Sky High Nitrites 5 - Help

[reefdude2003]

help, just tested nitrites and its sky high- around 5. what do I do? i am changing water, about 10 percent. anything else to do? withhold food?

[Tanzy]

What do you have in your tank?

Maybe something died.

[reefdude2003]

i do have a clownfish that is missing for 1 week. also my live rock had a lot seaweed stuck to it which is probably dying

[junyong84]

seaweed is alrite.. the die off wun cause anything much...

dead fishes...hm... ur clown missing...y u dun try to move ur LRs and find it... i do it all the time when my fishes are missing..

[SpiderOne]

how old's your tank

[Dazza]

By the way how big is yr tank. If itsa big one (say 4or 5 footer) then a dead clown shdnt cos so much prob. Still its best to detect the root of the prob, ie, identify and remove the decaying matter even if it means moving yr lr ard a bit. After that best to do mega water chg . Once I had an anemone dead deep inside the live rocks. Did a major search. Sucked out the decaying stuff & then did a 50% chg in water. Everything else survived luckily after thta.

[Razo]

i do have a clownfish that is missing for 1 week. also my live rock had a lot seaweed stuck to it which is probably dying

hmm... seldom see clown hiding... must be dead..

[junyong84]

dun bring down his hopes..

do try to look for it!

[Achilles Tang]

At this point of time, water changes up to 50% may be required to reduce your nitrites to lower levels. While you are at it, test for ammonia and nitrates... to see if the dieoff/death of your fish is causing a spike and to see how long it takes for your biological system to bring it down.

Perhaps you can describe your setup to us... if you are using just a OHF, a wet/dry or canister, you will have great difficulty getting your nitrates down unless you are willing to invest in lots of LR or have a DSB setup.

[reefdude2003]

ok its a 3 feet tank with caniister filter and nitrates is 0. ammonia almost 0. my nitrites is sky high. thanks for the advice, will do a 50 percent change. so livestock looks fine

[junyong84]

was it ever cycled finish in the first place???

[Tanzy]

Reminds me of PJWhizzkid.

[LMF1980]

At this point of time, water changes up to 50% may be required to reduce your nitrites to lower levels. While you are at it, test for ammonia and nitrates... to see if the dieoff/death of your fish is causing a spike and to see how long it takes for your biological system to bring it down.

Perhaps you can describe your setup to us... if you are using just a OHF, a wet/dry or canister, you will have great difficulty getting your nitrates down unless you are willing to invest in lots of LR or have a DSB setup.

How about get some nitrires reducer ...does it help????

[Tanzy]

There's no need for nitrite reducer for marine tanks. If proberly cycled. A nitrite spike shouldn't last more than a day before the bacteria catches up. The lack of nitrate is highly suspicious. I don't think the tank is cycled completely.

[Razo]

ok its a 3 feet tank with caniister filter and nitrates is 0. ammonia almost 0. my nitrites is sky high. thanks for the advice, will do a 50 percent change. so livestock looks fine

ok.. so how old is ur tank setup?r u in still in the cycling stage?

[piero]

Haii... Just ask lor... How long was yr tank setup before U added the fish?

[reefdude2003]

It was cycled for 3 weeks with LR only. I think you're right maybe it hasn't fully cycled. Before I put the fish in I measured ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. Also my skimmer hasn't been working until yesterday when I raised it. The prism skimmer is really stupid. You have to get the water level just a fraction above the inlet basket otherwise all you get is saltwater. After raising it yesterday, now I getdirty brown stuff. I had to use makeshift wine bottle corks to raise it...its really stpid!!! I also did a 20% water change....(sorry AT i know 50%, but I ran out of salt:(....Arghhh, bad karma!!

[victorp]

It was cycled for 3 weeks with LR only. I think you're right maybe it hasn't fully cycled. Before I put the fish in I measured ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. Also my skimmer hasn't been working until yesterday when I raised it. The prism skimmer is really stupid. You have to get the water level just a fraction above the inlet basket otherwise all you get is saltwater. After raising it yesterday, now I getdirty brown stuff. I had to use makeshift wine bottle corks to raise it...its really stpid!!! I also did a 20% water change....(sorry AT i know 50%, but I ran out of salt:(....Arghhh, bad karma!!

The Prizm has a knob to adjust the flow of water, so I don't understand your original problem - do you have a picture of your setup?

[junyong84]

run out of salt??? then go n buy new salt... marine keepin is xpensive... u cant afford to skim...

[dell]

pls kindly explain the problem u face on the Prism Skimmer, i tot of getting that model too....

[Giritharan]

Ok, Could You tell me how many Fishes, corals, invertibles You have, So we will noe why your nitrate gets suddently all spike up,

Best Regards,

Giritharan

[reefdude2003]

well if you place the skimmer on the back of your aquarium you will find that the basket will lie 2 inches below water level, then you will be 'wet skimming', in other words doing nothing and wasting electricity. so you have to raise it artificiallywith a wooden block so it starts to dry skim and goes brown skimmage. So I feel its a design flaw. You can increase and decrease flow but you will still be wet skimming and getting saltwater instead of brown stuff. BTW my nitrites are still sky high despite my change of water. And the reason why I have no more salt is because I used it up, not because i'm scrimping. I have 1 casualty due to high nitrites, one of my $1 clown fish bit the dust:(.

[Matt06]

I am using Prism Skimmer for a period of time till now, no sign of problem since setup! It is like a "Plug-and-Play" skimmer that you don't even have to bother about the air supply!

All you need to do is to adjust the waterflow to obtain a good skim of the water...

[oshkosh]

It is highly suspicious that you should have nitrite and not nitrate as well.

Try your nitrate test again. If you register some nitrate, it means that your "bacteria" is working.

In the short term, it seems like a water change is in order.

[reefdude2003]

after 50% water change nitrite is still sky high, and nitrate is 0. Ammonia is 0, 2. I've decided to let the tank cycle and not interfere. Hopefully the lifestock can survive. I have a blue tang, psudochromis, 3 ocellaris clown, 1 tomato clown, 1 blue tang, 2 anemone, 2 cleaner shrimp, 1 fire shrimp, 1 coral banded shrimp. hmmm ...maybe i need more bioballs? i put 10 in my canister filter. I'm also vacuuming my coral sand for loose detritus, as part of my water change, quite handy and I recomend it.