Question regarding nitrites

[Jeff1192]

Before adding fish to my tank I had been feeding a filter with ammonia and it was eating up the ammonia and nitrites quite well and producing lots of nitrates.
On October 5th I added 4 Kribensis (juveniles), 10 Espei's Rasboras (very small) and 3 guppies. I have been testing the water every day. I'm still getting zero ammonia and expected nitrate readings (between 10-20ppm) depending on my water changes (I have done 2 ten percent water changes). However, my nitrites are reading a steady 2ppm for the last 4 days. Is this normal? Is it because I don't have a sufficient bioload in the tank? (I was dosing to 1ppm ammonia before the fish). I'm inclined to think that I just need to be patient but I just wanted to get your opinions to make sure.
All the fish are doing very well.

Thanks,

Jeff

[dan2x38]

How much Prime are you using? You can use up to x5 it will help detox NH3 & NO2 here is a link - http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Prime.html if you are adding more do it through a water change... Babblefish says does to the tank size...

You can do a water change to reduce that NO2 level. NO2 is very poinious to fish more so than NH3. Are your fishes fins standing up, they swimming fine, near the top trying to get air, not eating...? watch for these things... you have plants so salt can damage them but if you can't get the NO3 down you might have to add some at 1 tsp/5 gallons it helps aliveate teh stress from NO2... but water changes & Prime should do it...

Adding ammonia keeps the bacteria alive but is not a stusitute for actual fish waste, decaying food & plants... cut back feedings to once a day or every other day... fish can survie for no problem for 3 days without food even longer...

Don't panic keep testing and changing water to get the NO2 down... Hope this helps ya...

[Jeff1192]

Yeah that's pretty much what I have been doing. The fish are showing absolutely no signs of stress and I'm only feed a small amount every evening. I'll just keep being patient I guess.
Oh and I have been using Prime. At my water changes I've been dosing about 5x (the total volume of the tank) to detoxify things.


Jeff

[BigDaddy]

In all likelyhood, you added more bioload to your system than your media could handle.  The bacteria that break down ammonia multiply much quicker than those that break down nitrite.  That is likely the reason you are seeing 0 ammonia and measurable nitrite.

A fishless cycle usually has people dosing around 3pmm of ammonia to establish a colony that will handle a fair amount of fish once it is complete.

As was mentioned... nitrite is highly toxic.  Perform a large enough waterchange to get the reading down to zero.  This will mean your cycle will take a bit longer to complete, but given that you now have livestock in the tank, you really don't have another option.

[charlie]

I agree with BD suggestion , another option ( along with the waterchanges) is to swing by my place & PU some loaded floss  .
Regards

[Jeff1192]

The floss would be awesome Charlie! Are you around at all today so that I could come by to get it?

Jeff

[charlie]

The floss would be awesome Charlie! Are you around at all today so that I could come by to get it?

Jeff

Hi jeff , i`m around, call me.
Regards

[Jeff1192]

Well the floss from Charlie's filter is in my canister filter now and hopefully eating up lots of nitrites. I've done a water change and now it's time to monitor things and be patient! 

Thanks for you input guys.

Jeff