# Bye Bye Balas, Hello Nitrite!



## saddison (Jan 9, 2009)

Well, I woke up this morning to a horrible sight.
My 2 year old Bala sharks passed away in the middle of the night. Thankfully, none of the fish pecked at them... 
But after finding their bodies, I questioned what could have caused this... 
I had checked my ammonia, and nitrites with droppers, and my nitrites (again), nitrates, pH, GH and KH, ammonia was going into the .3 zone (not good).. So I added 1/2 the recommended dose of prime, as well as some fresh water.
I tested the Nitrite and that was fine. It was still blue, a little dark, but still blue.

the tank is a 60 gallon tank... it has a fluval 404 pump...

This morning the Nitrite was at 5 ppm (YIKES!)
I grabbed my gold skirt tetra (nice see through skin) to look at the colour of his gills to base the tank off of.
His entire face was a brown colour... I got very scared.
I immediately changed 25% of the water, put some salt in and removed all vegetables and food pellets from the bottom feeder.

After I changed that water (whilst the fish were all piping at the top) I had to go to class...
When I got home, the nitrite was around 2.5 ppm (yay), but still bad...
Should I just continue the water change treatment until the nitrite goes away?
The fish are all swimming again, instead of just piping, the bottom feeder is actually movie, and the gold skirt tetra is no long a brown faced fish..

Is there anything I can do, besides changing the water everyday?
Should I change it every day?

I will not be feeding for 3 days to help stabalize the Nitrate as well...

Any advice on what to do?

By the way, I had measured both Bala sharks the week before - and they were 4" and 3.5"... I measured them again today.. a whopping 5" and 4"!!!
They grew a lot faster than I expected them to...


----------



## Marty (Jan 1, 2009)

Yes keep up the water changes.do not add any chemical unless it is a have to case.I would change 10-15 gallon every day until the parameters are correct.Said the balas were two years old so i take it's not a new setup?Did you add anything new or make any changes in the system?


----------



## saddison (Jan 9, 2009)

Well, last week (sunday feb 22) the clip on the fluval filter broke.. the fluval was not work-able from that day until the part came in on Friday, Feb 27.
In its place I used 2 temporary filters that were on a previous tank.... a Aquaclear 50 and a whisper 15...
that week the water went cloudy... I suppose from a bacterial bloom.. but the parameters were still 0 and 0.
After i got the part for the fluval filter and started her up again, the cloudy water remained...
the ammonia began to go up just last night, and the nitrite was spiked in the middle of the night. the water is now clear and the fish are all showing signs of improvement
even if it was a bacterial bloom, would nitrite spike that fast? wouldnt it take a few days to get to the max?


----------



## Marty (Jan 1, 2009)

It can spike fairly quickly.When your fluval was down did you keep the media submerged in water?If not then you lost the bacteria.But still with an established tank you should have had enough bacteria in the tank itself to keep it afloat.Now when you restarted the fluval i imagine you started a mini cycle.So probably what happen was when your filter went down and you switched to the others you kinda stressed the balas.Which made them weak then when your nitrite rose it was just to much for them.I could be wrong but that would be my guess.Hope all works out ok friend!


----------



## Nature neil (Jan 15, 2009)

I am sorry to hear about your sharks, but at least the other fish are ok, it sounds like you had two problems one a loss of bacteria from inside the filter when it was changed, and possibly more importantly an excess of food in the tank, indicated by your bala sharks growing an inch in one week. Only ever feed as much as the fish eat in 5 min, and. Make sure there is nothing left after feeding and the fish only really need feeding once a day. Otherwise waste and algae begin to cause problems. For the next few days keep up the 25% water changes and you should be ok!


----------



## saddison (Jan 9, 2009)

Well, I lost one more fish, but my Nitrite is down to 0!
the survivors are all looking great! the water is crystal clear, and levels are great.
thanks for the support everyone!


----------

