Cycling with betta

[kimball2014]

Hello, I set up a new 5 gallon tank and put one male betta a week ago. I've been checking the ammonia level every day and it always stayed from 0 to 0.25ppm but it went up to 0.5ppm this morning. Should I do some water change? I asked a guy at Petco and he said that I shouldn't change the water for the few weeks.

 

[addisonnolann]

Do a water change whenever the ammonia gets to .5, or your fish will suffer.


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[kimball2014]

Do a water change whenever the ammonia gets to .5, or your fish will suffer.


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Do I clean the gravels when I do a PWC? I have been doing 10% PWC every day and cleaned the gravels as well. The water is always cloudy and the ammonia level is from 0.25 to 0.5. It has been 13 days since I started cycling but I do not see any progress.

ammonia 0.25 - 0.5
nitrite 0
nitrate 0

 

[addisonnolann]

No, not at first anyways. Allow your beneficial bacteria to build up and continue water changes


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[kimball2014]

It has been 19 days since I first started cycling and finally I see some nitrites! I just did 15% of PWC because the ammonia is at 0.5ppm. Does this look normal? My understading was that the ammonia should spike up and then nitrites spikes up as ammonia level goes down. My ammonia level has been pretty much steady at 0.5ppm and these days I have been doing 10% of PWC daily.

Ammonia: 0.5ppm
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.4