I will admit in advance that what I did was kinda stupid
I bought 2 new clown fish about a week ago and my ammonia levels have started to spike from all of the food sinking to the substrate. The water also started to smell a bit foul. When I first cycled my tank I bought gallon jugs of purified water from Walmart and kick started the nitrogen cycle with nitrifying bacteria. It was all decent until I decided to do a 60% water change today because of the foul water smell and cloudy murky water. Bought more of the purified water and mixed with Instant Ocean sea salt. I now have extremely high nitrites and nitrates. My ammonia is about 0.50 which is bad as well, but the nitrites are past the readable scale on my API test kit. I know the Nitrifying bacterial is recommended to be added after water changes as well, but won't this just make my nitrites even HIGHER? I don't have extremely high ammonia so it probably would fall quickly, but I don't know how much longer my fish can be exposed to the high nitrites. How can I get my parameters back down. One of my clowns looks fine and swimming, the other has been laying low to the sand almost barely touching it and is breathing heavy. I am panicking because I don't know how to fix my parameters, meanwhile time is ticking and they are in the tank. I don't have a QT to transfer them too
Ammonia: 0.50 ppm (greenish yellow)
Nitrite: Above 5 ppm (bright purple)
Nitrate: 20-40 ppm (orange)
I bought 2 new clown fish about a week ago and my ammonia levels have started to spike from all of the food sinking to the substrate. The water also started to smell a bit foul. When I first cycled my tank I bought gallon jugs of purified water from Walmart and kick started the nitrogen cycle with nitrifying bacteria. It was all decent until I decided to do a 60% water change today because of the foul water smell and cloudy murky water. Bought more of the purified water and mixed with Instant Ocean sea salt. I now have extremely high nitrites and nitrates. My ammonia is about 0.50 which is bad as well, but the nitrites are past the readable scale on my API test kit. I know the Nitrifying bacterial is recommended to be added after water changes as well, but won't this just make my nitrites even HIGHER? I don't have extremely high ammonia so it probably would fall quickly, but I don't know how much longer my fish can be exposed to the high nitrites. How can I get my parameters back down. One of my clowns looks fine and swimming, the other has been laying low to the sand almost barely touching it and is breathing heavy. I am panicking because I don't know how to fix my parameters, meanwhile time is ticking and they are in the tank. I don't have a QT to transfer them too
Ammonia: 0.50 ppm (greenish yellow)
Nitrite: Above 5 ppm (bright purple)
Nitrate: 20-40 ppm (orange)