Urgent help! Betta/Siamese fighter and an uncycled tank!

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milliemouse

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 10, 2017
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Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum so I hope I am posting in the right section (really sorry if not!!) but I have a dilemma and I would really appreciate any help or advice.

I rescued a beautiful Betta fish today from a friend who was no longer able to care for him, he was being housed in a 9 Litre tank with a heater and NO FILTER!:( Therefore the tank was not cycled or established by any means.

I have a 40L community tank which he would not be compatible in at all therefore I pulled out my spare 28L tank which I set up with a heater, filter, plant substrate, gravel, live plants and an ornament. I have also added de-chlorinator and some beneficial bacteria booster.

I have acclimated him into this tank but ideally I would of preferred to do a fish-less cycle but due to the circumstances I am left with no choice.. He seems OK but has been hiding a lot?

I am stuck with how to best care for him? and what percentage water change will I need to do daily? ahhh :ermm:

Sorry if this post is all over the place - any guidance on this would be massively appreciated! Thanks in advance!
 
Easiest thing to do would be to relocate a good amount of filter media from your established community tank into the filter in the Betta tank.

Bettas don't have a huge bio-load (that I'm aware of), so as long as you're providing enough nitrifying bacteria to convert the waste it is producing, should be an instant cycle.

Just don't pull so much from the community tank that you throw that off balance and cause a mini-cycle in there.

Make sure you're regularly testing for ammonia and nitrites in both tanks after you make the change and should be good to go :)
 
Easiest thing to do would be to relocate a good amount of filter media from your established community tank into the filter in the Betta tank.

Bettas don't have a huge bio-load (that I'm aware of), so as long as you're providing enough nitrifying bacteria to convert the waste it is producing, should be an instant cycle.

Just don't pull so much from the community tank that you throw that off balance and cause a mini-cycle in there.

Make sure you're regularly testing for ammonia and nitrites in both tanks after you make the change and should be good to go :)

The filter in my other tank is the Interpet CF1 and the filter in my Betta tank is a fluval U1, since the filter media used in both are completely different, how would you suggest I do this? sorry if this is a stupid question!

I have been water testing so much, I know I just got him but I'm already attached to this little guy :smitten:
 
I'm not familiar with the filters....perhaps they take cartridges?

Either way, it's just about getting the filter media in there since that's where the vast majority of your beneficial bacteria lives....for example, I purchased "active sponge filters" from Angels Plus recently (they come from cycled tanks), and instead of using them as sponge filters, I took scissors to them, chopped them up and mixed them in with the bio-media in my canister filter.

If they do take cartridges I'd recommend against them. Really just a ploy for them to make more money selling you filters, and since almost all of the bacteria lives in the filters, you're basically recycling your tank every time you replace them.

I've always replaced them with the rolls of filter media you can buy in the store, then during water changes just swish them around in water from the tank (not from the tap) to clean them off and reinsert them. Never replace until they're literally falling apart which takes years, and in that case stick new media next to them for as long as possible for it to establish the beneficial bacteria as well before removing the old.
 
I'm not familiar with the filters....perhaps they take cartridges?

Either way, it's just about getting the filter media in there since that's where the vast majority of your beneficial bacteria lives....for example, I purchased "active sponge filters" from Angels Plus recently (they come from cycled tanks), and instead of using them as sponge filters, I took scissors to them, chopped them up and mixed them in with the bio-media in my canister filter.

If they do take cartridges I'd recommend against them. Really just a ploy for them to make more money selling you filters, and since almost all of the bacteria lives in the filters, you're basically recycling your tank every time you replace them.

I've always replaced them with the rolls of filter media you can buy in the store, then during water changes just swish them around in water from the tank (not from the tap) to clean them off and reinsert them. Never replace until they're literally falling apart which takes years, and in that case stick new media next to them for as long as possible for it to establish the beneficial bacteria as well before removing the old.

Thank you for this, I found your advice really helpful! I chopped up one of the old cartridges from my community tank and placed it into the new filter which is in the betta tank. Been testing my water everyday and doing about a 50% water change once if not twice a day as my Nitrites are really high! No ammonia and 5ppm of Nitrates, does this mean I'm about half way through the cycle? :dance:
 
How high are the nitrItes? If it's keeping ammonia at 0, that's a really good thing....just need to make sure you keep the nitrItes at a safe level until that type of bacteria (nitrite to nitrate) colony grows to keep the tank balanced.

Also keep a close eye on the community tank since you removed media from it to ensure it doesn't have levels spike in there.
 
How high are the nitrItes? If it's keeping ammonia at 0, that's a really good thing....just need to make sure you keep the nitrItes at a safe level until that type of bacteria (nitrite to nitrate) colony grows to keep the tank balanced.

Also keep a close eye on the community tank since you removed media from it to ensure it doesn't have levels spike in there.



They are around the deepest purple on the api master test kit! :( however they do lower by half when I do the water changes, but then they just creep back up again... would you say 50% water change once a day should be enough?
 
Wow. I actually find it hard to believe a Betta is producing so might waste that the nitrItes are that high. Thats unreal.

It's just a single Betta in a 28 liter tank?

Personally I wouldn't let nitrItes get over .25. The lower the better.

There is literally no such thing as too many water changes, just make sure you're using a good conditioner like Prime.
 
Wow. I actually find it hard to believe a Betta is producing so might waste that the nitrItes are that high. Thats unreal.

It's just a single Betta in a 28 liter tank?

Personally I wouldn't let nitrItes get over .25. The lower the better.

There is literally no such thing as too many water changes, just make sure you're using a good conditioner like Prime.

As do I! Really strange, I have been using the fluval bacteria booster which might have something to do with it?

Prime has really helped to keep it down, along with the water changes.. hopefully it moves on from this part of the cycle soon.. :(
 
So I just tested my water today and Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates are all at 0?! For the last week I have had at least .25 Nitrite and also 5 Nitrates.. What is going on? ahhh..
 
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