I need some help. I have a 60 gallon freshwater tank. It's been stable for about 4 months and now the Nitrites are extreemly high. I've been doing water changes and such the only thing I can think of that has changed is our 3 snails died. we removed them and treated the tank with salt just to make sure the other fish wouldn't get sick. Could the tank need snails to help with the nitrite?

here is a little more info we have 3 different catfish, 4 frogs, 5 ghost shrimp, 8 neons, 4 red barbs, 3 white clouds, 2 darf platties,1 blue plattie, 4 baby blue platties, 3 other platties, 4 female guppies, 3 male guppies, 4 zebra danios and 2 small tetras sorry I can't remember the name. We also have 5 live plants.

my other question is could we just have too many fish? I mean they don't seem to be crambed at all. But I've heard that nitrite and nitrate can be cause by having too many fish in a tank. Anyways if someone could help it would be nice.

we just did a 50/50 water change the water has been treated with salt and the clhorine out stuff. The fish seem to be happy but the nitrite levels are still high. I've dropped them back to one feeding a day..not sure how well that will go since we've been feeding them twice a day other wise we end up with dead fish because the others were hungrey. :hmm:

I think you mean nitrates, in which case I would test your tap water and consider a water conditioner like prime.

Well I believe the pet store said nitrates whatever but I've been testing the nitrite and first test was 5.0 ppm i guess and today it looked to be 0.50 ppm or 1.0 ppm! I just know the fish seem to be fine yet it's testing high. I use Wardley essentials Chlor Out to neutralize chlorine & chloramines. Is that anything like a conditioner?
Then I use salt. The only other thing I can think of is I read another thread where they said that algee gone type stuff can cause levels to go up. I did use some about a week ago so I don't know if that could be effecting the levels or not. I'm really thinking I just need to replace my snails something tells me that would help but I just can't find any information on it. Thanks for your help I will use your advice!

The salt will help counter nitrite poisoning, it sounds like you tank is almost done cycling after which you should have no more detectable nitrites.

Thanks you have been a big help!