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My nitrite level is at a very dangerous level what to do2007-11-24 23:38:42

I already changed over 40% of the water vacuuming the sustrate, and bought this pouch that's supposed to reduce nitrite. is there anything else I can do??

Answers:

Rick, you have not confirmed your email address to the site so I cannot contact you by email.

If your nitrites are high, then the ammonia and nitrates are also in the dangerous area. You need to be doing regular (weekly) partial (25-30%) water changes. Until you get the levels down to 0 or very close, you should change about 30% every other day. Then go to the weekly schedule. Never change 100%, you will lose all your beneficial bacteria that are necessary to the water quality.

Water changes are the single most beneficial thing you can do in the way of tank maintenance to keep your fish healthy and happy.

In my 23 tanks, I do not use any extra additives to keep my water quality good except De-Chlor when I do my weekly water changes and fresh carbon in the filters when I clean them about every 4-6 weeks.

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Have you checked the Nitrite level recently? If it is lower than your problem is reolved. Most of the time you need to change 20% of the water every week to every other week, or you will get the same repetitive problem. Also if you go to a pet store there are chemicals you can use to try to prevent high nitrite levels. It will be right next to the aquasafe products that removes chlorine and alkline metals from the water.

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How long has your tank been set up? If its newly set up then you are going through a cycle and the only way to lower it safely is to do water changes. As long as you don't mess with the filter you can remove as much water needed to get them lower. If you want you can change 50%, test, if they are still high then remove 50% again if you are worried about taking out too much all at once. If your tank has been setup for a while then something happened to cause your tank to do a mini cycle, do water changes and find out what happened so it doesn't happen again.