battling nitrite in QT or hospital tank

[salmon11]

I am battling nitrite in my QT tank for quite sometimes. Just measured nitrite this morning, nitrite > 0.3( it has been the same measurement for the last two months). tank capacity is 100 gallon and 10 gallon sump, tank age 7 months, and 11 watt uv. currently no fish!.

Tank has no live rock, no subsrtates and no sand for almost 2 months.

I lost three fish in that qt tank within a month due to ick and other bacteria infections.

how do you keep nitrite low if no subtrates for bacteria to live?

how do you maintain a healthy QT or Hospital tank?

 

[garvondavis14]

You could run a power filter on the tank...I don't see why you couldn't have some live rock in there...

 

[paulallen]

Are bacteria that help with the cycle able to live in a tank with copper in it?

 

[salmon11]

i dunno think the bacteria will live with copper in it. That is why i am battling the nitrite. and hypo will also kill the bacteria also.

 

[Atomahawk]

If you don't mind me asking, why do you have a 100gal as a hospital tank? I have 3 hospital tanks and they are all 10 gals with power filters and PVC pipe for hiding and thats more than enough for most fish. Granted I don't handle show size fish so maybe thats why you have the 100Gal.

Smaller tanks are just easier to maintain and dose medication etc. They have the added flexibility of being able to treat for specifics, like ick or bacterial infections open sores etc. Water changes are a breeze and the smaller tanks are easy to cover to reduce light to colm fish down when treating. Also makes it a lot easier to observe your specimens during treatment. Its also nice to be able to catch the fish in less than 15 seconds to reduce stress.

I do have a 100 gal tank that I use for water changes, it contains a few fish and some small inverts. When I need to do water changes in the 10 gals I make up fresh water prior, put this in the 100 gal tank and take water from there to use in my hospital tanks. That way I continually do water changes in both the 100 and 10 gal tanks when needed.

Nitrites: Do you have any filter for the 100 gal? If not thats most likely the problem. Even a bunch of rock with pores in it will do as long as you have good water movement. Also sometimes nitrites will stay at a certain level until you do a 25% water change or around that, don't ask why, I have seen this happen so many times, it's just weird.

Copper won't effect the bio filter, most antibiotics will , but varies on the kind.

Best of luck

 

[salmon11]

opps, it is a 50 gallon tank qt, sorry..... !.


for the filtration, i dunno have any rocks and subtrates.. i only use filter sponges.

atomhawk, do you use copper in your QT? hypo maybe?