Newbie with a used 20G tank and 9 female Betta recovering from my ignorance ? help p

[Timi.moma]

Newbie with a used 20G tank and 9 female Betta recovering from my ignorance ? help p

As I'm sure u can assume from my title, I'm in need of help. Omg, it's a long story but it ends with I love my Betta girls and just want them happy and healthy! I have read everything I can find on keeping bettas but I keep finding out too late that I have, yet again, done something wrong. I'm starting to get discouraged. So after a recent fatal disaster due to my ignorance, I am starting over completely! Iv acquired a New to me tank twice the size of my last 10gal from my loving boyfriend as a don't give up gift that I'm cleaning up and preparing to set up while my 11 surviving betta r being quaritined and treated for various fish illnesses. Fortunatly they seem to all be better and more than ready to be returned to a larger tank, but I have fears naturally so any advice would be much appreciated!!!!

 

[Delapool]

Hi,

Welcome to the forum

I've included some articles below which may help.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ou-get-started-with-your-aquarium-154837.html

 

[Timi.moma]

Hi!! And thank you, I'm not quite sure how this site works yet but I'm lovin it so far! Thank you so much for your comforting support! I'm going to go look at those sites you sent me now. Oh and turns out it's a 30gal New to me tank too ?

 

[Timi.moma]

Ms Dellapool thank u so much but i still need help...

Ok so I didn't find the link you said you sent to me, I thinkin may be doing something wrong on this site or something, i am techno challenged!! Bit also this tank turned out to be a 30gal not 20, just wanted to let you know that incase whatever link u sent would affect to that knowledge. Anyway, I don't have anything sturdy enough to hold the 30gal till my boyfriend builds me something this weekend so I have begun setting up my last ( already cleaned out) 10 gal tank untill my new (Rolling) stand is complete. Problem is I premixed the water (about 100×) trying to get it at a perfect 7.0Ph for my harem and even got it right without using cgemucals ? but once I put it in the tank to cycle for a few days before adding my girls to it the 0Ph jumped up and kh jumped down!! The only thing that's in the darn tank that I haven't already tested is the rocks I just cleaned and boiled over and over again. I read somewhere that in order to have the happiest healthiest fish u have to mimic their surroundings in the wild so I replaced their old multi collored gravel for these rocks I have from an old driveway I always foundvpretty rocks in. Over all it looks a lot more neural and natural than the previous gravel from Wal-Mart, but I think it's killing the kh, am I crazy or could these ricksbbe the culprit in this problem?

 

[Delapool]

Hi, posted in thread as I think you will get more replies that way and Australia is pretty much out of sync with the rest of the world on just about anything.

I think congrats for doing the research! Fish tanks I find brilliant to watch but can be a pain sometimes when not working right and I think we've all been there. Looking forward to seeing pics of the new stand.

One question I had is how are you cycling your tank to build up the bacterial populations to convert fish waste ammonia to nitrites to nitrates? [FONT=&quot]Generally cycling a tank will take around a month unless you introduce the bacteria from an already cycled tank, bacteria in a bottle, etc. Apologies if you have this sorted. Just thought to ask in case.

It sounds like you are well ahead with test kits so I would also test the tap water used for water changes. This will give you the base line. I would test ph straight away and then let it degas in a jar for 24hrs before re-testing. This will give you the true ph as well.

Did you try adding vinegar to the rocks? Fizzing could indicate they are carbonates. Also what sort of readings are you getting for all tests. Off-hand ph could increase if CO2 is de-gassed off from tank water but I can't explain the kh drop

But generally I find as long as the fish are in similar water to the fish shop they will do ok. I keep mollies and tetras in the same tank. The tank has CO2 injection so the ph daily shifts from around 7.2 to 6.5 and back.

I do like a natural tank but that is probably preference on my part. Imo plants are quite useful for cover and sadly in my case, for a midnight snack for the fish.

[/FONT]

 

[Timi.moma]

Wow, you know, you r really very smart Ms. Dellapool!! Those r great questions! So first of all no body told me about the whole cycling thing at all nor did it come up in all my research, but signs of stressed out fish did and I noticed a note of something called stresszyme+, after reading the back of the bottle I just put 2 and 2 together on my own, lol, but only recently really.anyway, so I prefix my water for the tanks in a huge plastic tub a week or so in advance to make.sure the ph and etc.is all stable and that has the bacteria in it, but I'm not sure that counts so I also put mg old filter in with the new one for about a week before doing a filter change. I am going to try a different approach on filtering with this New tank tho, I'm going.to quit using these carbon filters and quit changing them out so often and I'm looking into a couple other ideas as well, nothing New to you I'm sure. I just forgot the name of the three items in involved in my New filtering system, but I get back to u with it, it starts with a U, idk, it's been a long day, lol.
I changed out the gravel, like I said I was going to do today and had to do a 50% water change ?. Exchanging the rocks for actual fish aquarium gravel fixed the Gh and Ph readings but the ammonia levels were already out of controls so I had to do the water change too but I seem to have things back in working order again, thank goodness!
Ok so I think u also asked exactly what my water was testing at, well after all the fun today these were my test results ( I have started to record EVERYTHING I do with these tanks now, Down to the t!)
No3-0. No2-0. Ph-7.2-7.4. Kh- between 90 and 100 and Gh-Between 40-50. Not perfect but livable for now and holding steady so far. The ammonia is still too high so I'm going to go get some Ace tomorrow as soon as petsmart opens back up.
Also I got a cute little plicose? Suckerfish today ? Its not the one That gets huge, this one will only get a max of 5" long, it has the word mouth in it's name. I can't remember right now, but it's the first fish other than these bettas we have ever had, guess we Il see how things go. The water it came in from the store tested amazingly close.to my bettas tank water so I went ahead and released it in with the girls and so far so good, lol. I wanna try some of those cute little frogs next, African dwarf frogs I believe and I don't know of I have mentioned it but I have a few plants in there too, nothing special.
I snapped a pic at just the perfect time earlier and got a great funny image.of several of my girls curiously.checking out, lol!! I was gunna share but I can't figure it out.for nothing! U obviously know how to upload pics could u try to walk me thru it please, if u get a free moment?
Ps, the.stand.is conning along slowly, but had everything I wanted in the makings ? can't wait!!

 

[Timi.moma]

Ok, so come to find out, petsmart us not open on Sundays here ? and the only running vehicle goes to work with my bf every week day till 6-7pm plus its presidents day-to-day so petsmart won't be back open til tues and I won't be able to get there thrill around 8pm earliest on tues to be able to get anything to help with the ammonia problem, so I guess my only option is to do another 50% water exchange today ?. Unless anyone knows any great home remedy for lowering ammonia in a detta fish tank?

 

[Delapool]

Unfortunately not. Once the fish are in the tank (fish in cycling) and providing the ammonia for the nitrifying bacteria then water changes are your best bet. Unfortunately the novelty of this wears off fairly quickly but the good news is you only need to do it once (mostly)


Water conditioners that detoxify ammonia for 24 to 48hrs are also recommended eg seachem prime or api ammo lock. The bacteria can still use the detoxified ammonia to cycle the tank.


Ammonia in tank water of 0.25 to 0.5 is enough. The bacteria will increase their population to catch up and you will be able reduce water changes. Just in case, I wouldn't get any more fish until your ammonia readings go to 0.

 

[Timi.moma]

Thank you Ms.Dellapool!You have been so helpfull thru all of this, I really do appreciate your time and knowledge, thanks a million again!!! I don't know a single soal with fish tanks and this was my first time so u have no idea how great it is to have someone to talk to about this and someone with a great intellect and experience on the subject well Iv truely been blessed, thank you!
I will definitely not be getting anymore fish untill I have lots more experience and I'm about to start setting up and cycling the New to me 30 gal, but now I know to do it for a month or more before adding fish. So I may still make mistakes in the future but hopefully with friends like u and sites like this, they won't be the same mistakes and they will be far and few between ?