so after learning my new gained knowledge that you wait 5 minutes before reading test kits. My ammonia levels are a bit high, i put in Top Fin ammonia remover. and my nitItes are at 0.25, and i realize this could kill my fish. Every Saturday i do a 25% water change. So tonight after learning my nitrites were high i did another 25% water change. so in total i changed 50% of water today. the nitIte out of my tap is at zero. I know i need to buy prime, although i have a horse show tomorrow and cant get to my LFS.

What were your readings after the final water change?

ammonia -0.25

PH- 7.6

NitrIte- 0.25

any suggestions??!!

I would do 20% water change everyday until ammonia and nitrite gets 0 ppm.

i just did a 50% before i did the water change the Nitrite level went up to 1.0

Was your tank cycled before this? How long has it been running? What are your nitrate readings?

If you are still in the process of cycling your tank a 0.25 nitrite reading is entirely normal, and reading ammonia is normal too.

unfortunately i was quite new at the goldfish hobby. So i added my fish after a week of the tank running. I did not know about cycling. Tonight i almost lost my oranda =[ She was bottom sitting probably from nitrite poisoning. So i filled up a rubbermaid w/ new water (found this from another post) and she swam around a bit and fell to the bottom and there was no gill movement. I thought she was dead. I shook the rubbermaid a bit and she started swimming. So i decided to put her back in her tank with her friends so she could die peacefully. Now she is swimming a lot, and not bottom sitting a lot. Long story,sorry. I'm sorry i do not have the nitrate readings i do not have the kit. But my mom is going to the pet store tomorrow for my dog.So i'm told her to pick me up some aquarium salt, prime, and nitrate test kit. i hope my fish last till tommorow oh by the day my tank has been running about a month.

Short of your tank not finishing the cycle, have you tested the ammo and nitrIte levels out of your tap?

You mentioned earlier you changed your water, and after that change the nitrIte level went up to 1.0. Is that correct? Or by chance did you not measure the nitrIte before your water change and it was at 1.0 all along?

In any case, don't transfer your fish in and out of tanks, etc etc b/c you are going to just cause more undue stress.

To keep the levels of nitrIte and ammo under control while cycling, you need to perform water changes on a daily basis. And possibly multiple water changes in one day.

To me it sounds like your tank hasn't finished cycling.

I would suggest testing the water daily, and if you have a reading of either Ammonia or Nitrites over 0.5, do a 50% water change.

The prime is a good idea, it *really* helps keep everything under control.

I would also suggest checking out these pages if you haven't already:

http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/cycle.html
http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=11275

They are both extremely informative on cycling, and the second one has loads of information about general goldfish keeping.



My understanding was that it was 1.0 before the water change, and then she did a water change to bring it down.

ok well i did another water change tonight, and brought the nitrites down to .25 the ammonia level is the same. Would it be a good idea to buy aquarium salt and treat the tank with it. ?

Ammonia being the same as what: .25?

It's always a good idea to have aquarium salt on hand. If you can keep your nitrItes and ammo at the .25 level, and use Prime, I would not add the salt. Prime assists in rendering the nitrItes and ammo non-toxic to the fish. It does not remove them.

If, for whatever reason, your nitrItes start to spike, you may then want to add salt at a low level of .1%.

yeah,sorry i worded that wrong the nitrites at .25 and the ammonia level at .25. i would do a test now but i have to go to school and all my fish are still alive =]