Nonie
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hi there,
I am totally new to the aquarium world. I agreed to let my office have a fish as an office pet and impulsively went and bought a betta and a small aquarium at Petco on 4/2/18. Fortunately I started looking into it before I set the tank up and returned it the next day for a 5 gallon Fluval spec. But I knew nothing about cycling. And all the paraphernalia that goes with a fish! =)
I have aquarium sand in the bottom, a live plant, a soft plastic plant, a silky feathery plant, a floating log, plus a couple of decorative things for him to hide in. Plus the filter that came with the tank and a preset heater and a thermometer. The tank stays about 76 degrees. I made a baffle for the outflow tube with a plastic water bottle, making sure there were no soft edges (George loves to play in there, the nutcase!). I have been putting in cappa leaves.
I love my little half moon betta (George). He is an absolute hoot and I don't regret for one minute getting him. I did hire a zebra nerite snail (Fred) and a bristlenose pleco (Emmet) as housekeeping staff a week and a half later, on the advice of the fish person at Petco, still not really understanding cycling.
I got a test tube water kit and have been tracking the water quality. I'm doing water changes weekly (so I've done 3 partials by now). I do about a gallon and a half at a time with a siphon vacuum.
My pH bounces a little, but not overly much. We have hard water in our area. At first I was using purified drinking water, but after testing our well water here, I used that for part of yesterday's water change. I add a tsp of Aqueon Betta Bowl Plus to every gallon.
I added Tetra Safe Start with the last 2 water changes. Today I added an Eco Bio Stone, after soaking it overnight.
Here are my water test readings, taken 4/9, 4/13, 4/16, 4/23:
pH: 7.6, 7.2, 7, 7.6
High pH: 7.4, not taken, not taken, 7.4
Ammonia: 0,.25, .5, 1, (then again after yesterday's change: .5)
Nitrite: 0,0,0,0
Nitrate: 0,0,0,0
TDS: not taken, 131, 146, 139
I am concerned about the ammonia. I don't want George hurt!
I am mainly feeding him Omega One betta buffet pellets and frozen bloodworms. I feed him twice a day and have come in once each weekend to give him a feeding. I give him 2 pellets and a little bit of bloodworms. They have tended to be small in the frozen cubes so am giving him 5 or 6 small? They're sort of in pieces. I did more research last night and thought maybe I'm giving him too many worms, so this morning only gave him the 2 pellets.
I give the snail and the pleco algae tablets. I gave them a piece of blanched zucchini last Friday and a piece of blanched romaine. I removed both of those yesterday and put in another zucchini last night. I doubt I'll do the romaine again because it created a mess when I took it out. =P
That's about it. George seems happy. He's created 2 bubble nests, this morning's was huge!
Tell me what I should do to make the most ideal environment for Emmet, Fred, and George. =) I would be heartbroken if anything happened to them, particularly George. I never knew a fish could have so much personality! I like that George.
I am totally new to the aquarium world. I agreed to let my office have a fish as an office pet and impulsively went and bought a betta and a small aquarium at Petco on 4/2/18. Fortunately I started looking into it before I set the tank up and returned it the next day for a 5 gallon Fluval spec. But I knew nothing about cycling. And all the paraphernalia that goes with a fish! =)
I have aquarium sand in the bottom, a live plant, a soft plastic plant, a silky feathery plant, a floating log, plus a couple of decorative things for him to hide in. Plus the filter that came with the tank and a preset heater and a thermometer. The tank stays about 76 degrees. I made a baffle for the outflow tube with a plastic water bottle, making sure there were no soft edges (George loves to play in there, the nutcase!). I have been putting in cappa leaves.
I love my little half moon betta (George). He is an absolute hoot and I don't regret for one minute getting him. I did hire a zebra nerite snail (Fred) and a bristlenose pleco (Emmet) as housekeeping staff a week and a half later, on the advice of the fish person at Petco, still not really understanding cycling.
I got a test tube water kit and have been tracking the water quality. I'm doing water changes weekly (so I've done 3 partials by now). I do about a gallon and a half at a time with a siphon vacuum.
My pH bounces a little, but not overly much. We have hard water in our area. At first I was using purified drinking water, but after testing our well water here, I used that for part of yesterday's water change. I add a tsp of Aqueon Betta Bowl Plus to every gallon.
I added Tetra Safe Start with the last 2 water changes. Today I added an Eco Bio Stone, after soaking it overnight.
Here are my water test readings, taken 4/9, 4/13, 4/16, 4/23:
pH: 7.6, 7.2, 7, 7.6
High pH: 7.4, not taken, not taken, 7.4
Ammonia: 0,.25, .5, 1, (then again after yesterday's change: .5)
Nitrite: 0,0,0,0
Nitrate: 0,0,0,0
TDS: not taken, 131, 146, 139
I am concerned about the ammonia. I don't want George hurt!
I am mainly feeding him Omega One betta buffet pellets and frozen bloodworms. I feed him twice a day and have come in once each weekend to give him a feeding. I give him 2 pellets and a little bit of bloodworms. They have tended to be small in the frozen cubes so am giving him 5 or 6 small? They're sort of in pieces. I did more research last night and thought maybe I'm giving him too many worms, so this morning only gave him the 2 pellets.
I give the snail and the pleco algae tablets. I gave them a piece of blanched zucchini last Friday and a piece of blanched romaine. I removed both of those yesterday and put in another zucchini last night. I doubt I'll do the romaine again because it created a mess when I took it out. =P
That's about it. George seems happy. He's created 2 bubble nests, this morning's was huge!
Tell me what I should do to make the most ideal environment for Emmet, Fred, and George. =) I would be heartbroken if anything happened to them, particularly George. I never knew a fish could have so much personality! I like that George.