Nitrite Spike Advice Sought Please

[gsiegel]

I have had my system up and running for over 3 months.

It is a 280 gallon tank and after it cycled I gradually added 3 chromis, a pair of mated black and white clowns, a pair of mated gold headed sleeper gobies, and a magnificent foxface in that order. Their acclimation into the DT was spread out over time and the water parameters stayed good.

Last week I added a mimic tang (small - about 2 in.), and a blond naso (about 4 in.) and soon thereafter the nitrites went to .25. All other levels stayed good. Is this a product of adding fish a bit too quickly? - again it is a fairly good size tank and the fish are pretty small aside from the naso and the foxface (which is about 3 in.) Any suggestions going forward? Just wait it out for the nitrites to level off? Anything you would suggest to add to aid in this process, or as my LFS says - "slow and steady."?

I do not think I overfeed - only 1 1/2 cubes of brine/mysis and also supplement every few days with an algae wafer or seaweed for the tangs. All fish seem to be swimming happily without any stress and playing nicely with each other :love2:

Thanks for any input and happy reefing.

[gbru316]

nitrite isn't harmful, ammonia is. don't sweat it, it'll drop on it's own.

[Sugar Magnolia]

You could do a 20% water change to lower it. Anytime you add more fish it's going to have an effect on the nitrifying bacteria that colonizes the live rock. The population has to increase to match the higher demand of the new bioload and that takes some time. I'd lay off adding anything else for a few weeks/month.

[MrClam]

Have to disagree that nitrite isnt harmful, but a low level that should be short lived should be fine. You should have a decent bacterial population built up from previous additions so I would have to agree with doing a WC and waiting a few weeks before any more livestock

[gsiegel]

Thanks all - that is what I thought. I plan on continuing to test but to wait a good few weeks regardless to keep my little guys happy as can be.

Just did a water change prior to adding the naso and mimic tangs.

Thanks again for the quick responses!

[gbru316]

Have to disagree that nitrite isnt harmful, but a low level that should be short lived should be fine. You should have a decent bacterial population built up from previous additions so I would have to agree with doing a WC and waiting a few weeks before any more livestock

You're right, it isn't totally harmless, BUT since the LC50 for ocellaris clownfish is about 344 ppm, and the OP is at 0.25 ppm, there isn't much to worry about.


Randy Holmes-Farley on Nitrite (http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php)


If this were a freshwater tank, prompt action would be necessary.

[dave sullivan]

Ammonia and nitrites are very toxic, nitrates are the least toxic of the three.

[wooden_reefer]

It is a 280 gallon tank and after it cycled I gradually added 3 chromis, a pair of mated black and white clowns, a pair of mated gold headed sleeper gobies, and a magnificent foxface in that order. Their acclimation into the DT was spread out over time and the water parameters stayed good.

Last week I added a mimic tang (small - about 2 in.), and a blond naso (about 4 in.) and soon thereafter the nitrites went to .25. All other levels stayed good. Is this a product of adding fish a bit too quickly? - again it is a fairly good size tank and the fish are pretty small aside from the naso and the foxface (which is about 3 in.) Any suggestions going forward? .

What you have been doing (except for no mention of QT!!! and as far as water chemical quality in DT is concerned) is what has been recommended for decades. You add livestock slowly! That is to accept the new tank syndrome as unavoidable but seek to minimize it.

But this faith in slow addition of livestock is not grounded by sound science. You add so slowly that any effect of cycling, augmented nitrification for a while right after the cycle, has been undone by too long a time.

You could use the method of strategically, gradually and slightly overfeeding existing inhabitants for a while up to the point of adding new livestock; and upon addition of new livestock at once stop overfeeding. This may help a lot. This can prevent any bump in actual bioload, not by fish weight count.

As far a the new tank syndrome is concerned, it can be completely avoided. I as an experienced aquarist will NEVER accept any bit or trace of any new tank syndrome. I always seek to make sure that there WILL be more than enough nitrification at any time, all time, before and after addition of new livestock of whatever size and whatever number all at once.

Nitrite is much less toxic than ammonia but is still toxic, while nitrate is very much less toxic, to the point of not being a concern unless in the extreme.

You can do much partial WC, but the fact is that there must first be nitrite for nitrification bacteria before there can be no nitrite. WC slows than build up of nitrite but also slows the growth of nitrite-nitrate bacteria.

[wooden_reefer]

If you are not using any medication that can be affected by Amquel or Prime, you can use such a product. When ammonia is reduced so will nitrite.

[gsiegel]

You could use the method of strategically, gradually and slightly overfeeding existing inhabitants for a while up to the point of adding new livestock; and upon addition of new livestock at once stop overfeeding. This may help a lot. This can prevent any bump in actual bioload, not by fish weight count.

As far a the new tank syndrome is concerned, it can be completely avoided. I as an experienced aquarist will NEVER accept any bit or trace of any new tank syndrome. I always seek to make sure that there WILL be more than enough nitrification at any time, all time, before and after addition of new livestock of whatever size and whatever number all at once.

---what do you do to avoid this trace of new tank syndrome and suggest I do at this stage?

Thanks for your input. I do have Prime on hand but have not added any as of yet.

[wooden_reefer]

---what do you do to avoid this trace of new tank syndrome and suggest I do at this stage?

Thanks for your input. I do have Prime on hand but have not added any as of yet.

I always cycle a medium of filtration, likely crushed coral but could be LR, in a separate plastic container (cheap at Walmart) in advance. All I need is ammonia, circulation, aeration and the medium. I then add this cycled medium into a fast flowing part of the sump when I add livestock into DT (AFTER QT!!!). There will never be ammonia in my DT (or QT if I do not have to use a drug that harms nitrification bacteria). If I plan to withdraw such cycled medium, I do so very slowly over the course of weeks.

Now that you are in a compromised position, the only thing to do is to continue with the gradual approach, partical WC, and prime or amquel (if not interfering with any medication needed).

[coralsnaked]

Would be curious to know what bio filtration is set up in tank. How much rock sand ceramic crushed coral ect... I mostly hear about this when only minimal amounts of rock are cycled. I bet this is not a 280 gal tank w/ at least 300 lbs of cycled rock.

Merry Skerry

[wooden_reefer]

Would be curious to know what bio filtration is set up in tank. How much rock sand ceramic crushed coral ect... I mostly hear about this when only minimal amounts of rock are cycled. I bet this is not a 280 gal tank w/ at least 300 lbs of cycled rock.

Merry Skerry

No amount of filtration medium can undo the basic fact that in the long run the nitrification bacteria population will be in balance with the bioload, which include baseline excretion from livestock and decay from poop and excess food, and dieoff of some sort, if any.

If you have a great deal of medium but little bioload for a long time, most sites for bacteria growth will be vacant.

In cycling we augment the nitrification bacteria population for a while artificially and hope to add new livestock to establish a NEW balance without ammonia not processed.

This point can be illustrated by thinking about this basic question: if your setup is very large and you have a lot of dead dry LR to start with, do you still need to cycle the tank? The answer is yes, very much so if the new added bioload is large.

Implicit is that nitrification bacteria do not die instantly due to lack of ammonia, but eventually they die lack of food, ammonia or nitrite. This is indeed true; about three weeks of no ammonia will be the least the bacteria can come back when there is again ammonia.