a pain right now.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*

Absolutely beautiful and stunning. Excellent work.


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

*Re: Nitrites*

That's a nicely planted aquarium. Great colors, and use of space. I'm actually surprised you could stick in so many plants in such a tight space. Does the floating water lettuce block out too much light resulting in poor plant growth in shaded areas?

-John N.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

*Re: Nitrites*



John N. said:


> That's a nicely planted aquarium. Great colors, and use of space. I'm actually surprised you could stick in so many plants in such a tight space. Does the floating water lettuce block out too much light resulting in poor plant growth in shaded areas?
> 
> -John N.


Thank you! I wanted to make it a heavily planted tank. If my ludwigia's don't start improving soon, I'll be replacing them with something else. You know, I though the lettuce would block out quite a bit of light but surprisingly, it doesn't. All of my plants on the bottom still get the same about of light as they did before I got the water lettuce.


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Nice looking tank rose!

-ricardo


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

flagg said:


> Nice looking tank rose!
> 
> -ricardo


Thank you!


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Beautiful tank!

With so many plants I don't think you'll have a high nitrite level for long.  

The nitrites are probably coming from "nitrate respiration" of excess nitrates in the water (my book, p. 65). The soil may have been originally fertilized with nitrates, a common fertilizer ingredient. Water changes would help (to remove both the nitrates and the nitrite). This problem should dimminish. 

In any case, I truly am impressed with the luxuriant plant growth in this tank.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

dwalstad said:


> Beautiful tank!
> 
> With so many plants I don't think you'll have a high nitrite level for long.
> 
> ...


Thank you, Ms. Walstad. 

It's almost been a full week since the nitrites have lowered back down to zero. I still have some nitrates though. They're around 6.0-7.0ppm. Should I be concerned about that? When the nitrites rose, I panicked and did a partial water change because I didn't know what else to do and I was concerned for my little snail who was still in there. It must've worked because I don't have them anymore. Also, from what I've read in your book, duckweed is also good for removing nitrites and when I bought my water lettuce, there was bits of duckweed in the roots so those might have helped as well. I did a search on duckweed and from the looks of it, I have Lemna minor.

Last night, I had to prune my Cabomba because most of the shoots were at the waters surface. I replanted the tops. I've also noticed that roots are sprouting from half way up my Wisteria! The roots are heading straight for the substrate. Is it normal for aquatic plants to grow roots above the substrate? Anyhow, I'm just happy that they're growing so well.


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## DataGuru (Mar 11, 2005)

That amount of nitrAte isn't anything to worry about.

Yea, it's common for stem plant to put out roots from nodes on the stem. You'll also see new growth sprout from nodes as well.


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

Same as DataGuru wrote about the roots from stems. Another thing, your duckweed may never grow. In Diana's book under I believe Alleopathy (not looking at the book, just from the hip here), Water Lettuce actually produces a chemical to inhibit duckweed growth. I can verify this. I to got some water lettuce and water hyacinth that had a fair amount of duckweed. The duckweed never grew, in fact it completely disappeared. So first hand proof experience. :mrgreen:


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

rohape said:


> Same as DataGuru wrote about the roots from stems. Another thing, your duckweed may never grow. In Diana's book under I believe Alleopathy (not looking at the book, just from the hip here), Water Lettuce actually produces a chemical to inhibit duckweed growth. I can verify this. I to got some water lettuce and water hyacinth that had a fair amount of duckweed. The duckweed never grew, in fact it completely disappeared. So first hand proof experience. :mrgreen:


I forgot about that part! I'll read up on it today. Thanks for reminding me about that, Rohape.


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## rs79 (Dec 7, 2004)

"_*Water Lettuce actually produces a chemical to inhibit duckweed growth.*_"

I've kept them together for years and throw garbage bags of both of them away. I'd kill to find a plant that really did kill duckweed.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

rs79 said:


> "_*Water Lettuce actually produces a chemical to inhibit duckweed growth.*_"
> 
> I've kept them together for years and throw garbage bags of both of them away. I'd kill to find a plant that really did kill duckweed.


Wow! Look at all of that!  I know that the both of them grow quickly but I didn't think it would be so much that you could fill up garbage bags with them.


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

Well, don't let aquabillpers see this, he'll think I have some magical water. I swear, my duckweed never get a hold, and really did end up not existing in my tank. I have had duckweed in this tank prior, so I know it will grow. But my water lettuce did look different than yours. I would guess there are different types? Mine laid more on the water than up like yours rs79.


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

Great pic. Pictures like this are worth a thousand words.

Allelopathy is very hard to distinguish from nutrient deficiencies. Moreover, the list of plant extracts that kill or inhibit duckweed (my book, p. 36) doesn't include Water Lettuce.

All floating plants, because they don't have access to substrate iron, can succumb to iron deficiency. Keeping iron out of the water is one strategy for combatting algae (my book p. 167). However, that means that floating plants are also vulnerable.

When my floating Water Sprite was starting to go downhill, I added a trace element fertilizer. Within a week it perked up. I believe that my Water Sprite was suffering from iron deficiency. 

If there's enough iron in the water, Water Lettuce and Duckweed can both do fine together-- as depicted. If water iron is somewhat limited, Water Lettuce with its more extensive root system, can probably "iron-starve" a small plant like duckweed.

Aren't planted aquariums great? So much chemistry, microbiology, botany, and "uncertainty principles" in a small volume of water.


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## rohape (Feb 7, 2005)

Oops, my bad. :doh:. My water hyacinth. Or maybe I should stop now. 
All my floaters were/are doing great, just the duckweed never got a hold. I'm happy it didn't take off, it was a major pain to get it all cleared out.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

I don't think I mentioned this but I had put my betta back in his tank on Saturday and he's loving it! It took him a couple of days to check everything out but now he's been in every part of that tank.


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