I have a new fish tank that has very high nitrite levels for over two weeks is that normal?

Answer 1

Normally it would be dropping by now, but 2 weeks isn't really anything to worry about, the cycle is just being a bit slow to catch up. Continue to control it with water changes if there are fish in the tank and you should see it starting to drop natually wihtin a few days to a week.

MM

Answer 2

I had this problem as well. Hope your more patient then me I added all my prized fish right off the bat but most all survived(not recomending you test this though). Either way I cut out using amquel and stuff like that to condition my water that I added and started using R/O water from my LFS. Also you might want to try bio spira or something. Wet Web Media suggested i do an 80% water change and add bio spira again but I didnt feel like it to be honest. 75 gallons is a lot. Any way it took mine a long time to drop probly because it spiked so high. The blue drops from the test would turn purple on contact. Any way try adding additional bacteria and reduce the other stress's on your fish for the duration of this spike. On a different note are you using a canister filter? I was sold one of these for salt water and found out about the air breathing bacteria that converts nitrites to nitrates. If you have one of these Id suggest adding a second filter(I personally put a marineland emperor 400 biowheel on this may be why my nitrites finally went to 0).

Answer 3

It can take weeks, months for a tank to properly cycle. In order to keep the ammonia/N2 levels down do regular water changes. This will extend the time for your tank to cycle, but it will keep your fish from dying/