Nitrites

Hello,

I recently did a Red Slime treatment on my tank. It was totally out of control so I sucked most of it out did a water change and treated with "Aqua Medic" red Slime treatment.

After the 5 days on the treatment, I did a water test to see my Nitrites have spiked to 1.0ppm. I contintued to follow the instructions and did the 20% water change on the box. It has been over 2 weeks now and my Nitrites have gone down to about 0.15ppm. I know that the red slime treatment most likely caused a cycle since it prob. killed off good bactieria as well.

Here is my question,

Should I do my bi-weekly water change or should I wait on the Nitrites to drop to 0 before I do the water change?

I am thinking there might still be some treatment in the tank which is what is causing it to not drop.

Fish and corals seems to be doing just fine.

My total water test at the moment is as follows

ammonia 0.0ppm
Nitrites 0.15ppm
Nitrates 30ppm
ph 8.2
1.022 SG
19dkh alk
400 cal
0 phos

 

hey mate - according to this article nitrite is non toxic to marine life

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

 

Do you have a way to check your ORP? After adding those chemicals I bet you took your oxygen levels down a bunch. Most of the time cayno is from over feeding your tank too. Just because the fish come to the glass when you show up doesn't mean you need to feed them.

 

With a lot of those cyno treatments and algae treatments, they recommend running an air stone to keep the oxygen levels up.

 

Nitrites are very toxic to many forms of animal life, though not as much as ammonia would be. You are going to want to get the nitrite levels to 0 to avoid further problems. Nitrates are better handled by fish and other reef animals as algal growth is normally the extent of elevated nitrate levels, though many filter feeders, such as certain corals, anemones and Tridacna Clams will consume nitrate rather quickly.
Increase your water flow to help control cyanobacteria as well.