Sudden rise in Nitrites & Nitrates

Hi, I am having some trouble with my aquarium that I started 4 months ago in january. In this tank I have dealt with fin&tail rot, fungus infections, swim bladder disease, and of course cycling. I live cycled it with a few fish, but after quite a few fish dieing, I put prime and stability in. After that I would put fish in but they would slowly die from various problems. Throughout this time Ph was stable and I was doing weekyl waterchanges. also, I was overfeeding from the beginning until two weeks ago. in late february I thoguht all of my problems were over with my one fish so I picked up some more. Suprise the next day all of the fish were either dead or covered in a white thing. I thoguht oh my, I better pick up some more. within 24 hours any fish i introduced got the disease. I did some research and figured out the problem, which was solved by Mardel Coppersafe. After this, my fish were doing fine and I picked up some more. In march, I started getting the fin and tail rot which I tried to treat with(at differant times) Maracyn, Maracyn 2, and coppersafe. I picked up FUngus clear by jungle buddies and that fixed my problem. I went to my local fish store to pick up a new filter, which I had to change weekly because I was overfeeding so badly, and picked up a test kit and found out that I was overfeeding. I had recently lost a fish to fin and tail rot, and the fish lady said fixing water quality will prevent this disease. I followed her advice, and watched my water clear up and stop ruining the filter so badly. I have been checking my water for Nitrites and Nitrates twice a day for two weeks now. Until 2 days ago, my nitrates where at 0 and my nitrites were below 10. I checked my water yesterday and surprise my nitrate levels are at 10+, and my nitrites are at 20. I have noticed my fish becoming less active and my tiger barbs colors changing. My green tiger barb has turned black with a touch of dark green-yellow, and my regular tiger barbs' have changed into what can be described as Clown Loach colors. I have been closely monitoring my fish for weeks, and I have never seen any signs of Amonia poisoning.
My Tank info is:
Nitrates: 15
Nitrites: >10
GH(hardness): 75 (soft)
Chlorine: 0
Alkalinity 30-40
PH: 6.8
Tank size : 10
Fish: 4 tiger barbs, 1 Green tiger barb, 2 chinease algea eaters
Plants: 1 just sprouted Aponegetan hybrid bulb

lighting: 1X25 watt incandescen bulb, 1X 15watt Incandescent Plant Growth Bulb

Filter: Aqua-Tech 5-15 gallon filter with Marineland Rite-Size "A" filter cartridge. has seperate biological filtration part

Algae: none, even without algae eaters
Gravel: approx. 1 inch multicolored petsmar gravel, possibly chipping paint

Please help, I don't want to lose anymore fish. I have done several water changes and nothing seems to have helped.

Ok i cam ehere for help of a similar problem but thankfully not as bad in some respects.

Have you read this? http://www.myaquariumclub.com/nitrites-and-nitrates- through-the-roof-201522.html

All i can suggest is doing the same as im doing which is 20% water changes daily and adding a load of extra hardy plants. Im also useing a water conditioner called prime. This stuff http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Seachem-Prime-500ml-Aquarium-Tap- Water- Conditioner_W0QQitemZ310117123384QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_ Pet_Supplies_Fish?hash=item310117123384& _trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66%3A2%7C65% 3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

Dont pay that for it, i paid £6.50 for it and my levels have quartered in 10 hours. Even though if your like me any price is game for my fish.

Hope this helps anything else feel free to ask

Thanks Toni. I have already used prime, and it usually works prettyy well. The prime bottle says it detoxifies amonia, but I don't know whats going on because my test kit still shows high nitrates & nitrites. As I mentioned, I have one just-sprouted plant. I may add some already living plants. Do you think its worth all the work? I have read that they drain oxygen during the night, so its good to have bubbles during the night. I have the bubbles turned on in the day, and off in the night because the bubbles make it impossible to sleep. Also, I was going to wait until I could get fish to live for awhile before I added plants. Are there any risks to my fish?

I think its worth all the work mate. But then id sell my house for my fish. Plants are non expensive ways to keep things in check. If you look after them right and clean dead bits off etc etc they help immensily. Turning off your oxygen supply could be part of your problem turn the filter on full and have the air stone working quite high you need lots of oxygen at a time like this. I have mine in my room as well and you get used to the noise eventually. My pump threw off its airline the othernight and the noise diffrence woke me up. Make sure you only get plants that have been in a plant tank at the shop not in with fish and make sure you get no snails and everything should be fine.

Also make sure you do the 20% water change daily until its sorted. I would also clean your filter media a bit in the removed water just to help things a bit.

Welcome to our forum. Have you checked the water temperature? Those lights produce quite a bit of heat, and when they're off at night the temperature must drop. In addition, the filter should run all the time.

I just noticed another response came in while I was typing this one, so I'll read it and post again.

So it didn't; credit my advanced years for the mistake. About the airline blowing off. Sometimes when that happens, a syphon gets started and all the aquarium water drains. Check valves are cheap. If the air pump does not have a control, you can turn down the bubble machine by installing a bleed valve (just a regular aquarium valve) between the pump and the check valve. It can cut down on some of the noise from the pump, and a ten gallon tank does not need a huge flow of air. What kind of filter do you have?

From reading your initial posting, it seems like the tank may be a bit over crowded. That and over feeding will produce toxic ammonia and nitrite (NO2). Add in a bunch of chemical fixes, and you have a recipe for disaster. Partial water changes are far better and safer, not to mention cheaper, than all the chemical fixes that mask problems. I have never used Prime, but I think it's a little more serious than Stress Coat. The partial water changes should help get the tank in balance, and once that happens, the fish will have a healthy environment. The "balance" just means that the aquarium is supporting a colony of beneficial bacteria that turn ammonia and nitrite into harmless substances. The typical feeding schedule is twice a day but no more than the fish eat in a couple of minutes. If the fish are healthy, they will act hungry most of the time; loss of appetite is a fair sign that the fish are uncomfortable. When you do partial water changes, syphon the gunk off about one half of the aquarium. That way, you don't syphon out the good bacteria. One of our blogs has more about the nitrogen cycle.

If all this rambling does not help, ask more questions.

Thanks for all the help everyone. Unfortunately, 2 of the tiger barbs and one of the algae eaters died last night. The other algae eater just died, And I can tell that one of my other tiger barbs is very close to "moving on." The other two are also starting to act especially strange which leads me to believe they will be dead in about5-6 hours. Right now I only have three living fish.

I hate it when that happens if you lose them all i think id start from scratch if i was you by cleaning everything thourghly and changeing all filter media etc. Set it back up and leave it a month running with nothing in their except your plants(i would personnaly replace them) and put a small amount of food in every few days just to speed things up a little bit

Also make sure your waters ok for the fish before you put any fish back in. Its slow and labourous but its worth it in the end

How are you fish now? I am really sorry to hear about all of your trouble. How frustrated you must be! I agree about starting over if all your fish die. I don't really think you need to get everything brand new though. I would just clean everything in really hot water and that should kill any remaining nasties. Replacing the plants will probably be necessary since hot water would kill them. Best of luck. I really hope all this doesn't discourage you into giving up.

I just went to my lcoal fish store and picked up some amquel, starter bacteria, and gravel. The fish store lady thought that the chipping gravel may be leaking poisen into my aquarium and slowly killing my fish. I took out the gravel and most of the water and replaced it. I have pu the fish back into the tank, and I have added amquel to clear up any remaining nitrites. I have also added the starter bacteria to replace any that was lost during or before the change. Thanks everyone for all of your help. The three fish that I had as of my last posting are still alive and I hope I wasn't too late to save them. Unfortunately I ran out of water test kits so I have to go back to my fish store so that I can see whats up.

Where did you get the "chipping" gravel? Some types of gravel that are not sold specifically for aquarium use can release toxins and/or change water chemistry. If the gravel is the problem, you should get all of it out of the aquarium and replace it with aquarium gravel. Please let me know if the starter bacteria works.

I picked up the chipping gravel at petsmart when I started my aquarium. I am pretty sure that it was aquarium gravel, but I can't really remember. Two of my fish were very close to death before the water change and they died, but one of my tiger barbs didn't die and seems to be doing fine. I have no way of knowing how the bacteria is working right now, but I haven't added amquel in a while and my fish isn't dieing. At this point, I only have one tiger barb in my ten gallon tank.The bacterial supplement is called "Cycle" and it is made by Nutrifin. on sunday I got rid of all of the old gravel and replaced with unpainted natural aquarium rocks that I purchased from my local independant fish store. I like the new rocks, and I think my fish will like them too. They are much more natural looking. When I tried to clean up and store the old gravel, blue, black, and white paint was coming off of the rocks. I am glad I got rid of them, they were probably killing my fish, and they were extremely ugly.(I am not very good at artistic things)

Regular paint is not much good (probably toxic) inside an aquarium. It's correct that you removed it. Most colored aquarium gravels have an epoxy coating, which is OK. The only way you can tell the difference is making sure is says for aquarium use.

CYCLE helps the beneficial bacteria grow, but it does not contain the bacteria. You can buy bottles of live bacteria, but things like live plants and filter media or gravel from an established aquarium will help complete the nitrogen cycle.