HELP - water changes? What to do.

[BettaMomma]

Amos is in his new tank - I just tested the water and the nitrates were up a tad.
He's been in the new 5 gallon w/bio wheel filter for 2 days.
I seeded the tank w/gravel from the lfs for bacteria.

When to do the first water change, and how much???

 

[newfishies]

what are the nitrates at? how are the ammonia and nitrites?

 

[BettaMomma]

Nitrates are up to about 30. (they've always been perfectly at zero until now)
Nitrites are perfect - 0.
I'm going to pick up an ammonia test kit today over lunch - don't have one yet...

Should I just wait to see what the ammonia levels are before doing a change?

 

[newfishies]

nitrates from 20-40 are considered "safe" (i believe) so you should be okay. they are the least harmful of the 3 substances. wait until you check the ammonia, and if that it in the unsafe range, then do a partial water change.

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay!
i'll post here what the ammonia levels are when I get back w/the kit.
Thx for the help.

 

[cation]

Yup, nitrates are the end product of the bacterial processes. They can only be removed by water changes or plants. You'll want to keep them under 20 or 30, ideally, but they shouldn't harm your fishy if they're a bit higher. When you have 0 readings for ammonia and nitrite, and you have a reading greater then 0 for your nitrates, your tanks has cycled. Looks like your gravel worked pretty well!

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay, my ammonia level is at .25 - near ideal. Yeah!
Any water change recommended then?

 

[cation]

Okay, it sounds like your tank is doing a mini cycle. I would not change water today, but test it tomorrow and if it's over 0.25, do a WC. Also, next step in the mini-cycle is the ammonia will drop and the nitrites will beging to register, so you want to keep testing for them too.

 

[BettaMomma]

if I need to do a w.c. tomorrow, how much?

OH - and it looks like he's got a mild case of popeye starting up. His eye is starting to get a bit cloudy. Should I treat for that? I'd have to take out the carbon in the filter, wouldn't i?

 

[cation]

If he's getting popeye, you should probably abandon the idea of cycling the tank for a while. He needs clean water, so do a big water change. Also, you may want to look into colloidal silver (if you do a search here on the betta forum, you'll find topics about it. ) It's proven to be a very good treatment for many folks on this board.

 

[BettaMomma]

Okay.
So if I do a big water change today, that will set me back in the cycling?
And should I put treatment into the water? And take out the carbon?

Man, I'm beginning to think life was much simpler back when he was in the 2.5G tank.

uugh

 

[cation]

I don't use carbon in any of my filters unless I'm removing a medication, so I'd say you'd probably want to take it out. Yes, it will set you back in cycling your tank. One option might be to put him back into treatment in a 2.5, and while you are treating him (any decent antibiotic should take at least a week or more for treatment, and if you use the silver, I don't know how long it would take) you could cycle the 5g.

 

[BettaMomma]

Getting another 2.5G isn't an option for me, unfortunately.
Sadly, that would just mean another empty tank for me once the hospitalization is done and that would just mean another rescued betta. -sigh- I can't do another one. Not yet, especially since I'm not sure the one i have from 2 days ago is even going to make it.

SO...
for the popeye treatment - I want to take out the carbon, put the meds in and leave him in there, correct?

Then what?

God, I'm such an idiot - i've read over the whole cycling thing a bazillion times but I still don't quite get it. Man... if only my brain were as big as my heart.

 

[3fsh]

Why not switch him to a large glass/plastic container with 100% water changes every day and dump a piece of shrimp or a bunch of flake food in the tank to cycle it!

 

[BettaMomma]

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him yet.
I might be in the works for buying another, smaller tank with no filter for him.
I'm suspecting he's just irritated with the current.