Nitrite and bioballs

Hey regarding my high nitrite levels in my cycling tank that won't seem to go down.

Am I supposed to clean the bioballs? There is some gunk building up on the higher level ones. Could this be keeping my nitrite levels high? If so should I just shake them around in some fresh sea water to clean them?

 

bioballs can and will become nitrate factories, if you do intend to use them you can lightly rinse them with saltwater. i would suggest replacing the balls with live rock...it would be more natural, the rock would serve the same purpose and you wouldn't ever have to clean the rock...

are you using a wet/dry filter or drip/trickle filter in your set-up?

 

Do not rinse the balls with fresh water as you will kill the bacteria on them.

I personally wouldn't remove the bioballs. The "myth" that they're nitrate factories is just that, a myth. If you have a lot of gunk in them, you might be overfeeding and a rinsing might be in order but I would only rinse half of them now then the other half a few weeks later.

 

I don't know if it's a wet dry or a drip filter. It's an ecosystem filter that I'm running and the overflow drops into a small section filled with bio balls. The balls are mostly submerged but a little piece is out of the water. I'll leave them I don't have a problem with nitrates, just nitrites. I know I know, DON"T TOUCH ANYTHING.... JUST WAIT

 

As long as we're clear on that

 

Just let it be and are you meaning you have a problem with Nitrites aka NO'2's and or the problem is with Nitrates aka NO3's Totally two different animals. In the 180 we are cycling now the Nitrites are a bit high but the nitrate are over 150 ppm. still 6 or 8 weeks to go though I just made a nitrate coil for the NO'3 problem that should be cycled and cured about time the tank finishes. It take me 12 to 16 weeks to fully cycle a tank. Check and let us know what one you are talking about then one can offer a better answer.

 

I'm talking about nitrites. Not nitrates. My current levels are
Ammonium 0
Nitrite 2 ppm
Nitrate 20ppm

This is 6 weeks going.

 

Well with round one over and the ammonias gone Now you are ready round number two, the build up of nitrite in your aquarium. Now unlike ammonia which comes from several sources nitrite only comes directly from the breaking down of ammonia by your biological filter, and is much less toxic to your fish then ammonia. Now you are in need of yet another type of bacteria in your biological filter, Nitrobacter bacteria. These new bacteria will finally break down the nitrite into the much less toxic nitrate that can be dealt with in several ways like water changes that I hate to do and a coil denitrater or a {denitrater box that is fed with Vodka or sugar water} to much trouble for me LOL But that will be round three and you can cross bridge when you get to it. As you still have aways to go yet

Once again though at that bridge you will have high levels of a substance that algae can use directly for food so you might see another algae bloom and another bacterial bloom of these Nitrobacter bacteria. But just set and watch it untill that point. But for now it is very important to not add any additonal animals at this point of the cycling. This will increase the amount of ammonia being produced in the tank and also will add more demand on a already stressed and under sized bacterial colony until the Nitrosomonas bacteria adjust and increase in their numbers to the needed level there will be a slight rise in the amount of ammonia in your water. This becomes a problem in that the Nitrobacter bacteria are stunted by increase of ammonia levels and can /will increase the length of time that it takes for enough of the Nitrobacter bacteria to be established and get your new tank through the cycle to that point . As I mentioned you are now at round 2 in a 3 round fight.