Hello new forum 
I have recently become another owner of a wonderful betta fish called Milton who is fantastic, however his water chemistry in the tank is worrying, confusing and frustrating me so i'm hoping some more experienced people can help me out!
(LONG post sorry, want to give as much detail as possible)
Tank details / history
It is a 5 gallon (20-21 liter) tank: Buy Marine Master Panoramic EziStart Glass Fish Tank Starter Kit 21L | Read Reviews | BIG W Online Store Australia
It was previously my sister tank which held some tetras for close to a year, the tank was fully cycled and didn't have any fish loss (amazing since the filter wasn't that great but did its job in the end) She grew tired of fish keeping, gave the tetras to my mother and let me have the tank.
I totally cleaned the tank (it had SUPER algae growth) including the gravel really well, cleaned the filter (just the pipes not the actual bacteria growing media) and replaced the fake plants with brand new ones.
CURRENTLY the tank has plain grey gravel (medium size), silk plants, a log of driftwood and a anubis plant that i'm attempting to grow on the wood.
How i set up the tank
I took some seeded and used filter wool from my already cycled (been so for 2+ years- yes with cleaning monthly
) 3ft tank and used half clean filter wool. I also replaced the ceramic tubes for the filter with some from the cycled tank. I filled the tank with half water from my big tank and half clean conditioned water and let this run for 2 days (set up the tank 21/4/13) , These were the results at the FIRST test (with no fish):
(23/4/13)
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: 0ppm
NitRAte: 40-80ppm
Ph: 7.2
Since the nitRAte was higher then i wanted, i did a 50% water change the day of that test with PRIME.
(24/4/13)
The following day i bought my betta home (the store could only hold fish for 3 days) and did another 25% water change to be sure about the nitRAtes which after another test were still higher then i liked (and my nitRItes were also a little bit higher)
I did the normal routine of introducing a fish into the aquarium and Milton was home!
(25/4/13)
I re-tested the water again the day after introducing Milton into the tank and these were the results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: .5ppm
NitRAte: 40-80ppm
ph: 7.2
After this reading i did another 50% water change and used a little higher then usual dosage of PRIME to try to bring it down. This is when i also started getting confused, why was my tank almost fine, then within one day things started going out of wack!
(26/4/13)
This day i did ANOTHER 50% water change in the morning and retested again and these were the results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: .5-1ppm
NitRAte: 80ppm
WHAT? how in the world did i have such a massive spike in everything?
I started focusing my time on water changes and after some quick reading i realized that 50% was proberly over doing it (i guess i was freaking out for Milton's health)
I did yet another water change that afternoon of 15% using now both PRIME and API QUICK START (i had bought API QUICK START that day after talking with my aquarium shop guy who suggested that i use it) this time again both higher then normal doses and these were the results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: still .50-1ppm *the colours are so similar!
NitRAte: 20ppm
ph: 7.2
Good to see the nitRAtes were lowering, but now the nitRItes were bothering me!!
and finally, TODAY (27/4/13)
Did yet another 50% water change when i returned from work, re-dosed with more then usual PRIME and API QUICK START and this is what i found:
Ammonia: 0ppm (could have been a TINY bit higher i wasnt too sure because of the lighting)
NitRIte: still .50-1ppm
NitRAte: 5-10ppm
PHEW, if you managed to read all that, THANK YOU!
So with all that information, where do people think i am in this situation, am i in the middle of a "mini cycle" or have i just restarted my cycle from the beginning?
How else do you recommend that i bring down the nitRItes levels? Continue with the water changes or leave it for a few days now that i have some ideal levels of nitRAtes?
Please ask questions incase i have missed anything!
Thanks, Erin.
I have recently become another owner of a wonderful betta fish called Milton who is fantastic, however his water chemistry in the tank is worrying, confusing and frustrating me so i'm hoping some more experienced people can help me out!
(LONG post sorry, want to give as much detail as possible)
Tank details / history
It is a 5 gallon (20-21 liter) tank: Buy Marine Master Panoramic EziStart Glass Fish Tank Starter Kit 21L | Read Reviews | BIG W Online Store Australia
It was previously my sister tank which held some tetras for close to a year, the tank was fully cycled and didn't have any fish loss (amazing since the filter wasn't that great but did its job in the end) She grew tired of fish keeping, gave the tetras to my mother and let me have the tank.
I totally cleaned the tank (it had SUPER algae growth) including the gravel really well, cleaned the filter (just the pipes not the actual bacteria growing media) and replaced the fake plants with brand new ones.
CURRENTLY the tank has plain grey gravel (medium size), silk plants, a log of driftwood and a anubis plant that i'm attempting to grow on the wood.
How i set up the tank
I took some seeded and used filter wool from my already cycled (been so for 2+ years- yes with cleaning monthly
) 3ft tank and used half clean filter wool. I also replaced the ceramic tubes for the filter with some from the cycled tank. I filled the tank with half water from my big tank and half clean conditioned water and let this run for 2 days (set up the tank 21/4/13) , These were the results at the FIRST test (with no fish):(23/4/13)
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: 0ppm
NitRAte: 40-80ppm
Ph: 7.2
Since the nitRAte was higher then i wanted, i did a 50% water change the day of that test with PRIME.
(24/4/13)
The following day i bought my betta home (the store could only hold fish for 3 days
) and did another 25% water change to be sure about the nitRAtes which after another test were still higher then i liked (and my nitRItes were also a little bit higher)I did the normal routine of introducing a fish into the aquarium and Milton was home!
(25/4/13)
I re-tested the water again the day after introducing Milton into the tank and these were the results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: .5ppm
NitRAte: 40-80ppm
ph: 7.2
After this reading i did another 50% water change and used a little higher then usual dosage of PRIME to try to bring it down. This is when i also started getting confused, why was my tank almost fine, then within one day things started going out of wack!
(26/4/13)
This day i did ANOTHER 50% water change in the morning and retested again and these were the results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: .5-1ppm
NitRAte: 80ppm
WHAT? how in the world did i have such a massive spike in everything?
I started focusing my time on water changes and after some quick reading i realized that 50% was proberly over doing it (i guess i was freaking out for Milton's health)
I did yet another water change that afternoon of 15% using now both PRIME and API QUICK START (i had bought API QUICK START that day after talking with my aquarium shop guy who suggested that i use it) this time again both higher then normal doses and these were the results:
Ammonia: 0ppm
NitRIte: still .50-1ppm *the colours are so similar!
NitRAte: 20ppm
ph: 7.2
Good to see the nitRAtes were lowering, but now the nitRItes were bothering me!!
and finally, TODAY (27/4/13)
Did yet another 50% water change when i returned from work, re-dosed with more then usual PRIME and API QUICK START and this is what i found:
Ammonia: 0ppm (could have been a TINY bit higher i wasnt too sure because of the lighting)
NitRIte: still .50-1ppm
NitRAte: 5-10ppm
PHEW, if you managed to read all that, THANK YOU!
So with all that information, where do people think i am in this situation, am i in the middle of a "mini cycle" or have i just restarted my cycle from the beginning?
How else do you recommend that i bring down the nitRItes levels? Continue with the water changes or leave it for a few days now that i have some ideal levels of nitRAtes?
Please ask questions incase i have missed anything!
Thanks, Erin.
