Hello all!
Well my tank has been up and running for about a month now.. i have my two snails in them.. i want to add a fish but when i came home today i checked params and the ammonia was at 0 but Nitrites were at .3-.5.. its gone up a little since then (last night) and seem to have stayed at around .6 i did a 20% water change and i have aqua plus which i add, i've also put some aquarium salt in the tank, i heard that reduces the toxicity of nitrites..
Anyway, how do i get the nitrite levels down, and fast?

p.s. if buying something is going to be in the answer, i can't get to a store until friday probably...

Do a water change.....

i have... i've done 2

I recently was cycling my tank and nitrites wouldn't come down. Was advised to add some gravel froma pre-existing tank...put it in pantyhose so wouldn't comingle with the new tanks.....36 hours later NO nitrites!!!

I wouldn't worry too much yet - just keep the nitrites below 1.0 and your fish will be absolutely fine, especially as you added some salt too. Nitrites only start becoming problematic for goldies at 2.0 or more.

If the nitrites rise over 1.0 then do a water change to bring them back down to about 0.5 again. The amount you need to change might be 10% or it might be 80% - that doesn't matter. Just keep testing and do regular water changes to control them. And no, there isn't a product which removes nitrites, so you would have to do the water changes anyway even if you could get to the store.

ok thanks guys!

one more question... are nitrites just as bad for snails as well? I have 2 snails but they seem to be doing fine....

Can you get something over there in the US called NitraZorb by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals?

It's a pouch, which you place in your filter, and it contains resins which scavenge out certain levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate from your tankwater. It can only cope with a certain amount of each chemical, but is quite effective. I use one whenever I have a tank to cycle, and I find things run quite a lot quicker with it. Once every couple of days you re-charge the pouch using a strong salt solution, then rinse and place back in the filter.

Take a look at this data sheet - I really do find them great

Nitrazorb datasheet

Good luck!

This is probably a silly thing to say...but I had one experience anyway... My QT tank had a small amount of nitrites...but that went away when I added gravel from my existing tank, and fasted the goldie for a day. Don't know if it makes sense, but maybe not creating more waste allows the bugs to do their stuff for the day. It was my temporary solution anyway (plus, I was fasting for constipation reasons), and nitrites went to 0 the next day.

Well i did a 20% water change yesterday and they are still at .6 - .8 ...
This just caught me off guard because the tank was all at 0 and then boom nitrites went up...

Now is it ok to be doing continuous water changes? i've done 2 in the last two days basically... is it ok for the fish to be changing the water that much??

Snails are still acting fine, so is the fish...

And i don't have any gravel from a pre-existing tank Today my little moor won't be getting any food anyways, so we'll see if this helps...

Oh and i wanted to ask, after a water change - how long does it take for nitrites to go down? i guess what i mean is - after a water change, how long should i wait to test the water again?

lol i know i'm over reacting but getting the stupid nitrites down is such a pain!! i did another 40% water change today adn they didnt go down... i really need to find a huge bucket so i can do like 80%.... this is getting on my nerves!!

if one round of water change doesn't help, perform another round till it is safe.. secondly, adding a bit of salt, say 0.05% concentration which is half a teaspoon per gallon of water helps to reduce nitrIte effect on fishes too..

reduce feeding also helps to reduce production of nitrIte till your tank stablises..

or worse, fast your fish if you have to.. and nitrIte is still going up despite the fact you are facting your fishes, then somewhere, poop is trapped.. search all corners of your displays or clean up gravel helps to eliminate any excess poop..

poop is trapped?
When i do another water change tomorrow should i vac the gravel really well?

I do add salt to my aquarium, and my fish is fasting...

so you use gravel.. yep, poop will be trapped under gravel and if not remove, the ammuculated poop will raise ammonia level and nitrIte and nitrAte.. in worse situation, the the trapped poop will turn toxic and will release toxic fume when the stone is overturned by you or the fish.. imagine a gush of toxic fume being released when the fish has his head in the midst as he lifted the stone..

it is recommended to clean up gravel as frequently as once a week or at least once fortnightly.. but do clean more often if your tank is small and when you feed your fishes very often..

ya i normally give it a good cleaning once a week....

Did another 30% water change today, vacummed the gravel and got some crud out of everything, took the ornaments out and gave them a good wash...

Ammonia still at 0
Nitrites still at 0.8

Wow, it sounds like you are having a tough time black fish. I feel for you, and I hope you tank finially balances. keep the gravel clean, mine got up a while back and I took out about half the gravel and cleaned/rinsed it off in a bucket really well with just water. I thought that it was like vacumming when i just get all the stuff out the rocks, i was just rinsing them and getting all the stuff out. I didnt treat them and try to kill the bacteria...well iwas using tap water so i guess it did. But the gravel in the tank i just vacuumed. this whole process cleared my nitrate problem up and i havent had a problem since. I was looking for something serious to clear it up, it sounded drastic, and it worked. it was about 2 days when they finially went back down to 0. maybe something drastic like this may help you out some. if i was to do this again for some reason, i wouldnt vacuum the gravel left in there..just clean out the half i took out. after i put them back in i learned about the whole cycling process and what it REALLY was and the whole science behind it. i was lucky i guess that I didnt start it over again. If someone else reads this and says it may work, you may want to try it. it may be a stupid thing I came up with and may be a bad idea but it did work for me. NE1 else who reads this let me know if this was a good idea or not so i wont do it again if it is...hahaha.

Ohh! be sure to add water treatment after you put the rocks back in...took me 30 mins to remember i didnt...had me scared, the fish were fine though.

until a tank is WELL established with beneficial bacteria, it can have several spikes in ammonia and/or nitrites. it just depends on the amount of fish you have (and add) and the feeding schedule. i find it best to feed the same exact amount of food each day so as to keep the bio-filter from becoming overloaded from erratic feeding regemines. you see, there is a constant fluctuation between the amount of bio-bugs and ammonia/nitrites that are present in any tank because the bio-load fluctuates. finding a good equilibrium between the two is very important in keeping the params steady. once youve reached that equilibrium, it should be smooth sailing.

im also a big fan of not cleaning any surfaces if i dont absolutely have to. this includes the filter intake tube and the filter box (i do clean the impeller assembly once a week though). that way plenty of bio-bugs will colonize those surfaces. and you should never, ever take your gravel out and rinse it or scrub it clean, that could very easily upset the balance between the amount of bio-bugs and ammonia/nitrites and cause your params to wobble.

good luck and i hope the trites disappear for you soon!

I think my tank hates me! :angry:
Nitrites STILL around .8 i've done EVERYTHING!! driving me crazy now...

Check your tap water if you haven't yet, sometimes tap water can start to contain ammonia/nitrites/nitrates suddenly, even if it didn't before. If that is the case, you will need to detox your water before you put it in the tank each water change. Or it could be a temporary thing as a result of excessive rain or a pipe breaking somewhere.

If that is not the case, just keep changing water.