kj287
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Okay, so exactly one month ago today we got my son a Betta fish. I thought I had done adequate research beforehand. I was nervous because neither my husband or I had ever been able to keep fish alive as children since our parents had no idea what they were doing, so I wanted to do this right so we could keep his fish alive. I fell in love with the little thing and within a couple days I went out and got my own.
Well, I actually did pretty good except for one thing. I hadn’t discovered cycling... of course.
So a couple days after we got mine I freaked out, bought the API testing kit and starting looking into how to do this with the fish already there. So far so good. I just do frequent 50% water changes and I’m careful not to clean the gravel and I leave the filter alone. As far as products goes we are using API Stress Coat as our water conditioner, plus Quick Start, and Stress Zyme.
After about a week into having them and doing even more research I started regretting buying the 3 gallon tanks, so I shopped around for bigger ones. We got two of the Marineland contour 5 gallon tanks because they are bigger, but also still fit in the current places we have them. So I set those up and started trying to cycle them a couple days ago.
Here’s my main question-
I don’t even think the tanks we currently have them in are cycled yet! NitrAtes and nitrItes are always 0 and we’ve had tiny ammonia spikes a couple times where it was still only 0.5, so I just did 80% water changes (again, not cleaning gravel or filter). I’ve read a couple places that tiny tanks like that may never cycle correctly.
So is there any point in me trying to cycle the 5 gallon tanks? Should I just put them in and keep doing what I’m doing in the bigger tanks? I mean at least they’ll be in bigger tanks, right? The frequent water changes in the 3 gallons really are easy, it’s so small the longest part is just getting the water ready. I don’t see it being much harder in the 5 gallons. Just takes a bigger bucket! Lol
We also got a 40 gallon from one of my husbands coworkers that has 5 Mollies. I was hoping to use the filter from that to help cycle the tanks, but we discovered after we got them home they have fish fungus (saprolegniasis). The tank was disgusting, but in the guys defense he is elderly and was getting rid of all of his fish because he says he doesn’t have the energy anymore. So I’m treating that with no issues so far, but obviously can’t use that filter since I don’t want to give the fungus to our bettas.
Sorry that’s a lot, I’m just so nervous because I had no idea how much I’d end up loving these little guys and I don’t want to mess it up.
Well, I actually did pretty good except for one thing. I hadn’t discovered cycling... of course.
So a couple days after we got mine I freaked out, bought the API testing kit and starting looking into how to do this with the fish already there. So far so good. I just do frequent 50% water changes and I’m careful not to clean the gravel and I leave the filter alone. As far as products goes we are using API Stress Coat as our water conditioner, plus Quick Start, and Stress Zyme.
After about a week into having them and doing even more research I started regretting buying the 3 gallon tanks, so I shopped around for bigger ones. We got two of the Marineland contour 5 gallon tanks because they are bigger, but also still fit in the current places we have them. So I set those up and started trying to cycle them a couple days ago.
Here’s my main question-
I don’t even think the tanks we currently have them in are cycled yet! NitrAtes and nitrItes are always 0 and we’ve had tiny ammonia spikes a couple times where it was still only 0.5, so I just did 80% water changes (again, not cleaning gravel or filter). I’ve read a couple places that tiny tanks like that may never cycle correctly.
So is there any point in me trying to cycle the 5 gallon tanks? Should I just put them in and keep doing what I’m doing in the bigger tanks? I mean at least they’ll be in bigger tanks, right? The frequent water changes in the 3 gallons really are easy, it’s so small the longest part is just getting the water ready. I don’t see it being much harder in the 5 gallons. Just takes a bigger bucket! Lol
We also got a 40 gallon from one of my husbands coworkers that has 5 Mollies. I was hoping to use the filter from that to help cycle the tanks, but we discovered after we got them home they have fish fungus (saprolegniasis). The tank was disgusting, but in the guys defense he is elderly and was getting rid of all of his fish because he says he doesn’t have the energy anymore. So I’m treating that with no issues so far, but obviously can’t use that filter since I don’t want to give the fungus to our bettas.
Sorry that’s a lot, I’m just so nervous because I had no idea how much I’d end up loving these little guys and I don’t want to mess it up.
