Freshwater Aquarium - Stopping Nitrites

Introduction

When you start your freshwater aquarium, you need to make sure that your aquarium goes through a nitrite spike. Having this nitrite spike will help you in keeping nitrites out of your aquarium. This spike is a sign that you have established a bacteria colony that consumes nitrites.

After this spike your nitrites will go down to zero ppm, but you must continue to measure for them and keep them out of your aquarium to prevent endangering your fish.

Why Nitrites Are Bad

You do want nitrites in your aquarium because they are toxic for your fish. This is one of the most common killer of aquarium fish for people starting freshwater aquariums, right after ammonia.

To prevent affecting your fish, keep nitrite levels less than 0.5 ppm, preferably at zero ppm. If the nitrite levels reach 20 ppm or more they will be deadly to your fish after a few days.

Where Nitrites Come From

The most common cause of nitrites in your aquarium is not properly cycling your tank. This cycling process creates bacteria that eats the nitrites that develop in your aquarium. If you have a well established bacteria colony you should not have problems with nitrites.

But even after you have a strong bacteria colony you can generate nitrites by not cleaning your aquarium or replacing the water in your aquarium. This cleaning and replacing process will remove excess foods and fish poop that can break down and create nitriles.

How To Stop Nitrites

The best way to stop nitrites and keep them at zero ppm, is to have a well established bacteria colony. You do this when you start your aquarium and you keep it by not replacing the filter wheel on your mechanical filter unless absolutely necessary.

The major source of nitrites that new aquarium owners create is by overfeeding their fish. Believe it or not, keeping your fish lean and mean and not fat and lazy is a must. This means feeding your fish only as much as they can eat in two minutes.

Anything more than two minutes and the excess foods will settle in the substrate and decay into nitrites. The other problem with too much food is that they will eat more and poop more. This poop will also settle into the substrate and decay into nitrites

Conclusion

Having an effective bacteria colony is important at keeping nitrites at zero ppm. Vacuuming your substrate and removing 10% of the water weekly will also help prevent the build up of nitrites.

If you want more information on how to keep an aquarium, download a free eBook, titled "15 Tips On Building And Maintaining An Aquarium", at http://www.squidoo.com/homefreshwateraquariums or at Your Home Freshwater Aquarium.

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