Nitrite Issue

Ok, so I'm pretty new at this whole aquarium experience. We orginally started with a 1 gal betta tank for our 5 year old. Then he insisted that cute fish (that's the betta's name) needed friends. We moved up to a 20 gal and added some peaceful community fish. I knew that you shouldn't mix 2 male bettas but didn't realize that some bettas may not mix well with any fish unitl cute fish took a large chunk out of our platys dorsal fin and terrorized our mollies. So now we have 1 betta in a floating breeding tank, 2 platys, and 2 mollies in a 20 gal tank. These are the fish that are left anyways. We have lost 2 mollies and a swordtail. Here's where the nitrite issue comes in.

I've been learning quite rapidly about the cycling process over the last couple of weeks. Funny how they did not mention anything about this at the fish store until we started losing fish. We lost a fish to the ammonia spike, and 2 more to the subsequent nitrite spike. Now 2 weeks later I just can't seem to get the nitrites to drop below the stress level (usually measures between 2-3 mg/L)and nitrates barely register. I've been doing 10% water changes twice a day all week just to keep our fish alive. If I do less, the mollies especially show signs of distress. I also add 1 tsp aquarium salt per 2 gal of water at each change. This week I've tried AmQuel plus and adding Nutrafin Cycle. It has brought the nitrates from 3 to 2 mg/L which as I understand is still quite high. Is it possible for the N cycle to stall or stop? The ammonia has stayed in the safe range for the past 2 weeks. Also tested the tap water and it is absent of nitrites. Please help Thank you.

Try something called prime, Do a 50% water change adding enough prime to compensate for the whole tank as well as use a live bio a day after. kEEP THE FULL 2 WEEK COURSE OF THAT UP. i

Soory dont know what happened their. I found that this alone will fully cycle a 55 gallon tank within 5 days with fish in. I will quote though that this MAY NOT work for you but did with me useing a 55 gallon tank, 10 mollies and an aqua pro2 external filter with 12" airstone. But still i hope you the very best with it.

Thanks for the advice, Tony. I couldn't find prime at my lfs. Will have to check others in the area tomorrow. Does anyone know of anything else that works well for dealing with nitrites?

Also found out today that the pH was below 6.2, added 1 tsp of baking soda mixed in with the water change, now pH is 7. Can low pH stunt or prevent beneficial bacteria growth?

Leave the benifical bacteria alone, you dont kill it. You can get prime off ebay or aquabid.com, If needs be.

What else would be similar to prime? Not sure my poor fishes have time wait for an internet order. Was looking for something I could pick up tomorrow. Thanks

Welcome to our forum. Most people don't hear about the nitrogen cycle until they have already added fish to the aquarium. Usually the next thing that happens is the fish get sick and you buy a bunch of chemicals to "cure" them. Since you already read about the nitrogen cycle, here's more to read. Fish respiration, fish wastes, uneaten food, decaying plants and other things common to aquarium keeping all produce ammonia. Once established, one type of beneficial bacteria convert the ammonia to nitrite. Another bacteria converts nitrite to nitrate, which is further broken down by yet another beneficial bacteria. Until all these good cooties are well established, the aquarium will have dangerous levels of ammonia and nitrite. Anything above zero is dangerous. You can compensate for the incomplete cycle by doing 20 percent or so partial water changes every day until ammonia and nitrite readings stay at zero. On the other hand, some medications and water fixes will reduce the size of the beneficial bacteria colonies.

You are already doing the partial water changes, so the next step is to remove the salt and other chemicals. Mollies, by the way, can adapt to brackish water, but other aquarium fish cannot. Besides, it's easy to dump in more salt than the fish, plants or bacteria can deal with. If you do the water changes as recommended above, you should add Amquel Plus or Stress Coat to condition the replacement water. Any good water conditioner will do just fine, but don't try anything too exotic. The product called Cycle will help the beneficial bacteria grow, but it will not add them. Since you already have an established Betta bowl, the gravel and any decorations from it will contain beneficial bacteria. You can transfer some to the uncycled tank. Live plants will also help. Some like hornwort and water sprite can actually digest ammonia.

Trying to avoid the word cootie has me worn out and thinking you'll have more questions. Please ask them.

Thanks for the welcome, johnarthur
You're right, I do have more questions. After researching and your post, I think I have the N cycle down. Though it would have been most useful if I had done this research before starting the 20 gal tank about a month ago. Ah well, you live and you learn, right?

So at this point I have zero ammonia, nitrites hanging at 2-3ppm, and nitrates starting to register around 10ppm. What I'm confused about is that I thought that once the nitrates started to rise then the nitrites should go down and I can seem to get the nitrite levels to budge. I have given up on the chemicals. All they seemed to do was lighten my wallet. I have been keeping up with 10% water changes twice a day. I also thought that mollies did much better with aquarium salt in their water? I only add 1 tsp salt with each 2 gal water change, is this bad?

Also the betta tank is long gone, so no hope of transferring good bacteria from there. Though I don't believe it had much. Cute fish only lived there about two weeks before my son decided he should have friends I have been thinking about adding live plants, but read that they can cause a rise in ammonia? Also wondering how hard it is to grow these plants you mentioned? I have full spectrum lighting, only about 1/4" of gravel, and not much spare time between my 2 little ones and full time school.

Thank you for all your helpful advice. Hope my post didn't give you eyestrain

Welcome to the forum!

Live plants are good!

If you want to have a tank that is all mollies... Then the salt is ok... But pretty fish and any other fish won't be happy about it.

The mollies can somewhat adjust to the non brackish water...

Good Luck with your tank!

I suppose that dead plants would increase the ammonia level, but things like hornwort actually digest ammonia. For some reason, live plants get off to a better start if you have plenty of them. Hornwort is cheap, and it also provides hiding places for the fry.

As for the nitrite, it will probably not get to zero until the aquarium is fully cycled. In the interim, the partial water changes will help. Sometimes, ammonia and nitrite levels rise when you over feed, so the fish should get no more food than they eat in a couple of minutes.

Thank your for the advice about plants and feeding. We did have some feeding issues in the beginning with our 5 year old who thought he'd help out cause the fishies looked hungry. We vacuumed that mess up immediately and utilized the teaching moment. He's been real good about only feeding the fish with mom or dad now. We've only been feeding sparingly once a day. The nitrites have gone down a bit from 2 ppm to 1.5 ppm in the last couple of days after following your suggestions. Here's hoping they keep declining! Any ideas about how long before the nitrites should be at zero?

I know live plants are best, but will my fish have happy lives with artificial ones? I think I need to focus on keeping fish alive before worrying about keeping plants alive too One of my mollies has stopped eating and I'm worried that she's not going to make it Also I have a betta and platties in the 20g with my mollies. Is salt bad for either of these species? You've all been so helpful. Thanks much!

A little bit of salt probably will not hurt, but salinity can build up as water evaporates. If you have zero ammonia and decreasing nitrites, the nitrogen cycle should be just about complete. Until then, the fish will be living in less than ideal conditions, so completing the cycle is the most important thing you can do for them right now. I suggested hornwort because it's easy to grow (just let it float) and it will speed the cycling process. On the other hand, many successful aquarists prefer to avoid the negative aspects of keeping live plants. I can say that plants are part of most natural aquatic environments, but it still comes down to a matter of personal preference. As for feeding the fish, the usual routine is to feed twice a day but no more than they eat in a couple of minutes. Lots of us like to supplement flake food with frozen or live food. Frozen food is convenient, and it comes in many varieties. Adult brine shrimp is one of the more popular frozen foods. That said, the fish will not have good appetites until they get over the shock of being moved and the exposure to ammonia and nitrite.

Sorry I just repeated a few things.

Is freeze-dried brine shrimp as good as frozen or is one perferrable over the other?

Fish really seem to like the frozen variety, and some manufacturers add nutrients to their frozen foods. I'm not positive, but many of the staple flake foods probably contain freeze dried components.