New setup - week3

[flippi]

I have a "new" 2nd hand tank setup. Tank is 170L; with 120-140L of actual water content. I have a Aquais500. New gravel and some plants. My first week all tested ok. I have 10 guppies, 7 mollies and 3 smallish catfish. On the 2nd week one guppy had 19 babies, they are now one week old. I may have done a bit of overfeeding. Since the weekend I had a maxed out Nitrite and nitrate test. I did a 10 to 15% water change each week. Re tested the weekend and still have a 5ppm Nitrate reading. Did a 50% water change on Monday, and still have a close to 5ppm nitrite test. (API kit bright purple) PH and Ammonia is ok. Fish seem to be happy and the babies all alive and growing fast. I am using Prime to condition the water. My question is why after a 50 % water change do i still see a high Nitrite reading? How long will it be this high? My next steps will be to do a gravel vacuum and remove some plastic plants. I'm getting a second smaller tank for the babies. Both females are due to give birth again sometime soon.

[Adrienne]

Prime gives a false reading as in when you use it it will be removing the nitrites but the test kit will show them present still.

A 5ppm nitrate reading is good. Be happy with that.

[blueether]

Nitrites will convert to nitrates once the nitrogen cycle is 'complete', ie all the bacteria are there that are needed for the population of fish.

and +1 for above

[flippi]

Did another 50% water change. How long will I have high nitrite before I should start to panic?

[Adrienne]

Nitrite levels will remain raised until the cycling process is complete. Prime will be removing the toxic nitrite even though you are still getting a reading. Once the tank has cycled it will drop to 0. Doing all those 50% water changes will be slowing the cycling process down. Cut your feeding down to 1 small feed a day and be patient.