Do I need to have gravel in a 2.5 gallon Bow tank?

[goose]

I have a really sick betta that I have been trying to nurse back to health but I don't think he is gonna mke it due to him not eating.

After not having a filter in his tank I decided to put the filter that came with the tank in their without the carbon (running Jungle Parasite Clear meds)

In any event I want to empty his tank of gravel so that no waste or uneaten food is trapped in there that would promote bacterica growth...

So is this a bad idea taking the gravel out?

 

[Sicklid]

probably easier to medicate him in a separate container.

 

[goose]

Well I have a heater in his tank and it is pretty cold in my place..I don't want to drop his temp so quickly as my only other container is a half gallon bowl....

I just want to know if gravel is a requirement to hold onto "good bacteria"? I should have kept him in a bowl...I tried to make things nice for him and he now looks like he is gonna die

Bettas in bowls at work seem to have no problem living in water that looks like it has not been changed for weeks....

 

[bs6749]

I wouldn't remove it simply because you will lose almost all of your beneficial bacteria and will probably notice a bunch of spikes in your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate if you do so.

 

[DepotFish]

Parasite clear tabs usually kill the good bacteria, so if you are already using them keep up water changes and don't worry about the gravel. Your problem isn't that you kept him in bad conditions, bettas are not a strong fish and once they get something its hard to bring their health back. They don't have long lifespans either. Don't be mad at yourself for trying. Hopefully he'll get better.

 

[confusion]

Parasite clear doesn't kill the bio filter, but fungus clear will kill it handily. You are best putting him in a different container and doing something (live shrimp, etc?) in the bow tank to keep the filter going, and use ammo-lock in the container you use to treat him.

 

[goose]

No bio filter in the Bow...just a Whisper Micro Filer with no carbon in it

 

[An t-iasg]

I would guess that no bacteria are really present in the Mini-bow anyway. You haven't run the filter for any kind of water movement or aeration so I wouldn't expect the tank is cycled.

I know you're treating a sick betta in there and you didn't want the filter current to stress him. The filter and media that came with the tank is not all that great in terms of promoting and maintaining a cycle anyway, IMO.

If you want to take the gravel out, go ahead. I never use gravel when I set up this tank as a QT for my bettas. I do run the filter empty just for water movement. I set the adjustment slider notch (or whatever it's called!) to the smallest part of the triangle shown. This flow will not bother a healthy betta. I hope it won't bother your betta.

I noticed that without a filter (for water movement) in this tank, the heated water does not mix well. I thought the heated water would create its own energy to move it around the tank. (laws of thermodynamics??) But when the thermometer on the bottom of the tank said 74 after the heater was running, I reached my hand in and noticed a definite difference in temperature between the bottom and top levels of the water. The bottom water was cooler than the top water. Ever since then, I've used a heater (25 watt Visitherm Deluxe) and used the filter, with no media, turned on the lowest setting. I do a 1 gallon water change every other day when I use this tank.