Nitrite HELP!

[asianpuffer]

Can someone please tell me what I should do?
Here is my setup
38 gallon tank
3 SAPS
Hydrosponge Filter
AC 110 HOB Filter

I feed the 3 saps a half cube of frozen blood worms daily.

For the last 3 months i have been doing 50% WC weekly.
The results before the WC would ALWAYS read Amm 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate 10.
After a WC the test would ALWAYS read amm 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate 5.

I just did a WC yesterday and it read Amm 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate 10.
Just this morning I tested the water a day after my WC and I got the following
Amm-0, Nitrite .25 and nitrate 5.

Does anyone know what could be causing the .25 in nitrite reading? Should I do another WC?
I haven't been doing anything differently with the tank.

Any advice will be much appreciated.

THANK YOU.

[dab335]

How long have you had the tank running?

[pufferpuggirl]

Just out of curiosity, have you ever tested your tap water? Are you cleaning up all uneaten foods that you've given your puffers? Could there be something in the tank that you're missing?

I have a nitrate reading of 40ppm right out of my tap, that's why I asked if you had tested yours. Best to look at all options. Did you cycle your tank properly, and if so, how did you cycle it?

In my opinion, yes, I would say that you need to do a water change. You shouldn't have high nitrites, they aren't good for your puffers, so you want to get that down.

This has nothing to do with your nitrite/nitrate problem, but just thought I would touch on this -- you should start feeding your SAP's more variety. I'm not sure half a cube of bloodworm is enough for 3 puffers. For one thing, bloodworms don't have alot of nutrition, and if you're going to feed bloodworm, you should soak them in vitamins first, so the puffers get more nutrition out of them. But really, they need more crunchy foods, SAP's have very fast-growing teeth that will need to be trimmed if they aren't being used to keep them worn down. But not only that, all puffers need variety in their diet, it's not good to focus on only one food. So you might want to look in the library on the article about feeding puffers, it gives some ideas of some other foods you might want to try.
But remember, you need snails at least weekly, if not twice a week, to help with the teeth. Any other crunchy foods would be good too.

[busybones]

Are you doing the water changes monthly or weekly? SAPs don't seem to be as messy as other puffs but you may want to do your water changes/vac weekly to pick up any uneaten food the fish may have missed. A rotten peice of food could cause a Nitrite spike in your tank. Do you have any tankmates that may have went missing?

You should do another WC asap..I'd say at least a 50% ...make sure you vac the bottom well and check under and clean your decor well. What kind of water tests are you using? The strips can be quite unreliable...

[busybones]

You may want to consider adding a bit more to their diet as well...blood worms alone aren't very nutritious. Are you feeding them snails too? SAPs tend to have more of a problem with their teeth growing too fast..

[Dadof4]

Something simple for you to try is to re-test and really make sure you shake the bottles of reagent exactly as directed. I test my tanks and have done hundreds of water tests and occasionally get a bad nitrite test due to the reagent not being shaken vigorously enough or not quite long enough or too short. For some reason it needs to be more exact than other the other tests.

[asianpuffer]

The tank has been well cycled for over 4 months now. I have never had any water problems until now. The water from my tap has no nitrate or nitrites and I do the test with API kit. The 3 puffers are fed other foods during the week but mainly consists of the bloodworms.
The water is changed 50% weekly and I thoroughly vacuum the water very well each time. I will do another 50% wc and see what it reads.

[dab335]

Def do a water change. Also, check the date on the test kit you are using. They do have a shelf life and could also cause inaccurate readings!

[By_a_coo]

Did you use any water conditioner to neutralize chlorine/chloramine?

[Pufferpunk]

When's the last time you cleaned the filter? Also, are you defrosting/rinsing those worms before feeding out? The "juice" they come in can raise nitrate.

[ittybittyfishy]

This is just me, buuut... Break down of food/waste causes ammonia. Ammonia is broken up into nitrites by one type of bacteria. Those nitrites are broken down by a different bacteria into nitrates. So as ammonia is introduced, it's steadily converted into nitrates. Isn't a nitrite reading expected sometime during the course of the week before the next WC? Especially such a low one as .25? Otherwise, how will you get more of a nitrate reading up to 10 by the next week without seeing any nitrite change?

I personally wouldn't do another WC if I saw this - but I would do tests in another day or two, to see if it's being converted to nitrates. I'm putting this out there because I'm interested in knowing if what I've been doing is wrong.

[Dadof4]

You should have 0 nitrites. Reason is you have bacteria converting the nitrite to nitrate in a pretty instant fashion.

[asianpuffer]

Def do a water change. Also, check the date on the test kit you are using. They do have a shelf life and could also cause inaccurate readings!

Yes the kit has not expired

[asianpuffer]

Did you use any water conditioner to neutralize chlorine/chloramine?

Yes

[asianpuffer]

When's the last time you cleaned the filter? Also, are you defrosting/rinsing those worms before feeding out? The "juice" they come in can raise nitrate.

The filter is cleaned weekly with the tank water
I never rinsed the worms before and never had a problem. I will start doing this. Would this cause the amm to read 0 and the nitrite to read .25?