Raised Nitrite

My filter recently lost power for a day or two before I discovered it.
Ammonia levels were up and I lost 2 fish. I rinsed and cleaned the
filter extreely well just using tank water (it was quite smelly) Whne
I was finished it had that normal musty type of odour. i reassemable
the filter and started it up. I was assuming that I would be starting from
scratch again as all the bacterioa must have died. So I added zeolite and
with water changes the ammonia became undetectable. I then deciede that
now was a good time to strip down the whole tank for a clean.

I refilled the tank with tap water and aquaplus to remove chlorine and let
this run with the filter for 24 hours before adding the fish. I
acclimatized the fish in their temp tanks by plenty of small water changes
with water from the "clean" tank setup. I then transfered just the fish
back to the tank.

I never measured for ammonia and nitrite becuase I would be expecting 0. I
kept the zeolite (which I realise would retard the re cycling, but I did
not want to stress the fish out with raised ammonmia levels). After
checking the water a couple of days later I found zero ammonia (the
zeolite doing its work I assume) and raised nitrite(0,3 ppm) I checked the
tap water to be sure there were no nitrtrites. I would not have expected
nitrities so soon - unless the filter is actually working to convert some
ammonia into nitritite, but the filter can clearly not handle all the
nitrities.

Does this sound normal?

Trev

"Trevor" wrote in message
news
My filter recently lost power for a day or two before I discovered it.
Ammonia levels were up and I lost 2 fish. I rinsed and cleaned the
filter extreely well just using tank water (it was quite smelly) Whne
I was finished it had that normal musty type of odour. i reassemable
the filter and started it up. I was assuming that I would be starting
from
scratch again as all the bacterioa must have died. So I added zeolite
and
with water changes the ammonia became undetectable. I then deciede that
now was a good time to strip down the whole tank for a clean.

I refilled the tank with tap water and aquaplus to remove chlorine and
let
this run with the filter for 24 hours before adding the fish. I
acclimatized the fish in their temp tanks by plenty of small water
changes
with water from the "clean" tank setup. I then transfered just the fish
back to the tank.

I never measured for ammonia and nitrite becuase I would be expecting
0. I
kept the zeolite (which I realise would retard the re cycling, but I
did
not want to stress the fish out with raised ammonmia levels). After
checking the water a couple of days later I found zero ammonia (the
zeolite doing its work I assume) and raised nitrite(0,3 ppm) I checked
the
tap water to be sure there were no nitrtrites. I would not have
expected
nitrities so soon - unless the filter is actually working to convert
some
ammonia into nitritite, but the filter can clearly not handle all the
nitrities.

Does this sound normal?

Trev

Yup. Measuring zero ammonia does not mean there is zero, only that
you're below the threshold of the kit. Existing nitrifying bacteria
which are coating everything inside the tank will be competing with your
zeolite for the ammonia, so you're now seeing NO2. Sounds ok imo, and I
agree that it will take a while to build the bacteria stock levels back
up (and for them to move back into your sterile filter media).
--
www.NetMax.tk