# Nitrite spike!



## neven (May 15, 2010)

Well the other day i overdosed my metricide overdose a bit too much, about 30mL instead of 25mL (wife was talking to me as i did it), the result i think is a massive nitrite spike...Nitrates are also through the roof so i stopped dosing the so the plants can suck them out of the water as the tank recovers. The weird thing i find is the ammonia is still at 0ppm. I figured if the filter got wiped out, that the ammonia would spike first, then the nitrates, so im unsure whether it really did wipe out my media bacteria. It could be related to all the dead brush algae paired with the driftwood getting a bit of a scraping with the gravel vac

either way though, i've been doing 35% water changes every morning to keep the fish happy.


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Hmm, that's pretty unusual. I haven't used metricide, so I didn't know that it could cause a nitrite spike. But, have you considered the possibility of a dead fish? Sometimes when a fish that you don't see often, like a pleco, dies, you can get a spike of nitrites or nitrates but you don't see the fish because it's under something. 

Just a thought... hope it's not the case.


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## eternity302 (Apr 22, 2010)

Thanks for sharing Neven =) I didn't know that overdosing metricide leads to nitrite/nitrate spike!
Is it confirmed though?


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Hello neven.

I have overdosed Excel on numerous occasions and know several members that continuously overdose Metricide with no ill effects. It could be that the dead/dying algae could be the culprit of the spike and you may have a faulty Ammonia test kit as well. Nitrite is formed by reducing ammonia from fish waste or other dead/dying matter. As Maureen also hinted upon, it may be a rotting corpse or excess food. The Metricide in itself will not raise nitrite, though.

In the past when my nitrification cycle has gotten out of whack, I have used Seachem Stability with excellent results.

Good luck on finding the culprit.

Best Regards,

Stuart


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

The 35% water change wouldn't hurt, but if I were you, I would do a 50 or 60% water change instead and check the nitrites. Your plants should be able to utilize ammonia faster than nitrite and nitrates, so that would explain 0 ammonia. I would also suspect a dead organism.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i've been changing 35% daily, in the morning the fish show they aren't happy (before lights on) so i've been changing the water then. Tonight, the water is less cloudy, and tomorrows water change should bring me back under 0.3 ppm (acceptable). Definately leaning towards just too much organic matter, the scraping i did wasn't the best idea to pair with an algae outbreak treatment. Lifting out some of the driftwood i could see a ton more brush algae i never knew existed, no wonder i had such a hard time getting rid of the damn stuff.

Temporary measures were increased photoperiod so plants suck in more nitrates from the water column, very sparse feeding, just a bit of blood worms once every two days. The algae eaters haven't been eating much from feedings since the excel killed off my brush.

I also did the math and it worked out to 1.7 mL metricide per gallon, not even near the 2.5 mL some people use for tank treatment.

Fishies look happy now, 14 hours after the last water change, so i'd say i got it under control now


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## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

Good to hear it's under control ! I was skeptical of Metricide being the culprit.

Best regards,

Stuart


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

looks like the issue is over, the nitrites didn't rise above .3 ppm today at all so i skipped the water change, i will check tonight to make sure it wont rise. No livestock losses through all of this thankfully


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## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

I'm glad to hear that everything is working out well. It's great that you were right on top of it. You must be very observant.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i just spend too much time at home, so i easily notice when things aren't right. This time the water clouded a bit and wasn't clearing up so i started testing.


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