high nitrite?

[jeb102385]

i have high nitrite in a tank with no fish i just filled the tank up about a week ago and have had a powerhead in it to keep it from getting stagnet i was going to put the fish in it today but the nitrite levels are huge like a 2.0 i dont understand how this happened without fish in the tank any way to get it to drop off i put a establised 2217 to help but to no avail it still looks the same

[geoff_tropheus]

I sometimes get Nitrite out the tap here. It really fluctuates in this area. Ammonia, Nitrite...

To have had Nitrite in the tank you had to have had it from the start or some ammonia source from the start or something in there now.

If the 2217 cannot bring it into control, I would waterchange 50-70% and check again.

Then if that still does not work, get either Bio-Spira from Fish Ranch, or Ecco-Start.

This will get you going within a day.

[nacra99]

it may be nitrite in your tapwater or it may be ammonia in the water causing your tank is going through a mini fishless cycle. With the established filter, you can let it cycle out and it should be fine. It might take a few days.

Otherwise like geoff said.. biospira (expensive stuff) will cycle your tank overnight. But i suggest starting with the filter which you eventually want to use in your tank. Otherwise if you take out the 2177 your tank and put in a new filter will start cycling again and nitrogen levels will spike again.

[Zulaab]

Question : Why high Nitrites in tap water.
Answer : Chloramines..

Chlorine and Ammonia bonded together. Water is then sent to a large holding tank 100ft in the air. (I think we all know what one looks like)
Water sits for more than 48 hours, and the Chloramines breaks down into their two original forms, Chlorine and Ammonia. The bacteria that converts ammonia to Nitrites starts breaking down the ammonia. This conversion is actual pretty quick as long as there is Oxygen available. The storage tanks have Oxygen in them because water breaks down because of the heat outside to Hydrogen and Oxygen. The Oxygen is then used by Chloramines to break down the Chloramines and Also used by the bacteria that breaks down ammonia creating Nitrites. When days are really hot then there are more water wapors in the tanks which gives more Oxygen to system to break the two processes down.

[jeb102385]

as it turns out my test drops had gone bad and my water is great thats what i get for being cautious

[Zulaab]

I forgot to add to my earlier post.
During large amounts of water fall, people tend NOT to water their lawns and water gets to sit in the storage tanks longer. This again causes Chloramines to break down and ammonia spikes again. An great exsample of this was during Hurricane Ike. People where complaining that their water smelled bad and tasted bad. Since Chlorine has 0 taste and smell, it was not Chlorine you could smell.. Ammonia on the other hand smells and taste like doodoo.
Again carbon filters.. this is why I love them !!

[wesleydnunder]

I forgot to add to my earlier post.
During large amounts of water fall, people tend NOT to water their lawns and water gets to sit in the storage tanks longer. This again causes Chloramines to break down and ammonia spikes again. An great exsample of this was during Hurricane Ike. People where complaining that their water smelled bad and tasted bad. Since Chlorine has 0 taste and smell, it was not Chlorine you could smell.. Ammonia on the other hand smells and taste like doodoo.
Again carbon filters.. this is why I love them !!

I disagree with this statement. Chlorine does have a very distinctive smell. When you smell a jug of bleach which contains no additives, or a freshly chlorinated pool, you're smelling chlorine.

And one of the reasons that chloramines are being used in stead of chlorine is the stability of the chloramine molecule. It doesn't begin to break down after just a couple days. Also temps required to crack water into its individual elements of hydrogen and oxygen are much higher than that which is generated by normal sunlight on a storage tank. If a mere 100F could do it, then we'd be generating a potentially explosive gaseous mix every time we boil water on the stove.

Mark