well guys now i am really worried about leaving them for 5 days. My freakin nitrites spiked again Thursday. It's about .5ppm my nitrates are 20ppm and there is no ammonia, the ph is nice and acidic and the water is soft. My temp is sitting at 79-80. I did a big water change last week b/c the thermometer broke in the tank and i freaked but since then i have been doing 15-20% water changes everyday to try lower the nitrites to no avail. I have been using Cycle and Amquel + and nothing seems to work. Do you think if i leave the tank alone maybe it will balance it's self out or should i do another big water change? i dont want to go on vacation with the nitrites like this! i cant leave my babies in this situation without any help. HELP!

I think my amquel might be the problem? i mean it says that it "eliminates" ammo, nitrites, nitrates, and chlorine, but could it be that my tank is cycling b/c i did just put a new filter on 2 weeks ago?

Did you add the new filter to the tank with the old filter still there? In other words are you now running both filters? And what are they?

Yeah i was running my established (crappy) Top fin and an the New Aqua Clear 70 along with the established canister filter. The Aqua Clear motor burned up yesterday so i put my old Bio wheel 330 back on it last night. (i'm hoping that will help but it's been out of the tank for a week so the bacteria is non existant) i did make sure to keep the old filter cartridges and biowheels in some tank water for hopes that if i did have to put it back on the tank that maybe there would still be some bacteria but i really dont know)
That brand new aqua clear really dissapointed me. I mean i used it for a week and now it's broke?!! POS! i have a used Aqua Clear 110 on the way but i dont even know if i want to use it after the brand new one crapped out.

Woow, with running all those established filters I don't think you are cycling again. Have you cahecked your tap water for water peramiters? I had an amonia problem a while back and it was in the tap water. So the more I cleaned the tank, the worse it got... Hope you find a solution.

I'm thinking that if the tank is going thru a "mini cycle" and when i use the amquel to rid the tank of the toxins i am ridding the tank of the ammonia that the bacteria feed off of to get rid of the nitrites so i am going to quit using the amquel during water changes and see what happens but i have been dealing with this spike off and on for about a month now. EEEK! i'm so scared for my babies!

yeah i actually tested it and there are 5ppm of nitrite and nitrate and no ammo so i am really clueless athis point

its odd that your ac motor burnt out for you. i have been running my ac on all my tanks in conjuction with canisters for a couple of years now and have not had a motor fry. this is even in tanks with a sand substrate and breeding oscars. i have had to change impellor shafts a few times and on one occasion an impellor but these parts are cheap to replace and should be considered regular maintenance of the filter.

you should check the motor and impellor for damaged parts to see if the filter itself is salvageable and hopefully you can repair it at a minimal cost.

I read one of your posts before i bought it and that's what made me want an AC over a biowheel. It sounds like something is stoppin the impeller but no matter how much i try to clean it the motor just hums like it's stuck. im going to see how much a new motor will be. the rest of the filter is in great condition.
But can you give me any ideas on why my nitrites are so high?

if the motor is humming then it is still working. you should look at try a new impeller shaft and see if that will remedy the problem. they are really cheap to buy (about $2-3) .

as for the nitrites it could be the end of a mini cycle. it sounds to me like you have enough b.b. to convert ammonia to nitrites but not quite enough yet to convert all the nitrites into nitrates. if you can continue with your changes and with any luck it might stabilize before you leave on your vacation.

I dont stir the sand when i clean the tank, I do suck up all the poo and old food. I make sure to take the water from the middle bottom of tank when siphoning (dont know if that makes a difference but i do it anyway) i clean my cannister once a month. could that be the culprit?

some one was telling me that my sandbed isn't big enough...that it should be 4-5inches of sand mine is about 2 inches. the guy said that the last 2 in of the sand bed is toxic. is this the culprit?