High ammonia and nitrite

stickman87

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So I have a 10 gallon tank that has been up for a little over a year and just got back from a 3 week vacation and tested my water and nitrite is at .25 nitrate .25 and ammonia at .50 and was wondering why the nitrite is up there I have some zoas and they are find buy one of my Kenya trees are really small and limp.. Just did a 5 gallon water change and put some seachem prime in.. Is there anything I can do for the nitrite?
 

twilliard

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Your nitrite is from amonia
Check for anything that may have died while you were away.
Also I think in such a small volume it was overfed beyond what the bacteria can handle.
 

Lenny_S

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Ammonia and Nitrite are just different forms of Nitrogen compounds, corals and plants actually use them more readily than Nitrate. But Ammonia and to a slightly lesser degree Nitrite are harmful to fish. Something else is bothering your Kenya tree. And you say "one of my Kenya trees"... So you have others that are fine?
 
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stickman87

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Yes I have 3 of them and only one is limp and not opening and I stirred up the sand bed and checked around rocks and nothing is dead.. I guess I will keep doing small water changes every couple days and hopefully it works
 
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stickman87

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Also is the seachem prime ok to use?? I've never had this problem so I dont know what to use
 
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stickman87

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Lenny_S

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If you have fish, snails, shrimp, hermits or the like, then Prime will help protect them until things work itself out. In that small a tank I think 20 drops is plenty. The directions say 5ml (one capful for 50 gallons) so you only need like 1/5 that amount.
 

Surfandturf

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Awesome that you have a nano! I have a 10gal as well. I have also had a 14gal. I am no expert but there are some things that you need to disclose. How many fish do you have? What are they and what size are they? What are you feeding them (flakes,pellets)? How often are you feeding them and how much? Do you have any corals that you are feeding or should be feeding? How often and what are you feeding? When and if you do feed are you spot feeding? Count your snails dude. Here is the thing, you have a 10gal but in reality, it's more of an 8 gal as far as water goes. If you are going stock this tank with things that need to be fed, you need to religiously change 1gal every week. Or just get corals that love dirty water or tolerate it better. With a 10gal you should be able to look at the clarity of the water and condition of the corals and know what the problem is. Not saying you are doing it wrong, but a nano reef is a completely different ballgame than a larger system.
 

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