nitrites STILL won't go away

volcomkrew4life · Post by **volcomkrew4life** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:05 pm

yes. he's about 2 inches long, if that

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:05 pm

What size tank is he in?

volcomkrew4life · Post by **volcomkrew4life** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:06 pm

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:08 pm

Well, it's up to you. With that filter, you may want to rinse out the media weekly, until it falls apart & you have to replace it, tossing all the good bacteria with it. Does the flow slow down?

The other choice you have is to get the filter upgrade for his larger tank now. I'd get an Aquaclear brand.

volcomkrew4life · Post by **volcomkrew4life** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:11 pm

okay well do you think an aquaclear filter will fix my nitrite problem??

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:20 pm

I think removing all that dead food trapped in your ornaments will.

A more functional filter is always a plus.

volcomkrew4life · Post by **volcomkrew4life** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:23 pm

okay and if the nitrites still remain high with the food gone, then what do i do? get a new filter? it seems like nothing i ever do works out for me. i just want my tank to be nitrite free and be able to do ONE water change a week. ughhhhhhh

xrayjeeper83 · Post by **xrayjeeper83** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:36 pm

be glad its only a 20g tank and not a 55/120/+ lol

volcomkrew4life · Post by **volcomkrew4life** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:38 pm

yeah very true hahahaha okay so i found a really old AquaClear 200 power filter in my basement. it's pretty dirty though. how should i go about cleaning it?? (i'm gunna buy new inserts and everythig)

volcomkrew4life · Post by **volcomkrew4life** » Wed May 25, 2011 6:42 pm

well it's an AquaClear 50 but it says 200 on it because that's what they used to call it i guess lol

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Wed May 25, 2011 7:43 pm

That filter will do for now but you'll need a bigger one when you upgrade. Keep the old filter on the tank, while this one fills up with good bacteria.

volcomkrew4life · Post by **volcomkrew4life** » Wed May 25, 2011 10:04 pm

okay. how long will it take for the new filter to fill with good bacteria?

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Wed May 25, 2011 10:10 pm

6 weeks. Let me know how your nitrite is tomorrow. I'll bet that rotting food was your problem. Now you know you need to take that decor all the way out when cleaning the tank.

Post by **RTR** » Thu May 26, 2011 8:45 am

The truck range is between 1.008/1.009 and 1.012/1.014. As PP said, that is the area of changeover from FW nitrification bacteria to SW forms. If done slowly through that range, you are usually OK. If your specific gravity testing is not accurate, you could be dropping back into the densities where the bacterial types shift.

But I also would suspect leftover food being the main issue. How deep is the substrate, and are you vacuuming or stirring it routinely?

sevenyearnight · Post by **sevenyearnight** » Thu May 26, 2011 9:31 am

Was I understanding your previous statement correctly, given to greendspottedlover when discussing the mineral content of the water distorting the colors of the test, that that specific SG range is difficult to stabilize biological filtration, and not just being difficult to test?
I want to make sure I understand it.

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nitrites STILL won't go away

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