Update … and HUGE Nitrite spike. <sigh>

[Vicki]

If it’s not one thing, your siphon hose breaks right before you go on vacation, then when you get back, your Nitrites have spiked higher than you’ve ever seen them. But I’m not giving up! I’m NOT! (That’s my positive self talk!)

So that’s what happened. 

Now, don’t judge me - this is what I’ve done… If you think I’ve wrecked my tank, please tell me nicely. Very nicely!
     Everything was covered in brown sludge and slime. I didn’t know how to clean my tank with everything (rocks, wood, and plants) having brown stuff on it, too. So a few days ago, I started brushing stuff off the plants and rocks. Then this morning, I took the slimy newest wood outside. I sprayed it first with the hose, then scrubbed it with a brush in a bucket of hydrogen peroxide. That got it mostly clean, then I took it back inside and put it in the biggest pot I had and tried to boil as much of it as I could for as long as I could. I feel like I got it pretty clean. 
     Then, I finally received my new Python last night (at 9:30) , so I’m able to clean my tanks again. So, I learned how to use that and did a MAJOR water change. Close to 50%, but I didn’t count. I tested my water right after refilling my tank and my nitrites were not changed.

Now, I’ve done some reading, and it seems like I need to wait a few hours to see if the additives have done their job - so we’ll see. But other than waiting, am I missing anything? Do I just need to keep doing water changes and cleaning the filters? This Nightmare Tank is going to be the death of me! 😂

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/30/2023 at 2:02 PM, Vicki said:

Now, I’ve done some reading, and it seems like I need to wait a few hours to see if the additives have done their job - so we’ll see. But other than waiting, am I missing anything? Do I just need to keep doing water changes and cleaning the filters? This Nightmare Tank is going to be the death of me! 😂

Adding th dechlorinator would be the way to guard from the nitrite being toxic.

If the wood is doing that then you likely should just pull the wood from the tank. Biofilm is one thing, but if you have the wrong type of wood it can seep all kinds of things or turn to mush.

What kind of wood is it?

What is the stocking in the tank as well?

Most times in an emergency situation you are absolutely fine to do an 80-95% water change if you really need to. I don't recommend it every day and the only species I'd advise against it would be caridina or neocaridina shrimp tanks.

The films and stuff on the wood you can just brush it into the water column and then siphon it out like normal after it sinks to the bottom. 

One of the main questions is going to be the filtration setup, Ensuring the tank is properly setup and that your filtration is operating correctly.  If you need any further help please feel free. We are all here to help one another and we've all been there with tank crashes and weird issues!

You're not alone.

On 7/30/2023 at 2:02 PM, Vicki said:

Do I just need to keep doing water changes and cleaning the filters?

Barring removing the wood. Yes. One big water change up front followed by daily 50% changes until things are back to normal.

[Fish Folk]

On 7/30/2023 at 5:02 PM, Vicki said:

Everything was covered in brown sludge and slime.

This is interesting. Was it greenish? Or powdery? Hard to say if this was Cyanobacteria or something else.

What are you running for filtration?

How long was your vacation?

Is there direct sunlight on the tank at all?

The way cycling works is that your aquarium needs to establish two colonies of aerobic bacteria, one to transition ammonia into nitrite, and another to convert nitrite into nitrate. Plants absorb nitrate. A densely-planted tank really cares for itself as far as the nitrogen cycle goes -- provided that it is not over-stocked.

If you see nitrite, are there zero nitrates yet? That would confirm an unestablished colony nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. If, however, you are also seeing high nitrate readings, something else is going on.

How long as your tank been going? So sorry if I'm asking questions you've already answered. 

[Vicki]

On 7/30/2023 at 7:38 PM, Fish Folk said:

This is interesting. Was it greenish? Or powdery? Hard to say if this was Cyanobacteria or something else.

What are you running for filtration?

How long was your vacation?

Is there direct sunlight on the tank at all?

The way cycling works is that your aquarium needs to establish two colonies of aerobic bacteria, one to transition ammonia into nitrite, and another to convert nitrite into nitrate. Plants absorb nitrate. A densely-planted tank really cares for itself as far as the nitrogen cycle goes -- provided that it is not over-stocked.

If you see nitrite, are there zero nitrates yet? That would confirm an unestablished colony nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. If, however, you are also seeing high nitrate readings, something else is going on.

How long as your tank been going? So sorry if I'm asking questions you've already answered. 

1). It was brown. And yeah, I guess it could have been called powdery. I was thinking some of it was turning green right before I pulled the wood from the tank the day before i pulled it to clean. So… I’ll have to stick with brown, probably powdery yuck. Oh, and the white DEFINITE slime. <shudder> I was told that would go away eventually.

2) Filtration: HOB with a coarse black sponge, white water polishing pads and bio rings on one end and a coop coarse sponge filter on the other end.

3) vacay 5 days

4) No direct sunlight, hardly any at all.

5) I tested it again today and I’m still showing 0.25 of ammonia, 2.0 or 5.0 of Nitrites (it didn’t turn purple as fast today as it did yesterday, so I guess it’s an improvement - and I can’t really tell which purple color it matched best with. Water is translucent and paper isn’t - it’s a hard comparison,) and 50 Nitrates.

SO, according to your analysis, there’s something else going on in my Tank of Nightmares. It’s par for the course, really. And I’m not really doing much today - I’m working on my second day of a migraine and my husband wont let me work in an effort to keep me out of the hospital again. So ToN and her Nitrites will have to wait till tomorrow. But - what should I think about doing? Thoughts??

Edited July 31, 2023 by Vicki

[Guppysnail]

Powdery brown sounds like brown diatoms. It’s a natural phase new tanks go through when getting themselves situated. 

Edit to add. Every rainy season I end up with very high silicates in my tap water. I get brown diatoms even in tanks running for years. I do keep shrimp and snails (wait for ammonia and nitrite to be gone for awhile). I ignore the diatom it goes away. You can use Reverse Respiration to fix your plants. When we were developing this method I found 3 hours killed the brown diatom algae. 

 

[Fish Folk]

On 7/31/2023 at 11:58 AM, Vicki said:

before I pulled the wood from the tank

Did you get your wood from just outside somewhere? I’ve seen this when wood is brought in from outdoors without being properly prepared. It’s a bacterial growth buildup. 

 

On 7/31/2023 at 12:04 PM, Guppysnail said:

Powdery brown sounds like brown diatoms.

I agree ☝️ 

 

On 7/31/2023 at 11:58 AM, Vicki said:

5) I tested it again today and I’m still showing 0.25 of ammonia, 2.0 or 5.0 of Nitrites (it didn’t turn purple as fast today as it did yesterday, so I guess it’s an improvement - and I can’t really tell which purple color it matched best with. Water is translucent and paper isn’t - it’s a hard comparison,) and 50 Nitrates.

Does your tap water have ammonia in? Sounds like the tank is beginning to cycle.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 7/31/2023 at 12:04 PM, Guppysnail said:

I ignore the diatom it goes away.

This is my favorite method for all of the things.  😍

[MattyM]

A photo would help, along with details on your light and lighting schedule, and how long the tank has been up and running. And yes, knowing about where the wood came from. When I set my first tanks up they were underplanted and over lit - and full of algae. 

A full dose of Fritzyme 7 could help with the nitrites - in my experience the strand of bacteria that converts those to nitrAtes takes the longest to grow. 

[Vicki]

@Fish Folk 1) I’m sorry, I don’t know what kind of wood it is. I got the wood from our LFS and have thrown away the tag. I know *I* didn’t properly prepare this wood. I was stupid this time and just chucked it in. I have strongly contributed to my ToN!

2) So, do I just let brown diatoms run their course? Or do I keep trying to clean them up? They are a big mess!

3) I don’t believe our tap water has ammonia in it. I haven’t tested it in a little over a year, but back then it did not. As for the beginning of the cycle… do I just let it go, or what? I’ve got more plants coming from the coop to. Throw in there to help with the nitrites, but other than that and the cleaning and changing out water… am I missing something?

[Fish Folk]

@Vicki how large is this aquarium? So sorry if I'm just missing that info from what's above.

Water changes can help. Bacteria will multiply on hardscape. I'd personally add an extra air-stone because the colonies of bacteria you want to multiply are aerobic. Air helps! Also, as @MattyM suggests, I also like using FritzZyme 7. I think it puts bacteria in som sort of cycles form into the aquarium to kick start colonies.

[Vicki]

On 7/31/2023 at 10:36 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

This is my favorite method for all of the things.  😍

SUPER! THATS what I needed to hear! Ignore and keep cleaning as usual!

On 7/31/2023 at 10:39 AM, MattyM said:

A photo would help, along with details on your light and lighting schedule, and how long the tank has been up and running. And yes, knowing about where the wood came from. When I set my first tanks up they were underplanted and over lit - and full of algae. 

A full dose of Fritzyme 7 could help with the nitrites - in my experience the strand of bacteria that converts those to nitrAtes takes the longest to grow. 

@MattyMAsk, and you shall receive! I discussed the wood above. The photo is here. I’m not sure how to discuss the details of my light, this is my first time. It’s an Aquasky and I have it on at about 70% from around 6:15 - 6:45, then it fades to blue for about an hour and goes off. I just got it about a week ago, so I’m still learning how to really use it. I also have several of the Seachem products that I’ve been using, if that makes a difference.  Is there anything else I need to add?
 

On 7/31/2023 at 10:48 AM, Fish Folk said:

@Vicki how large is this aquarium? So sorry if I'm just missing that info from what's above.

Water changes can help. Bacteria will multiply on hardscape. I'd personally add an extra air-stone because the colonies of bacteria you want to multiply are aerobic. Air helps! Also, as @MattyM suggests, I also like using FritzZyme 7. I think it puts bacteria in som sort of cycles form into the aquarium to kick start colonies.

@Fish Folk - 55 Gallon. And it’s looking like FritzZyme is getting lots of votes. I’ll try to find some locally!

[Fish Folk]

@Vicki that looks very nice! More plants . . . more plants . . . more plants 🪴 🌿 🌱

[MattyM]

That is an awesome centerpiece! And seems like you may be making many of the same mistakes I made when starting up. If you think this looks bad, you should peruse some of my 1st posts here. 

I think you are seriously underplanted - fast growing plants are your friend here. Glad to hear you have more on the way! Would love to hear what you ordered. 

Your light may be too bright and on for too long. And algae loves blue light - I would ditch that last hour of blue, and bring your lighting period way down (no more than 8 hours) if you can and adjust the blue spectrum down to practically nothing, if the light can do that - I don't have that light but one of our members here did a video series on it - this may help!

 

[Vicki]

On 7/31/2023 at 11:09 AM, Fish Folk said:

@Vicki that looks very nice! More plants . . . more plants . . . more plants 🪴 🌿 🌱

If only they didn’t cost so much! I’ve taken as much as I can from my other tank… I just need them to grow now!

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/31/2023 at 8:58 AM, Vicki said:

And I’m not really doing much today - I’m working on my second day of a migraine and my husband wont let me work in an effort to keep me out of the hospital again.

Please definitely focus on relaxing.

If your husband wants to help all that needs to be done is to drain the tank and change water.

You can see the brown on the tube here.  Those are often brown diatoms and what they look like. They aren't if concern and typically won't cause any nitrite issues.

Cut back feeding, as mentioned above to adjust lighting, but the main thing here is just change water right now.... Relax.... And just focus on clean filtration.  Everything in terms of setup seems and looks perfect, just tuning the knobs.

Long term, due to the window behind the tank, I recommend this stuff as a background.

 

[Vicki]

 

On 7/31/2023 at 11:11 AM, MattyM said:

I think you are seriously underplanted - fast growing plants are your friend here. Glad to hear you have more on the way! Would love to hear what you ordered.

I agree - totally! In the tank, I’ve got two crypts that I think are going to make it. One more that’s iffy. One sword that’s clearly looking pretty good and one that started out looking like the good one but melted back to about an inch and a half high. I’m hoping it’ll pull through. I just transplanted two valls yesterday. I’ll be keeping an eye on them.

The tank has been going for about a month and yesterday was my first time filling it with tap water - I’ve been buying and using distilled water because I’ve had SUCH bad luck with treating tap water in the past (I had a 40 gal tank and kept losing so many fish I just gave up.)  I use (and will forever use) distilled water in my 20 gallon tank. It’s become an almost self sustaining system and I just don’t want to mess with it. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Your wood looks like Spider Wood. Spider Wood is notorious for having a “fungus” stage. Normally this goes away after a couple of weeks. When I buy Spider Wood I soak it for a few weeks before it goes in the tank. 
 

Of all the pieces I have, only 1 small piece continues to fungus. Every other piece stopped and hasn’t been an issue 

[Vicki]

On 7/31/2023 at 3:47 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Your wood looks like Spider Wood. Spider Wood is notorious for having a “fungus” stage. Normally this goes away after a couple of weeks. When I buy Spider Wood I soak it for a few weeks before it goes in the tank. 
 

Of all the pieces I have, only 1 small piece continues to fungus. Every other piece stopped and hasn’t been an issue 

Well, that’s really good to know. With any luck, the hydrogen peroxide and boiling will have killed any remaining fungus because I just don’t know if I can handle much more! Now.. if I can just manage those darned nitrites… 🤨

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Just to not worry you, it’s not actually a fungus that comes out of the wood. Well Spider Wood anyways. It’s just referred to as “fungus” as it obviously looks like it. Hopefully the hydrogen peroxide and boiling helped out!

The lame thing about wood is that it constantly degrades when under water. Just one of those things…

Edited August 1, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes

[_Eric_]

I think you’re being too hard on yourself.  New tanks do weird things.  They sort themselves out after a while.  It just takes time.  

[Vicki]

Hey everyone! Thank you for all your help! After days of headache, and a day of recovery that I spent slowly working on, changing the water in, and cleaning the Tank of Nightmares (which, indeed, lived up to its name - AGAIN!), these are today’s water test results:  I have Nitrites 0.25, Ammonia 0.25, but my Nitrates are back down to 0 when they used to be at a nice healthy 25-50. Of course, the scrubbing of my centerpiece of (assumed) spiderwood did nothing to keep it from getting brown and white slime on it again. Grrr. I’m just going to have to put a curtain on this tank and stop looking at it. 
QUESTIONS:
- With the nitrites at 0.25, do I keep changing the water to get them to 0, or do I try to let them naturally work through the process and change to nitrates?

- When I’m able to get the fritzyme, will it help with the white slime, too? (What is the white slime called? Anyone?)

- @Fish FolkHow am I doing on plants? What would you recommend I add? The only thing I’m not going to add to any more tanks is Java Fern. I love it, I’ve just never had success with it. For whatever reason, it hates me.

And I added a picture of my little Tetra tank that has become an almost self-sustaining eco-system, believe it or not. I really have had good luck with a fish tank before! 

[Fish Folk]

On 8/2/2023 at 1:54 PM, Vicki said:

Hey everyone! Thank you for all your help! After days of headache, and a day of recovery that I spent slowly working on, changing the water in, and cleaning the Tank of Nightmares (which, indeed, lived up to its name - AGAIN!), these are today’s water test results:  I have Nitrites 0.25, Ammonia 0.25, but my Nitrates are back down to 0 when they used to be at a nice healthy 25-50. Of course, the scrubbing of my centerpiece of (assumed) spiderwood did nothing to keep it from getting brown and white slime on it again. Grrr. I’m just going to have to put a curtain on this tank and stop looking at it. 
QUESTIONS:
- With the nitrites at 0.25, do I keep changing the water to get them to 0, or do I try to let them naturally work through the process and change to nitrates?

- When I’m able to get the fritzyme, will it help with the white slime, too? (What is the white slime called? Anyone?)

- @Fish FolkHow am I doing on plants? What would you recommend I add? The only thing I’m not going to add to any more tanks is Java Fern. I love it, I’ve just never had success with it. For whatever reason, it hates me.

And I added a picture of my little Tetra tank that has become an almost self-sustaining eco-system, believe it or not. I really have had good luck with a fish tank before! 

Nice start with plants! Keep going. I like this level of planting . . .

[nabokovfan87]

On 8/2/2023 at 10:54 AM, Vicki said:

With the nitrites at 0.25, do I keep changing the water to get them to 0, or do I try to let them naturally work through the process and change to nitrates?

If you're showing any ammonia and nitrite that's the concern. Having some nitrate is good and necessary for plants.

Ammonia --> Nitrite --> Nitrate

The goal is to get everything to the nitrate stage.

On 8/2/2023 at 10:54 AM, Vicki said:

When I’m able to get the fritzyme, will it help with the white slime, too? (What is the white slime called? Anyone?)

Usually it's just called biofilm or it's called wood fungus.

[_Eric_]

On 8/2/2023 at 12:54 PM, Vicki said:

Hey everyone! Thank you for all your help! After days of headache, and a day of recovery that I spent slowly working on, changing the water in, and cleaning the Tank of Nightmares (which, indeed, lived up to its name - AGAIN!), these are today’s water test results:  I have Nitrites 0.25, Ammonia 0.25, but my Nitrates are back down to 0 when they used to be at a nice healthy 25-50. Of course, the scrubbing of my centerpiece of (assumed) spiderwood did nothing to keep it from getting brown and white slime on it again. Grrr. I’m just going to have to put a curtain on this tank and stop looking at it. 
QUESTIONS:
- With the nitrites at 0.25, do I keep changing the water to get them to 0, or do I try to let them naturally work through the process and change to nitrates?

- When I’m able to get the fritzyme, will it help with the white slime, too? (What is the white slime called? Anyone?)

- @Fish FolkHow am I doing on plants? What would you recommend I add? The only thing I’m not going to add to any more tanks is Java Fern. I love it, I’ve just never had success with it. For whatever reason, it hates me.

And I added a picture of my little Tetra tank that has become an almost self-sustaining eco-system, believe it or not. I really have had good luck with a fish tank before! 

Water changes won’t make the cycle go faster but can help If there are fish in the tank (sorry can’t tell from pics).  If not, there isn’t much benefit to water changes at thise levels.

The wood is fine, that will happen with new wood sometimes as it releases sugars during breakdown.  Being a new tank makes the conditions better for the film (similar to new tank being good conditions for a water column bacteria bloom) Not harmful to fish and will go away on its own.   I don’t think the Fritz Zyme will help with biofilm as I believe it just has nitrifying bacteria.  Heterotrophic bacteria in a “seasoned” tank could be part of the reason this happens more in new setups but I’m not sure.  It definitely is the reason water column blooms are less prevalent in a seasoned tank.

if there are fish in, do water changes to keep levels low.  If not, just wait it out.  Sometimes it can take several weeks for things to get somewhat stable.  This hobby teaches patience 🙂

I like your tanks.