High Nitrite, Help!

3ncore8 · Oct 31, 2021

Hi ,
Recently I have added few fish (5-6 Pcs) and I found that my nitrite was spike from 0.08 and now at 0.25mg/L? But my no3 reading was at low ? No3 at 1.20mg/L… anyone can advice what should I do ? Weekly I dose the MB7.
Total water volumn was 850liter with SPS dominant. Weekly water change about 100liter

thank you

brandon429 · Oct 31, 2021

cease testing for nitrite in display reefing, your levels are fine, its why your system looks normal up close vs crashing.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/rhf/index.php

and then all the cycling threads I've ever done/which is many/ study nitrite impacts and the verdict is, put away the test kit and never run it again it only causes headaches. we expect flux in nitrite and nh3 levels based on common feeding, changes in bioloading etc

they always balance out just fine, none of these systems crash under the normal changes we make and that includes upping the fish bioload. specifically don't react by dosing anything to the reading. cease the reading.

there isn't any sps tanks that run too low on surface area to carry a desired fish load, they'll all work just fine in the common ratios we stock reef tanks.

if you are concerned about tank health/impacts from this reading, start by posting a full tank shot of your system now so we can track that over coming days in relation to your readings.

the mb7 you dose isn't helping or harming, its merely nine bucks being dosed into the tank. if you ceased adding it forever, tank would work the same as it does now.

your biofilter isn't going to fail, its locked in solid enough for you to keep sps. no longer need to test for cycling params, or dose bacteria. Your system has plenty of bacteria without any wasted money on dosing it.

brandon429 · Oct 31, 2021

post a full tank picture pls, we always like to balance actual presentation against reported param alarms. its always a very contrasting set of details.

is your nitrite kit a digital hanna/ what is the kit taking the measure

about a third of the time in nitrite spike posts, people have dosed prime into the water but didn't state that in the reports. it matters if so.

the advice above to stop testing for it is because nitrite is neutral impact, its not a burn like free ammonia causes. the article mentions how our salinity affords protection and we expect flux in nitrite anyway with any changes, including feeding each day

but the system handles events like a shock absorber just fine, for both free ammonia and nitrite.