High Nitrite-What to do?

[Sam]

My nitrite has gone on a spike and after a day or two  it hasn't come back down to safer level.  One fish died and I have another that is still alive, but is floating on it's side.  I salted the system with only 8 ounces of salt because that is all the salt I have left unfortunately.  Should I just add some table salt or will that not help.  Also what should I do with the tilapia  that is floating on his side, is he safe to fillet him or should I just wait until he dies and dispose of him (I'm pretty sure eventually he is going to die because is on his side/belly most the time)?  I usually have water that is gassed off so that it doesn't have chlorine in the water, but I didn't fill the tank up last time I used it so I have no dechlorinated water to do a water change.  My api water tester nitrite tested off the chart all though I think it has come down a little since yesterday.  On my strips the nitrites tested above 10ppm, but I haven't been to trusting of test strips.  Any Ideas what to do?

[Jeff S]

I just had the same problem this morning. Change as much of the water as you can. To hell with the "no sudden PH or temp changes". The fish are resilient. Even the one on it's side has a chance if you act quickly. I did a 75% water change and all is fine so far. Fish got happy quick. I keep 40 gallons of water ready for just such emergencies. 

P.S.  The fish in that tank are 3/4"-1" Tilapia fry.

[Alex Veidel]

Jeff, fish that are subject to "off the charts" nitrite are already being pushed to their limits in the resilience department. My concern would be that a sudden change in pH could do more harm then good. Actually, sudden changes in waste levels can also harm fish.

Sam, do a 1/3 partial water change. Salting is good in small amounts, but you need to be careful with it. Salt is toxic to plants. You usually want to shoot for 1-2ppm salinity.

Jeff Sullivan said:

I just had the same problem this morning. Change as much of the water as you can. To hell with the "no sudden PH or temp changes". The fish are resilient. Even the one on it's side has a chance if you act quickly. I did a 75% water change and all is fine so far. Fish got happy quick. I keep 40 gallons of water ready for just such emergencies. 

P.S.  The fish in that tank are 3/4"-1" Tilapia fry.

[Jeff S]

What type of salt do you use?

[Sam]

I just used natural sea salt and I actually added a little bit of salt used for canning because the label seemed to be the same thing.  I had one fish die before I posted this yesterday and luckily I haven't had any more parish (knock on wood).

[Glenn]

"High Nitrite-What to do?"

I think the first step should always be to stop feeding until problem is solved and corrected. There does seem to be a common tendency to overfeed during winter, and again when temperatures warm and fish start looking energized and starved, (the little dears).  ;)