Sweetpickles Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 I am sure this issue has been addressed before and I am sorry to bring it up. I have had this 20 gal tank up and cycled since april. All has been well til a month ago. I have 6 rasboras, 5 whiteclouds, 1 panda cory, 2 panda garra, a mystery snail, 2 nerites and one surprise guppy that hitched a ride as a fry. Also about a dz cherry shrimp and an occasional explosion of rams horn and bladder snails. We try to do a water change at least every other week but lately every week due to nitrite. I have used almost all my prime. My acrylic is now cycled so i put a couple handfuls of gravel from it into the 20. It helped for a couple days but now its back to .225. Everyone in the tank seems fine and happy. Eating well and very active. I tested big tank to be sure nothing was faulty. Tank runs about 72-74° I have a medium and a small sponge filter. Do I need more plants? I have not had an ammonia spike. I have been testing regularly. Water change before last we did well over 50% and I did a flush type change. That seemed to help for a day or so. Maybe the snails? sorry this is lengthy. I appreciate your insight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 Nitrite eating bacteria takes a painfully long time to grow…longer than it takes your inhabitants to grow and produce more ammonia. I have found through many many trials prime(I am die hard seachem fan) does not affect how quickly my ammonia eating bacteria grows but it seems to slow the nitrite one. I measured 2 identical 10 gallon tanks identical stocking guppies snails plants. One was controlled vis water change until it was solid (I’m home all day test 3x a day started with 2 med coop sponges seasoned same time in same tank). The prime controlled (adding prime to water column) took longer and had more nitrite bumps than the water change controlled. I am not a scientist I did this because I’ve started so many tanks and it always seemed faster stability in water change vs prime so being a bored retired old lady I tried it. Just my experiences I do not want to be part of a great fish keeping debate. 😁 hope that helps 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 Also waste builds up in substrate and breaks down which increases ammonia nitrite etc more than clean slate tank. Again takes time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweetpickles Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 On 7/14/2021 at 6:55 PM, Guppysnail said: Also waste builds up in substrate and breaks down which increases ammonia nitrite etc more than clean slate tank. Again takes time @Guppysnail By the way...I love my snails too!❤🐌 I was shocked when everything was fine the bam the nitrites were off! I gravel vac almost everytime bc i know i have more than i should in my tank perhaps. I thought maybe i took the beneficial bacteria out with too much cleaning. So i guess i am hoping to hear my fish will be fine at .225 ppm nitrite..... i cant imagine they will be happy for long. I need to build up nitrite eating bacteria. I have already added gravel from newly cycled tank. Not sure what else to do. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 On 7/14/2021 at 7:05 PM, Sweetpickles said: @Guppysnail By the way...I love my snails too!❤🐌 I was shocked when everything was fine the bam the nitrites were off! I gravel vac almost everytime bc i know i have more than i should in my tank perhaps. I thought maybe i took the beneficial bacteria out with too much cleaning. So i guess i am hoping to hear my fish will be fine at .225 ppm nitrite..... i cant imagine they will be happy for long. I need to build up nitrite eating bacteria. I have already added gravel from newly cycled tank. Not sure what else to do. No matter how much I gravel vac I never can get everything. I gravel vac all the time. Yes gravel holds a small amount of bacteria but only accounts for .5%. I have replaced substrate in just barely cycled tanks because I didn’t like it and it did nothing to change the times it took to do it’s thing. I gravel vac all the time too many mystery and bladder snails and plecos in some tanks, too many fry and fine food in others not too. (My plants thrive without fertz) Water may test fine but the bad bacterial and fungus and who knows what else would be astronomical not to mention my substrate would be poo. 🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 Do nothing. Keep testing water change as need. You can’t hurry Mother Nature but I find my tanks once stabilized through water change and hard scape/gravel/ or filter from other tanks become rock solid in the end. I don’t use anything now but prime in water change 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 14, 2021 Share Posted July 14, 2021 On 7/14/2021 at 7:05 PM, Sweetpickles said: 225 ppm nitrite. .25 is not ideal but won’t do long term damage and will not kill your fish or sweet 🐌 snails 🥰 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweetpickles Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 On 7/14/2021 at 7:12 PM, Guppysnail said: No matter how much I gravel vac I never can get everything. I gravel vac all the time. Yes gravel holds a small amount of bacteria but only accounts for .5%. I have replaced substrate in just barely cycled tanks because I didn’t like it and it did nothing to change the times it took to do it’s thing. I gravel vac all the time too many mystery and bladder snails and plecos in some tanks, too many fry and fine food in others not too. (My plants thrive without fertz) Water may test fine but the bad bacterial and fungus and who knows what else would be astronomical not to mention my substrate would be poo. 🤣 🐠💩🤣i hear ya! I started using fertz but thats when my nitrites changed. I got excited with my first tank after 25 yrs of not having one! Never before tested water🤷♀️ now i have turned paranoid! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweetpickles Posted July 14, 2021 Author Share Posted July 14, 2021 On 7/14/2021 at 7:57 PM, Sweetpickles said: 🐠💩🤣i hear ya! I started using fertz but thats when my nitrites changed. I got excited with my first tank after 25 yrs of not having one! Never before tested water🤷♀️ now i have turned paranoid! @Guppysnail thank you so much for your advice and experience!💞 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guppysnail Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 (edited) On 7/14/2021 at 7:57 PM, Sweetpickles said: 🐠💩🤣i hear ya! I started using fertz but thats when my nitrites changed. I got excited with my first tank after 25 yrs of not having one! Never before tested water🤷♀️ now i have turned paranoid! Yup same here we used to just change water period. Now. Oh my goodness. Fertz act like fish waste could have caused your spike. I find with all my snails I never need fertz. Maybe equilibrium and wondershe’ll for minerals. I feed my snails varied veggies to get their vitamins and their digestion is so poor the vitamins and such are realized to the plants…I grow several types of sword plants NOT ROOTED just stuck in decor and they thrive! Edited July 15, 2021 by Guppysnail 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pizzafan Posted July 15, 2021 Share Posted July 15, 2021 Agreed on do nothing, it will work itself out 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweetpickles Posted July 15, 2021 Author Share Posted July 15, 2021 On 7/14/2021 at 8:43 PM, Pizzafan said: Agreed on do nothing, it will work itself out 🙂 Thank you much!! Sounds like a good plan and less anxiety! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweetpickles Posted July 23, 2021 Author Share Posted July 23, 2021 On 7/14/2021 at 9:00 PM, Sweetpickles said: Thank you much!! Sounds like a good plan and less anxiety! Well....I did nothing! I checked parameters yesterday and nitrites were nil!!🎉🎉 thanks so much for the help @Pizzafan @Guppysnail 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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