Bad Nitrite Levels, HELP

Question

Just bought a nice 2nd hand fish tank (130ltr), it has a biolife filter and internal heater aswell as a air stone all of these are running 24/7, the lights are only on for a timed 8hrs a day the tanks temp is 26c, we have got 8 live plants, the person who had the tank before kept the filter sponge not washed it out becuase of the bacteria in the filter we used our old water from a 26litre tank in the new tank aswell which was fine, done a ammonia test which is good but done a nitrite test and it is showing 0.7 strongly, using clorine remover in the water changes and put aquarium salt in it today and put easybalance in last night. the tank has got 4x guppys 7x neon tetras and 2x rainbow dwarf neons. what can i do ??

Answer 1

the filters are not up to speed yet, do a partial water change and keep your eye on the nitrite levels

Answer 2

you must keep ammonia and nitrite levels as low as possible with fish in the tank, do regular, partial water changes, at 0.25 the nitrite will harm your fish, try to keep it below this level by doing water changes and it should work out and cycle properly, the live plants will help greatly with this.

Answer 3

every time you have to re upset a tank it will go through a mini cycle

which is why you're seeing nitrites

usually it doesn't last longer then 2 weeks though if you did use the filter which hopefully was submersed when the transfer was being done