Pico Tank updated as at 7 Apr 12

During the last three water changes, I changed too much of the water more than 40% to 60%, the fishes show some stress, breathing very fast. I donot know why. That resulted my cleaner shrimp died in the next day. After a few days, all the fishes recovered.

The following next water change, I decided to check on the ammonia and nitrite levels found that the ammonia level remains at zero but the nitrite level went up to 0.25ppm to 0.5ppm after the water change. The large volume of water change have killed a lot of beneficial bacteria for ammonia to nitrite conversion portion.

Pico Tank as at 7 Apr 2012:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_-aeNm2ZCA



For nitrite level spike, there is no quick solution in the market to remove the nitrite effectively that is what I found out. The products such as Nite-out II will help to reduce the nitrite levels but it takes time (more than 2-3 days) to grow the bacteria before the nitrite level starts to drop.

As for ammonia spike, I always keep a bottle of Kent Marine Pro-Ammonia Detox for emergency. I found that it is very effective to bring down any ammonia spike.