What is going on in my betta tank?

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itschromesteel

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jul 18, 2011
Messages
121
Location
Jupiter, florida
i have had the same lightly planted 5.5 gallon tank for my male betta for about a year. i tested my tank this morning out of curiosity and the ammonia was 0 and my betta was happy and healthy looking. i went out came home 5 hours later and my fish is almost white laying on the bottom of his tank. So i test his water and the ammonia is off the chart over 8.0ppm and deep deep blue. I do water changes every week don't overfeed and have no dead plants i am dumbfound. any ideas?
 
Woah! That's a massive amount of ammonia!! Water change like crazy! I dont know what could have caused that, unless maybe there have been any cleaning products sprayed in the air near the tank?

hope your little guy makes it!
 
Yeah, 5 hours to make ammonia rise from 0 to 8ppm means something really bad happened. A tank with that level of stocking won't produce that much that quickly from fish waste, so I'd look into possible contaminants. Something dumped into the tank maybe, or as mentioned above, something sprayed nearby. Also, less likely, but possibly something getting stirred up from deep in a gravel bed could do it.
 
Luckily for me I finished cycling my 60 gallon tank recently and nothing is in it so I just quickly grabbed up the betta and put him in there he is okay just confused on what to do with all that space.
 
What kind of filter are you running on this tank? Does the filter have carbon, resin, or a carbon-type component to it?

Because what happens with Carbon and other "chemical sponges" is that if they ever get "full" - they will actually reverse direction and begin releasing nasty stuff back into the water.
 
It does have carbon and I was thinking about that. I have been considering using a sponge filter on his tank because the bioload is so low. But my new problem this morning when I tested aging I have no nitrates. Which I did yesterday morning. Idk he is looking at me like please don't buy the spotted climbing perch let me live in the 60 gallon lol
 
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