Question: Nitrites won't go down?

SammyTheLotus

SammyTheLotus

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Samantha
Hey guys,
I'm cycling my new 50 gallon long tank and all is going perfectly well, except my nitrites are reading at a 5.0 on the API Master Test Kit and they've been consistently at a 5.0 for the past week or so!
Just wondering if anyone has any tips on how to lower them? I've heard mixed opinions from several sites, some people say to do a few large water changes and some people say to just leave it and it'll eventually convert to nitrates.
Nitrates are around an 80, and ammonia is 0.25 (which I've been dosing daily to a 4.0, it easily converts back to 0 in 12 hours!)
Thanks! :)
 
Hello Sammy, I have a heavily stocked aquarium with some very nitrate sensitive fish. For me, I want to keep the large number of fish so firstly I do not over feed or leave organic matter in their to decompose. My star action is to grow Salvinia (a quick growing and multiplying surface plant). A plant which I tender carefully. Every two weeks I scoop 2/3 of it out. As the plant grows, it 'mops' up products of the nitrogen cycle. I've had absolutely no issues.
Check out:
How to remove nitrate from the aquarium - Algone
 
Blackbun, Sammy is referring to Nitrite not going down during the cycling process. Not excess NitrAte.

Although, Sammy your NitrAte is excessively high. You should do a water change to lower it below 40ppm. It could be the high reading of NitrAte which is affecting the cycle continuing from Nitrite to NitrAte.

Blackbun - out of interest, I have Salvinia in my tank too. Are you saying that you should remove Salvinia when it has absorbed NitrAte? As far as I was aware Salvinia would feed on NitrAte, not just absorb it and then stop.
 
I have some amazon frogbit in some of my fish tanks, and that seems to help with nitrates. I don't remove any, just leave it in there. I don't have any in my axolotl tank though. How do your axolotls get on with floating plants? Do they ever eat them? Do the plants get in the way when the axolotls go to the surface for air?
 
My Axolotl doesn't eat the floating plants as far as I can tell. I've seen him snap at other plants but he seem to recognise it is not food straight away and stops. My floating plants only cover one half of my tank, it won't affect Axolotls going up for air
 
Correction to my first post.

I've been reading that it is saltwater aquariums that have a third set of bacteria that can convert nitrAte, where as the nitrogen cycle in freshwater aquariums stop at nitrAte. So this would mean that even if Seachem Prime binds the nitrAte in a non toxic form for bacteria to convert, it would only work in saltwater aquariums.

I may look at buying bottled spring water to lower my nitrAtes if the plants can't make a sufficient dent.
 
I want to plant all of my tanks eventually, but I might try some frogbit and other floating plants in the axolotl tanks sooner rather than later. Hopefully, with some shade from floating plants as well as the multiple hides, I might even be able to have the tank lights on occasionally without frightening the bejesus out of them and having them disappear until the lights are off. :happy:
 
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