Hello :)

[Jenj2m]

Hi everyone, my name is Jennifer and I live in Northern California. This is my first time having an aquarium and I’m in the process of cycling a 10g tank for a betta. The betta was my little sisters and was kept in one of those plastic tanks that are commonly used for baby turtles. I felt bad for the little guy so I asked her if I could have him and took him home with me. I’m hoping to give him a proper set up and looking forward for him to gain his color and his fins get better. The tank has been setup with the filter and heater running for about a week now. I used QuickStart and stress coat in the water. I barely got my hands on the api master test kit and but am unsure of what to do now that I have the results. If someone could help me I would appreciate it. I’ve (hopefully) attached a picture of the test results

 

[Aiken Drum]

Its unclear if you are cycling the tank with the betta in the tank or doing a fishless cycle before putting him in.

 

[Jenj2m]

Fishless cycle

I still have him in the the small tank and have been doing a water change every 2 days. When my little sister had him they wouldn’t change the water for weeks, poor guy. I saved some of that water and when I startled cycling the tank I added a bit of the dirty water. I assumed this would be like adding the fish fish food. I’ve been reading about the cycle, but I guess what my question is, should I do a water change Or just continue to let the tank do it’s thing. Thank you for replying

 

[Aiken Drum]

If you arent happy with the conditions your betta is in, it might be best to do 100% water change in the new tank and do a fish in cycle with the betta in its new home. How big a tank is he in at the moment?

 

[Jenj2m]

Yes, I do worry since I’ve read that the minimum they should be kept in is a 3g, and the one he’s currently in is a 1g.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Yeah. I would move him into your 10g. I have a 2.5g tank running at the moment and consider that too small for a betta long term.

Are the water parameters you showed for your 10g or your 1g? I forgot to ask. If they are for your 10g can you post for the 1g. A word of caution on what im going to post below. If the water parameters are terrible in the 1g i would reconsider what im going to say. Your fish will be used to the bad water conditions and moving him into cleaner water might be detrimental.

Big water change on the 10g. Dose quickstart or similar and your water conditioner. Let it run 24 hours, make sure the temp is right etc, water parameters are 0ppm ammonia and nitrite. Take out 50% of the water from your 1g and slowly fill back up with water from your 10g to aclimate the fish to the parameters of the new tank. Then move the fish over. If your 1g has filter media (im assuming there is a filter) you can move to the 10g filter do so. That will help seed your cycle.

You will then be doing a fish in cycle. Water test every day. If you have any detectable ammonia or nitrite do 25% water change. Eventually you will consistently see 0ppm ammonia and nitrite and your nitrate will start to rise. Your tank is then cycled enough for your single fish, and you can cut back on the testing and water changes to weekly.

 

[Jenj2m]

Yes the picture I posted was of the 10g tank. The 1g tank show ammonia between .25 and .50ppm, nitrite at 0ppm and nitrate 5.0

 

[Aiken Drum]

Thats not too bad. I think your betta would benefit from being in the larger tank though and do a fish in cycle as my previous post. Keep on top of water parameters with water changes until it is cycled. Doing a fishless cycle would probably take 4 to 8 weeks during which time your betta would be living in 1g of water so i think moving to a larger tank is best for him even though its probably not cycled yet though.

 

[Jenj2m]

Okay, thanks for the help!!!