I am wondering why in my fresh water tank I have very high Nitrites and Nitrates levels in it.

I have a 10gal tank with a Bio Wheel Filter and the Whisper Filter that came with the tank when I got it. I have 9 fish in it as well.
The water got clear as soon as I put in the bio-wheel filter, but again the problem I am coming in to is that of the high Nitrate and nitrate levels.

What is the possible cause of these high levels?
What can I do to reduce these levels as well?

Thanks for you time.

The levels can be coming from a few different sources. First of all, how long has it been since you did a water change on the tank? I recommend about a 20% water change about every two weeks. Are you sure your tap water does not contain high levels of NO2 and NO3? Best to use filtered water for the water change for this reason. How many fish do you have in the tank, 9? That might be a bit too many fish (depending on what kind) for that small of a tank. How much are you feeding?! Too much food is also a common source of high levels of NO2 and NO3. When you are changing the water, make sure to use a siphon to clean out the gravel from junk... Have you changed the filter pad at least once a month? Last thought, how long has the tank been running? If you did not allow it to cycle, then what you are getting is the end of the nitrogen cycle.

Water changes are your BEST method for removing NO2 and NO3...

I only know a small amount of fish care. I have kept koi in a pond for the last 3 years. But even after all my learning I still have questions.

The best place I have ever found to find answers for questions like this is at

Koivet Welcomes You

Its not just for koi. Tropical fish, goldfish, oscars, all kinds of fish.

The man who runs it is a vet who specializes in fish care (all kinds) named Dr Erik Johnson.

If you have a newly established tank, your high nitrite and nitrate levels are probably because your beneficial bacteria levels have not been established yet. Be sure that you are adding bacteria to your tank with every water change. And every other day for a week or so in a new tank. Once you have established a bacterial colony, they will help to lower your nitrite and nitrate levels.

Well... Considering most bacteria in a bottle is nothing more then a hoax... Adding "bacteria to every water change" will not do much. The bacteria needed to establish a cycle will happen naturally, with or without buying "extra" bacteria.

Yes, bacteria will eventually establish itself, however to speed up the process, espically in a new tank, bottled bacteria is helpful. Also the whisper filter that DocFisher is talking about has a removable filter that needs to be changed every few weeks. In that filter is a large chunk of your bacteria. In a traditional power filter such as the whisper filter, every time you change the cartridge, you are essentially starting your bacteria colony all over again, so adding some bottled bacteria will help off set the loss and help prevent a nitrite spike. The best bacteria to invest in is one that needs to be refrigerated, rather one that claims to need no refrigeration.

LOL... Umm OK, sure... I am glad that you read that bottle and believed what it said on there. Not to get too technical, because it is 4:00am, but you are partly correct, bacteria does live on that filter pad. But it also lives in the water column, on the glass, on his gravel, on his fish, on his air powered treasure chest. That filer pad is for mechanical and chemical filtration. If you really want to get into it, about a million times more bacteria live on that biowheel than do on the pad. You know how quickly bacteria multiply?! Pretty darn fast. So I can tell you, removing the pad is not going to make a dent in your bacteria levels.

So, save your money, because the bacteria in a bottle does not add anything to your tank that would not reproduce back to full level within 24 hours anyway. Read some major independent professional reviews of that stuff.

Okay I have read of what most of you have written and I thank you all for your input. I was thinking about what was said about using a distilled water due to the tap water being loaded with NO2 and NO3. I am going to do a test on the tap water to see if that is the problem.

As for changing the filter in the whisper, after I talked to a very well respected fish shop here in town, I was told that all I would need to do is just clean the filter ever so ofter and change that about once every three months. As for the Bio-Wheel I have been told to not clean that as for the bactiera that grows there.
Also I was also thinking that having both the bio-wheel and the whisper might be too much filtration and just remove the whisper from out of the tank. I mean the bio-wheel filters over 100gals an hour, so I might have overkill in the filtration area.
I am also looking into getting some plants small ones in the tank as well which should help a little bit as well.

Thanks for all of the advice, I am going to start with the water changes and then I will get back to you all and let you know.

Just a little sie note, when you clean your filters, always use a small bucket of water out of the tank. Don't use fresh tap water.
If you use the old fish tank water it helps keep the good bacteria in the tank :)

Okay here is what I have done at this time. 1. I did a 30% water change, along with adding an ammoina ridder, and a tank ready tabe according to the directions. 2. I have done some cleaning as getting rid of some of the waste that was under the rocks. 3. I cleaned out the filter of the Whisper as well. Now with all of this being done I am still noticing the high nitrate, nitrite levs in the tank, but not as high as before.
I think the next step is to add some small plants to the tank as well.

I will give another update here in a few days.