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Hello, i’ve been keeping Opae Ula for maybe 7 years now and have even on occasion successfully been able to breed them. I have a 10l tank with have roughly 20 shrimp in.

About two months ago I noticed that a bunch of my shrimp were dying - i took water tests and everything was coming back fine - cutting a long story short I removed the remaining shrimps into a container with some fresh water set at the same salinity whilst i went ahead and set up a new tank.

After a month of the tank running, with water tests coming back a Ok - i went ahead and added the shrimps, and all seemed well - still to today, no more deaths thankfully - conducting a water test every few days. However this week on testing I notice that the nitrites had sky rocketed so I performed an immediate 50% water change to help break them down. Ive left it for a day and the nitrites have gone down but they’re still at concerning levels.

I am happy to continue doing 50% water changes but i’m also concerned that I am removing nitrite eating bacteria which are trying to get established in the new Tank. Is there any advise you could give me? I know there are nitrite treatments on the market, but am always reluctant to add chemicals into the water!

Just as extra - here are my readings from today :
No3: 20
No2: 3-4
PH: 7.4
Salinity: 0.013
Ammonia : 0-0.5

Hi @r0seynick , I am new myself, but just went through this with a nitrite spike. I kept doing water changes and dosing with Prime. The shrimp and snails made it though. The NitrAtes look high at 20, do you have any cheato or plants in the tank?

Hello! Thanks for messaging back - i did another water change yesterday and both the nitrites and the nitrates are down slightly - my local aquarium also recommended I try Evolution Aqua Pure Aquarium balls that release the nitrite eating bacteria gradually - so i thought id try one more water change before trying those out.

I did have some cheato but it was breaking apart so i was scared it might be dead lol - i removed it but i do have some marimo moss balls in the tank - i’ll upload an image of my tank too

My readings today
No3: 0-20
No2: 1-3
PH:7.5
Salinity: 1.013
Ammonia: 0

Hiya! Nitrite means an ammonia source so if i had to guess its over feeding or something died in the tank. how are they doing now?