New Tank Questions

[flippajh]

I have a cycled 65 litre tank with an assortment of fish in it.

A few weeks back now, I purchased a new 25 litre tank for a Beta, I put one of the sponges from my cycled tank in the filter in the new tank, filled it with de-chlorinated water, added a few plants and a little cave thing. Then I got my Beta, I did water tests every day and the ammonia was always zero, but I couldn't get the Nitrites down at all, despite a daily 20% water change and unfortunately after 5 days he passed away.

I thought that the sponge from my cycled tank would have been enough to get the tank up and running, but I'm guessing not.

I have changed the water and the tank is sat there with the plants in it and I have put the filter from the 25 litre into the 65 litre until I'm sure what I want to do, I got back from holidays yesterday and am now ready to move on with another Beta.

The questions are:

1. I did a water test on the tank that has just sat there for a week with no filter and no fish in it and the Nitrite reading on the water test is about as dark a purple as you can get, would this just build up by itself?

2. Should I chuck all the water away, rinse the tank and gravel and plants and then start all over again?

3. Can I just put the small filter that has been running in the cycled tank for the last 2 weeks, back in the 25 litre tank once it's all re-set up? Should I do this at the same time as I get the Beta, or should I run the tank a while before getting him?

Sorry for all the stupid questions, but I really don't want to lose another beautiful fish.

Many thanks

 

[5teady_2012]

I have a cycled 65 litre tank with an assortment of fish in it.

A few weeks back now, I purchased a new 25 litre tank for a Beta, I put one of the sponges from my cycled tank in the filter in the new tank, filled it with de-chlorinated water, added a few plants and a little cave thing. Then I got my Beta, I did water tests every day and the ammonia was always zero, but I couldn't get the Nitrites down at all, despite a daily 20% water change and unfortunately after 5 days he passed away.

I thought that the sponge from my cycled tank would have been enough to get the tank up and running, but I'm guessing not.

I have changed the water and the tank is sat there with the plants in it and I have put the filter from the 25 litre into the 65 litre until I'm sure what I want to do, I got back from holidays yesterday and am now ready to move on with another Beta.

The questions are:

1. I did a water test on the tank that has just sat there for a week with no filter and no fish in it and the Nitrite reading on the water test is about as dark a purple as you can get, would this just build up by itself?

2. Should I chuck all the water away, rinse the tank and gravel and plants and then start all over again?

3. Can I just put the small filter that has been running in the cycled tank for the last 2 weeks, back in the 25 litre tank once it's all re-set up? Should I do this at the same time as I get the Beta, or should I run the tank a while before getting him?

Sorry for all the stupid questions, but I really don't want to lose another beautiful fish.

Many thanks

What you should of done when the nitrite reading was high was, do as many waterchanges or a huge one straight away until the nitrite was reading 0, then keep doing waterchanges on the tank to keep it like that for at least a couple of weeks until the filter had mature enough to cope.

 

[rhostog]

That is really interesting. I've just had high nitrite levels in an empty tank too. See this thread:

[topic="256626"]Nitrite-in-Fishless-Tank[/topic]

I still don't really know where it came from.

Since then I've done a nearly 100% water change, and it's now sitting with the filter running. I'm going to leave it a few days and test the water again, see what happens.

I think you're right, change all the water, rinse everything out, and start again with your small filter. Given what happened before, I definitely wouldn't add the betta straight away, but if you just leave the tank without a source of ammonia then the bacteria will die. The best thing would be to use ammonia to cycle the tank - as you're adding mature media in the filter, this should be very quick, and you'll know that your filter is processing nitrite as well as ammonia before you add the betta.

If you do ever find yourself with raised nitrites or ammonia again and fish in the tank, then I'd agree with 5teady, larger water changes (50% or more if you can without upsetting your fish), more than once a day if necessary, whatever it takes to bring the levels down.

Very sorry about your betta. Please let us know what happens - I'm really interested to see how you get on with the nitrites. Please PM me if you don't think it's worth posting!

 

[flippajh]

Thanks for your comments, I'll check the plants, as I do have quite a few in there, perhaps some of them are dying. It was strange when I had the Betta as I just couldn't get the Nitrites down, some days I did 2 water changes.

I'll give it all a good rinse and then get some Ammonia, like you say don't want to end up killing the good bacteria. I ended up doing a fish in cycle with my original tank, and although everyone was ok, I wish I'd done a fishless cycle instead.

Will let you know what happens.

Thanks

 

[rhostog]

I'll be a few days behind you, so please post with your progress! Hopefully your tank will cycle really quickly and painlessly and you'll have a new betta soon.

Good luck!