my nitrites are 0.8-1.6 that bad right? why is this? and what do I do?

Answer 1

You want the nitrites to be under 0.5 ppm. A 50% water change will get them back closer to this level. It's all part of your tank cycling. First you would have had ammonia (from the wastes of your fish and/or dying organisms if this is your slatwater and have live rock or live sand). The bacteria convert the ammonia to nitrite. Eventually you'll have the bacteria to convert the nitrite to nitrate, but until you do, you'll need to do water changes to keep the level down (that's assuming you have fish or live rock in the tank - if you don't have any organisms, just wait for the level to go down).

Answer 2

Yes that is not good. Your nitrogen cycle is a little out of whack.Not enough of the "good" bacteria established to take care of the bio-load. Usually if your nitrites are high, your ammonia is also high. I would suggest a partial water change, maybe 20% and then check levels again several days.

Answer 3

water change for sure, a 50% should be good, also depends on what size tank you have. Other options are getting the chemicals Prime and Cycle, those will help alot and help maintain them, also lots of oxygen and flow will prevent stagnant water holding on to nitrites and nitrates. So add another filter or another powerhead. Another thing to check into is the biological filtration you have, i have had some cases where it helps and others where it hurts, try removing it or at least cleaning it out.

Answer 4

I would suggest doing a partial water change.. usually when nitrite is up so is ammonia levels..

Answer 5

I would suggest doing a partial water change.. usually when nitrite is up so is ammonia levels..

Answer 6

my nitrate was extremely high and i had to change half of the water for a week every other day it got them back to low i added 2 fish tested it yesterday and its perfect