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Ah thank you, that's really clear advice. I suppose the online cycling guides must vary depending on their age and location (here in London the water is pretty hard).   Planting the tank around the same time as stocking (with one fish) was the plan. Hopefully that will mop up nitrate as there is...

Yeah this is the other aspect in which advice seems to vary a lot - I did wonder whether 4ppm was a bit high. The online guide I started with advised 4-5ppm.   I'll reduce it to 3ppm for next dose and see how long that takes. Will go with 24 hours if that's worked for everyone here.   Haha, very...

Thanks! Did a small (10%) water change which hasn't affected the nitrate reading really :-/ but will leave it for now.   Ammonia had hit 0 by this morning, so I've redosed it to the 4ppm I've been using to cycle, and will see how long it takes to go. Really hope the cycle isn't restarting.  ...

Nope, only adding ammonia. API master test kit. Ammonia has finally dropped to 0.25, wondering whether to add more so the bacteria can feed, or do a water change to get the nitrates down a bit first.

Updated readings this morning: ammonia 1, nitrite 0, nitrate 160 (I didn't shake it enough yesterday).   This ammonia just doesn't seem to be budging. The pH is 7.4 which I understand to be high enough.   Should i do a pwc? I've read conflicting reports about nitrate being very high and whether...

Aha! Sorry, I should have specified. Yeah, they're pond snails and they're everywhere.

Blough - I didn't add them on purpose, I don't want them!   I understand the cycling process and the importance of not adding fish until the end. My question was, now that snails have sneaked in there without my knowledge and are hard to eradicate, how are they affecting the cycle that has...

Thanks. I'm mystified as to where the ammonia surge came from, but maybe I just overdosed the tank after not feeding it for a couple of days. :-/   Most of these snails are baby tiny ones so probably not interesting to your assassin? And bloody hard to catch.

Hi all. Cycling a 25 litre tank intended for a betta.   I've been using household ammonia (Kleen Off) and all was going well - ammonia and nitrites dropping to almost 0 within 24 hours after about 5 weeks. However, there's a piece of bogwood in there from the pet shop and it appeared a snail or...

Thanks everyone for the thoughts... I tend to agree with you all that filter is better than no filter. The reason I asked is because I'm always surprised to see how many people keep bettas in unfiltered tanks. Maybe just because it's hard to get a filter small enough for the tanks they are...

Hi all I know a few people on here use biorbs or other smallish filtered tanks for bettas. I have got a 30L biorb and one betta in there at the moment (considering adding an albino cory too). I've partly killed the current with a homemade plastic thingamajig. Despite this, Mr Betta has shown no...

It's 30L (8 gallons or thereabouts?) and has cycled filter. I cleaned & did 30% water change in the last week, but will have an extra go at the gravel before I leave.

Thanks - I agree about being careful with fish-sitters. Part of the reason I'm nervous is that I once went away leaving a betta bowl and a goldfish tank, and my flatmate got the foods mixed up and fed too much as well........ the goldfish died...... :-( Anyway - I have put out a plea to my...

Hey, I have 1 adult male betta in a filtered tank. He's normally fed once daily, but we are going on holiday and there will be 10 days when I'm not here to feed him at all. How long can a betta go without food, realistically? I'm thinking 10 days is too long? Would getting someone to come in...