The Puffer Forum

I did my normal once a month big WC yesterday (prolly like 80% and I wash all the plastic plants and stuff, cause I still have zip money to afford the bigger tank and feel a bit bad about it). everything looked great. Hootey was swimming around and begging for dinner after about half an hour, which is much sooner than usual (usually stays mad at me for a few hours) I was happy, he was happy.
well I went to give him a snail a little while ago and he was gray belly and sitting on the gravel. I freaked out and check all my parameters... nitrites were about 2.5! I crashed my tank! damn it!!!!
I don't know what i did, but something happened. so I did a water change got the nitrites down and look forward to doing a lot more!

Did you vacuum out that gravel when you were doing it?
What other things did you do other than just change the water?

I vacuumed the gravel lightly (just to get the poo off), rubbed the algea off the plants (in the tank water), and wiped off the algae on the glass. nothing out of ordinary. and the Sg was ~1.009 and the new water was ~1.010 cause I'm still raising it...

How deep is your gravel?
If you are not performing WC every 2 weeks you need to thoroughly vacuum that gravel out to lighten that load. Keep doing W/C until you can get that number down.

no i do a WC every 7-10 days. I just do a big one once a month and get everything clean and reorganized. the gravel is about 2" in most places. I vacuum prolly the top half inch to one inch of gravel and deeper if theres a bunch of poo in that spot.
I'm gonna keep doing the WCs I'm just mad cause I don't know what happened.

even if I missed waste, wouldn't that make my nitrates spike, not the nitrites?

Ah ok.
High nitrites are usually from over stocking or over feeding. Could this be the problem?
Irregardless of the spike, getting all of that gravel is imperative.
Has anyone used any sprays around the tank ..ie: cologne, air freshener, carpet fresh, lysols, etc.
Or anyone dip their hands in the tank with lotion on them or anti-bacterial soaps?

Did you replace the filter or anything? Improper filter maintenance can cause a spike.

definately neither overstocking or feeding. there's only him and the crabs in there and he's only about 2". I hand feed him, and the crabs get what falls and also sinking pellets.
no sprays in my room. possibly the hand soap. I don't remember washing my hands, cause I cut my thumb pretty bad a few days ago (shoulda got stitches, but I'm too cheap) so it's kinda hard to wash my hands, but it's possible i did... I'm the only one that does more than look at my tanks. I'm kinda OCD about nobody messing with my stuff
I have an AquaClear, so I only change one part at a time and that was over a week ago. it's pretty safe.

I'll clean my gravel better if you say so.

Hm..
Maybe someone else can see something that I missed.
(I am kinda rushing today.)
But anyways I hope that Hootey is okay.

thanks Chin. I'm sure he'll be fine. I just have to do WC all the time now

if nitrites are showing doesn't that mean you made a cycle start again? It doesn't sound like you cleaned too much though since you didn't change out the filter too...
If you did start over a cycling process you could put some of the gravel from one of your other tanks or put in some of your other tanks filter stuff in there.

When I vacuum milton's gravel I mix it all up really well and vacuum it a ton but its easier since he is in a bigger tank so there is more water so I get more vacuuming time.

that would be a good idea, but this is my only brackish tank... so the bacteria would just die and add to the spike I hate cycling a tank

oh yeah, good point, I forgot about that whole brackish deal...

If you lived closer to me I would give you some of my bacteria!

I guess you're in for lots of water changes for awhile then

yeah, I guess so.

Do you have any prime? That would help too

no place around here sells it. and I don't have a credit card to order it.
I just have some Tetra brand conditioner stuff.