Aquarium Help

[Throk]

Greetings all,

I posted some pictures in hopes for an explanation. The first photo is from day two after set up and the following pictures are from several weeks later. I had to do a fish in cycle because a moron of a friend got a beta fish for a white elephant gift and I took it because I knew who ever else got it would let it die. I bought this 8 Gallon tank and I use a Hygger 110GPH Filter. The filter is recessed behind a custom rock background fixture. I Don't know if the filter is working very well due to it being hidden behind the rock wall, which believe is preventing it from skimming debris from the surface.

Over the past two days my water turned from what picture 1 has been to what it is now. The water turns this way within a day after cleaning it. I have been having this white gunk growing all over the organic material as well (it especially likes my heater). The Indian almond leaves had to be taken out because this black mold grows on it within a day (I have replaced them twice and gave up). Any idea what is the problem is all of a sudden? Also my Ammonia has been near zero for awhile and all of a sudden it has been rising more and more even when using Seachem Prime. My Nitrate also randomly showed up on my last test even with 0 Nitrite, which I am confused about.

Water Tests:
PH-7.5
Ammonia- 0.5
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0.25
GH-300
KH-140

I use Sechem Stability, Flourish Excel every day, Prime and Flourish every other day. (I also have Flourish iron and Clarity as well).

 

[Barliman]

First, good job giving the little fella a home. What you're doing is called a "fish-in" cycle. There's an article here that might help you:
Fish-in Cycling: Step over into the dark side - Aquarium Advice

You're essentially using the ammonia generated by decaying matter and the fish's waste to help grow bacteria that will eat the ammonia and convert to nitrites. Then other bacteria eat the nitrites and convert it to relatively safe nitrates. Fish-in cycles can be stressful on the fish, but with care can be done.

I would stop adding the Prime: I'm not sure, but I think the way it locks up ammonia will slow your cycling. Instead, I would change half the water every other day for a couple of weeks. Use the Prime in the new water to make it safe for the fish, and make sure it's within a couple of degrees of the tank's water. (Bettas like it warm, roughly 79-80 degrees.)

The white stuff sounds like a fungus that should disappear in a few weeks. It's common in new tanks.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

[libertybelle]

According to Seachem, prime will make ammonia and nitrites safer without making them unavailable to your bacteria so I wouldn’t worry about that. I use it myself whenever I add new inhabitants to make the adjustment less stressful for the fish if there’s any ammonia.

Sounds like you’re off to a great start! Seeing nitrates is a good thing, means you have both populations of bacteria up and running, so to speak. Now you just have to wait for the bacteria to catch up to the fish load.

Feed sparingly for a few days and it will ease the transition. (Bettas often do well with a fast day anyway once a week or so, so it certainly won’t hurt him to eat light for a few days)

The cloudiness is normal and harmless; it’s due to the bacteria growing in the water column. It will settle down and make its home in your filter soon enough. If it bothers you you can do a water change to clear it a little but it will just come back until your cycle stabilizes.

Edit: Don’t use clarity for this kind of cloudiness, by the way, it’s unnecessary and will make the cloudiness much worse unless you have good fine mechanical filtration.