Really appreciate the discussion with you. This I'm learning is the best way to learn this hobby. Technically I'm hoping the chemicals I put in today kill the nitrite, that's the bandaid I'm using instead I guess. But you are right I do need a band aid NOW. Not wanting to sacrifice the health of my current community per day but you're right in that if the chemicals don't work that is what will happen. Im taking your advice very seriously to heart. If within the next 48 hours my nitrites aren't dropping drastically I will change my strategy and do more water changes. They did promise me and guarantee my money that the Stability would kill all the nitrites in 72 hours. So if it does, problem solved. If not, another lesson learned and I will know from now on. So glad I joined this forum.
Hello; You have lost me again. You do not wish to do water changes so there will be nitrites to feed the bb. But you are using a chemical that you were told will remove all nitrites.
The question that comes to mind then is how will the bb feed if there are no nitrites??
Also this would on the face of it seem to indicate a stop to the development of the needed bb. Perhaps some other forum member will know if this approach will hurt the bb on the bio-balls you got to seed the tank. Perhaps I am missing some significant parts as I have not used the chemical named so lack personal experience.
With the water changes approach the nitrites are hopefully diluted enough to be less toxic for the fish while leaving some in the tank that will feed the developing bb populations. I likely would have trusted the bio-balls to seed the tank with some WC to keep the levels less toxic.
I see why what I said was confusing. So the product itself (Seachem Stability) is like a steroid dose of benificial bacteria. It has a way of expidiating the process of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate conversion. So yes it will reduce the nitrite but not by actually eliminating it but by converting to nitrate. Many people will use it to cycle their tank from the beginning and in the research I've done so far I watched a youtube fish channel, where a guy started his tank with this stuff and showed his daily water test results with the API Master kit over the period of two weeks and in two weeks his tank was apparently fully cycled. Of course take that with a grain of salt but it seemed legit. Anyways, what I'm hoping is that this will actually convert the nitrites and finish the process. Remove them may have been the wrong way to put it. Does that make sense now?
I use stability all the time I have a very over stocked molly tank that I started and cycled with stability and I just cycled my 20 gallon with it, and it works great if you follow the directions you can absolutely add fish imediately, and have no problems they also make a product called amoguard that I use while cycling and I use their amo alert it hangs in the tank and shows your ammonia levels at all times it last for apx one year and costs $6 if you use this with their amo guard and stability you can cycle a tank with fish right away.
Stress can cause white stringy poop,have you used a bio scrubber resently. I would use some prismatic and give them a extra air shone or 2 and really oxygenate it, add some extra salt and turn the heat up a bit to 82*. Hope this helps!
Hey triple F, thanks for the help. I know it's a lot to to read through but I already added salt to the aquarium and raised the heat for a couple of days. Also added a fluval air pump for an 80 gal and a very powerful bubbler. I do believe the poo issue was from the stress of the nitrite poisoning as well. Because there are still 0 other signs of parasites. Glad to hear another confirmation on the stability. Will post my progress later tonight.
Not sure what a bio-scrubber is?
Not sure what a bio-scrubber is?
Nope, anything going on in terms of ammonia would be eaten up quickly. And would be minimal at best.
For now, keep doing daily water changes, bigger is better. Once test the water every few days and once you got everything dialed in go from there. But it's hard to diagnose anything when the basic tank parameters are not good.
For now, keep doing daily water changes, bigger is better. Once test the water every few days and once you got everything dialed in go from there. But it's hard to diagnose anything when the basic tank parameters are not good.
UPDATE: ok guys some pretty weird results here. 24 hours after using Seachem Stability my parameters have definitely changed. The nitrite shot down to below .25 - but the ammonia shot up from 0 to between 1.0-2.0, while the nitrates have stayed about the same, somwhere about 20-30. Well my nitrites are disappearing but ammonia has skyrocketed so I guess that means something is happening. Will update again tomorrow.
