How quickly does Nitra-Zorb work?

I bought a bag of Nitra-Zorb (absorbs ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate)
to make things a little bit easier on the fish I'm using to cycle my
55G tank. However, I haven't really noticed any difference in nitrite
and/or nitrate levels since I put it in about a day and a half ago.

Roughly how quickly is Nitra-Zorb supposed to work? I'm currently
hovering around 1 or 5ppm of Nitrite (the test kit is really hard to
distinguish between those two values ... the rest like 2ppm 3ppm, etc.
are easy to tell apart but 1 and 5 ppm are not). I think the purple
color on the test kit has become ever so slighly less intense since I
put in Nitra-Zorb. The NitrAte levels seem to be howevering around
10ppm with not much change noticed. Ammonia was 0 ppm about a day or
two before I started using Nitra-Zorb.

Does my experience sound normal ... or is Nitra-Zorb supposed to work
way quicker? Was I maybe supposed to "recharge" it in warm salt water
before using it for the first time (manual only said you had to
recharge it after 5 days of use)

Thanks for any input you can provide,
Harry

I really don't know and haven't used it, but perhaps nitrite is being
produced by the nitrifying bacteria at nearly the same rate as the
Nitra-Zorb is removing it? A little salt in the water will help prevent
nitrite poisoning (prevents the nitrite from crossing the fishes gill
membranes so it doesn't get into the blood). I think Nitra-Zorb is an ion
exchange resin, which means it exchanges some other ions for the nitrite
ones. Adds some other substance to the water as it removes nitrite, I think;
probably some type of salt-like substance. If nitrate is at 10 ppm, the
bacteria must be starting to convert nitrite by now, unless your tap water
has nitrate. But until the nitrite drops, I'd use a little salt (however
much it says to use on the freshwater salt package unless you have fish that
can't tolerate it). I don't think you're supposed to recharge the Nitra-Zorb
until after you've used it; it should be ready to use as it comes. Although
I haven't used Nitra-Zorb, I have used Phos-Zorb before and it was ready to
use just as it came.

Fedor


"Harry Muscle" wrote in message
oups.com...
I bought a bag of Nitra-Zorb (absorbs ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate)
to make things a little bit easier on the fish I'm using to cycle my
55G tank. However, I haven't really noticed any difference in nitrite
and/or nitrate levels since I put it in about a day and a half ago.

Roughly how quickly is Nitra-Zorb supposed to work? I'm currently
hovering around 1 or 5ppm of Nitrite (the test kit is really hard to
distinguish between those two values ... the rest like 2ppm 3ppm, etc.
are easy to tell apart but 1 and 5 ppm are not). I think the purple
color on the test kit has become ever so slighly less intense since I
put in Nitra-Zorb. The NitrAte levels seem to be howevering around
10ppm with not much change noticed. Ammonia was 0 ppm about a day or
two before I started using Nitra-Zorb.

Does my experience sound normal ... or is Nitra-Zorb supposed to work
way quicker? Was I maybe supposed to "recharge" it in warm salt water
before using it for the first time (manual only said you had to
recharge it after 5 days of use)

Thanks for any input you can provide,
Harry