My Poor Sato

[Skizzy]

Huh, gonna have to research this cycling business more.

Also, I just thought of something. The water here in Calgary has fluoride added to it. Will that have any affect on the betta?

 

[azulfire24]

dunno but u could use a good quality water conditoner with every new water change and when u start the tank ,, just follow the instructions on the bottle

 

[Skizzy]

I have been using water conditioners, every time. As for the quality, though, I'm not sure. Recently I've been using Aqua Plus and API Stress Coat.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

ich treatment, i used protozin, which was fantastic

ok cycling ur filter, basically leave ur filter running in ur tank for approx a month, no fish in it, this is to allow beneficial bacteria to establish within your filter, which aids the break down of the harmfull chemicals (nitrite, nitrate and ammonia)

add stuff to the water like filter aid, filter start etc, also a product called cycle, this will help with the growth of the bacteria, over here in the Uk we have these little round balls in ammonia called baktinettes, which lfs sells, they are also pretty good to add to the filter to promote bacteria growth

basically if u put a fish in a tank whilst the filter is cycling ur subjecting your fish to unhealthy levels on nitrate, nitrite and ammonia, which can and most likely will kill whilst cycling

my advice to u is, change over to sand, get some real plants, and let ur filter cycle for approx 4weeks b4 adding a fish, also buy a liquid test kit, so u can check ur water stats b4 adding a fish

good luck

Uhh This is rubbish, running your tank for a month on its own will do nothing! you need to add ammonia to the tank otherwise the bacteria will not start to grow until you add your fish, you can use ordinary household ammonia as long as it is only ammonia and water.

you need to add enough ammonia to your tank to produce a reading of 5ppm of ammonia on a test kit. check the ammonia every day until it drops to zero, then add more (5ppm again) keep checking every day and adding more. Once the ammonia reading drops, you also need to start checking for nitrIte. when both ammonia and nitrIte are showing readings of zero 12 hours after adding the ammonia, then your tank is cycled.

what is cycle? is it supposed to add bacteria to the tank? as the only ones which work are bactinettes in the uk or biospira in the usa. they must be kept refrigerated until use. bactinettes also only contain the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrIte, not the ones which convert nitrIte to nitrAte, so the cycle still takes some time when using this.

don't just "let your filter cycle for 4 weeks" as sometimes it can take longer than this, always keep going until the ammonia and nitrIte are gone within 12 hours, thats the only way to be sure.

urrr if u read my post after, i did mention the ammonia!! i was tryna help skizzy out as best i could, and i missed a bit, which i then did correct on my post after, thats if u bothered to read it

im sorry i carnt be as flippin perfect but hey atleast the thought was there seen as not one other person even replied to give advice, and yes there were people online last nite who cuda posted, rather than not reply to her post i thought id help ans give advice on how i have been told to cycle a tank. granted i missed the ammonia part out, but again if u bothered to read my post after i did say ammonia is needed to cycle a tank

there was no need to be rude about it ya know, thats half the problem on here, some1 gets something wrong and that person gets shot down for it #### i was just trying to help

well in a small tank the sand wont be too hard to look after, a turkey baster is good to use to suck up the rubbish off the sand

also what i didnt mention, its a good idea to add some liquid ammonia to the tank, as this is what the bacteria feeds on, so it well get the bacteria growing a treat, from what i have read and have been told, once ur nitrite readings reach 0ppm, then ur tank is fully cycled

some people do things diff, my filter in my 4gallon, i used media from my other filter which is very well established, and added it to my new filter, it helped cycle the tank quicker, but each to their own

see there ya go ibble, theres the ammonia bit, again im no expert on it, but that was the basics of what i have been told

 

[Amunet]

I don't think they were being rude Phoenix.
They may have said their first few sentences a bit strongly, but they ibble wasn't trying to take jabs at you or anything. So no need to take offense by it.


Anywho.. as for the flouride in the water, Skizzy. I have no idea.
Just read some messages on a link I googled up and people seem to think it's ok... *shrugs*

 

[Monty2451]

I'm sorry to hear about Sato. He was really stunning.

Here's my advice to you. Whenever I do a water change I put Melafix and Aquarium salt in it. I've done this since the beginning and I've never had a problem with any kind of infection in over a year. I add 1/2 teaspoon of salt per gallon of water and 10 drops of Melafix per gallon. Both of these are de-stressers and also promote healthy gill function, and the production of the slime coat, and also prevent the appearance of any harmful bacteria as Melafix is a natural antibiotic and salt helps with this as well (at least with Ick). This should cover all the bases pretty well. If you do this with each water change I really think it will help in the future.

 

[ibbledibble]

ich treatment, i used protozin, which was fantastic

ok cycling ur filter, basically leave ur filter running in ur tank for approx a month, no fish in it, this is to allow beneficial bacteria to establish within your filter, which aids the break down of the harmfull chemicals (nitrite, nitrate and ammonia)

add stuff to the water like filter aid, filter start etc, also a product called cycle, this will help with the growth of the bacteria, over here in the Uk we have these little round balls in ammonia called baktinettes, which lfs sells, they are also pretty good to add to the filter to promote bacteria growth

basically if u put a fish in a tank whilst the filter is cycling ur subjecting your fish to unhealthy levels on nitrate, nitrite and ammonia, which can and most likely will kill whilst cycling

my advice to u is, change over to sand, get some real plants, and let ur filter cycle for approx 4weeks b4 adding a fish, also buy a liquid test kit, so u can check ur water stats b4 adding a fish

good luck

Uhh This is rubbish, running your tank for a month on its own will do nothing! you need to add ammonia to the tank otherwise the bacteria will not start to grow until you add your fish, you can use ordinary household ammonia as long as it is only ammonia and water.

you need to add enough ammonia to your tank to produce a reading of 5ppm of ammonia on a test kit. check the ammonia every day until it drops to zero, then add more (5ppm again) keep checking every day and adding more. Once the ammonia reading drops, you also need to start checking for nitrIte. when both ammonia and nitrIte are showing readings of zero 12 hours after adding the ammonia, then your tank is cycled.

what is cycle? is it supposed to add bacteria to the tank? as the only ones which work are bactinettes in the uk or biospira in the usa. they must be kept refrigerated until use. bactinettes also only contain the bacteria that converts ammonia to nitrIte, not the ones which convert nitrIte to nitrAte, so the cycle still takes some time when using this.

don't just "let your filter cycle for 4 weeks" as sometimes it can take longer than this, always keep going until the ammonia and nitrIte are gone within 12 hours, thats the only way to be sure.

urrr if u read my post after, i did mention the ammonia!! i was tryna help skizzy out as best i could, and i missed a bit, which i then did correct on my post after, thats if u bothered to read it

im sorry i carnt be as flippin perfect but hey atleast the thought was there seen as not one other person even replied to give advice, and yes there were people online last nite who cuda posted, rather than not reply to her post i thought id help ans give advice on how i have been told to cycle a tank. granted i missed the ammonia part out, but again if u bothered to read my post after i did say ammonia is needed to cycle a tank

there was no need to be rude about it ya know, thats half the problem on here, some1 gets something wrong and that person gets shot down for it #### i was just trying to help

well in a small tank the sand wont be too hard to look after, a turkey baster is good to use to suck up the rubbish off the sand

also what i didnt mention, its a good idea to add some liquid ammonia to the tank, as this is what the bacteria feeds on, so it well get the bacteria growing a treat, from what i have read and have been told, once ur nitrite readings reach 0ppm, then ur tank is fully cycled

some people do things diff, my filter in my 4gallon, i used media from my other filter which is very well established, and added it to my new filter, it helped cycle the tank quicker, but each to their own

see there ya go ibble, theres the ammonia bit, again im no expert on it, but that was the basics of what i have been told

i wasn't trying to be rude, it was fairly late, and i was a bit tired. also i was maybe a bit harsh, but i wanted to be clear, so it wasn't just a case of 2 peoples different opinions on the subject. if you are going to advise somebody on the subject you need to make sure you know what you are talking about. i see so many people giving incorrect advice and inexperienced people listening to them.
Also in your later post you say "its a good idea" but this is still incorrect, its not just a case of add it as an extra boost to the cycle or something, you cannot cycle without a source of ammonia and you had made it seem like an optional extra. i tried to explain the way to do it clearly so that skizzy knew what to do.
I'm sorry if i offended you but at the end of the day you are giving out incorrect information, how would you react if i was saying that bettas should be kept in 1/4 gal tanks? you would probably correct me in quite a strongly worded post.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

look i based the info i gave on my own experience, and again what knowledge had been passed to me

a lfs that i no longer use, told me to never cycle a tank with fish in it, and to leave the filter running for approx 6weeks and then check water stats b4 adding fish

when i 1st set my tank up a year ago, i never added ammonia etc, what i did was let the tank just run with baktinettes in it, and also would add things like a few prawns and let them basically rot, which kick started the filter, and obv did a water change once cycled

i dont know about u but i dnt really like the idea of playing around with ammonia, so this was how i cycled my tank

like u, last nite, i was half asleep, stressed out and upset ( just been screwed out of my redundancy money) and i didnt make the info i gave clear and admittedly missed parts out

when i sed "its a good idea to add liquid ammonia", i didnt mean for this to sound optional, what can i say, i sometimes word things wrong

i also mentioned to skizzy using mature media would help alot

i didnt and dont want a disagreement, all i wanted to do was help, and i did know the full info on the cycling, i just didnt relay it properly, again due to being half asleep etc and trying to frantically help skizzy out

 

[ibbledibble]

i'm not after a disagreement either, but just running the tank for a few weeks is common info given by LFS i have often heard it myself and its rubbish. without any ammonia ever having been added (by whatever method) the stats will always be good, because if there is no ammonia added how will you ever get an ammonia reading?
you didn't mention the prawns previously, when food rots it releases ammonia, so thats where the ammonia source was coming from. its a less controlled method, but it can work, but you didn't mention it.
i didn't want skizzy to simply run an empty tank for a month and assume that meant it was cycled.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

i understand, again im having a really #### time, and i missed bits out, im only human

 

[eldomingo]

ich treatment, i used protozin, which was fantastic

ok cycling ur filter, basically leave ur filter running in ur tank for approx a month, no fish in it, this is to allow beneficial bacteria to establish within your filter, which aids the break down of the harmfull chemicals (nitrite, nitrate and ammonia)

add stuff to the water like filter aid, filter start etc, also a product called cycle, this will help with the growth of the bacteria, over here in the Uk we have these little round balls in ammonia called baktinettes, which lfs sells, they are also pretty good to add to the filter to promote bacteria growth

what are lfs?
everyone talks about them but i don't know what they are

 

[jaycat]

hi, lfs means local fish shop

 

[eldomingo]

ohh cool.
thankyou

 

[ibbledibble]

i understand, again im having a really #### time, and i missed bits out, im only human

i'm not meaning to have a go at you, just trying to explain why i felt it was necessary to correct you. i appreciate your only human and we all make mistakes. i just didn't want skizzy to make any that were avoidable. hope things get better for you soon.

 

[Skizzy]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. I appreciate your concerns, Pheonix and ibble.

Also, I have heard about using Melafix and aquarium salt. For now, I have a bottle of some Stress Coat from API. Is this stuff any good?