NitrItes

I have 5g QT, HOB trickle filter, use floss seeded in DT, up and running for two months, nitrites were 0. I put a small sixline wrasse in 3 days ago, now I get low nitrite reading. Params, temp 79, SG 1.024, pH 8.3, calc. 460, 9dkh, phos. 0, ammon. 0, nitrAtes 20ppm. I remove any extra food and visible waste with baster, 2g WC twice a day. Any other suggestions, also, I'm not sure which distress signs to look for if nitrites get too high. Fish is active and eating and looks relaxed so far. Thanks, Ann Marie

 

a tank cycled completely empty, will have to adjust to any increase in bioload. hopefully your adjustment will be quick with little impact on the fish. i would watch it closely and only feed every other day, removing anything uneaten as you said.

 

Thanks, will do

 

Do you have any live rock or live sand in the aquarium?
How low a nitrite reading are you getting?
As long as the fish are looking healthy, I wouldn't worry too much, I definitely wouldn't add anything else to the tank until it has finished cycling, fish usually tolerate a small reading of nitrite as long as it is only temporary.

 

I don't have any LR or sand it just has some PVC hiding places for the fish.

 

Some live rock or live sand would help with the cycling, would be more natural and help with stability. You can also buy bacteria that you add to the tank to speed up the cycling process.

 

I did add a couple small pieces of LR, I have extra in sump with light on it. It makes sense that after cycling empty, the new bioload would change stability and start mini cycle. I'll keep watching it. The low reading nitrite is about 10ppm, on my API test kit, it's a color just slightly above the 0 reading and very lightly resembling the next reading of 20ppm. It should be .10 ppm, I forgot a very important decimal and .20ppm

 

Just an update in case someone reads this thread and is curious: I didn't do a WC after adding two small pieces of LR to QT. The next day the nitrItes were 0 and ammonia 0, nitrates were about 10ppm and it's stayed consistent for the last five days

 

Like to close out threads: NitrItes stayed at 0 after a couple days and ammon. 0, pH 8.3 consistently until end of quarantine period. WC amount: half gallon every other day, 1 gallon for last ten days or so before moving to DT. (5g QT)