TFA101

I found the perfect little betta at Wal Mart (Ick) yesterday wile scanning the pet dept.! I go up to him and lokk at him from head to tail and he was a very healthy betta, was well fed, and his bowl was practically crystal clear. He would look at me and display for me as if he was saying "Take Me Home!". Unfortunately, the tank was still cycling, and I had to pass up the scarlet red oppurtunity I stumbled upon.

Blub

A tank is better than a bowl - because even if the tank isn't cycled, neither is the bowl! It is in fact an improvement, because they have a solid future in good and caring hands.

Lucy

Oh, I hate that. He sounds so pretty.
How close is the to finishing? Did you seed it with stuff from your established tank?
With daily water changes, it should go fast and might be better than that little death cup.

chickadee

If you have an established tank that is cycled you can have an instantly cycled tank by taking a part of the filter media out of the cycled tank and putting it in the new tanks filter to get it started. Then you leave it there for at least a couple of weeks to seed the new filter media and you have a new tank for the new baby too.

You can have the best of both worlds you know.

Rose

mrsmuffin

I agree with Rose; now go back and get that baby!

Martinismommy

Yep......Go get him......

chickadee

I think he did.

Rose

TFA101

Now my parents are going to wait until my next trip to Bellingham! Could I used cycled tank water and gravel from my other tanks to virtually eliminate the cycling process?

Lucy

That stinks, I understand about waiting for parents, because I'm a parent and sometimes make my kid wait if I don't want to go or it's not worth the gas...then she goes and asks her sister, who drives.
Her sister usually says...let's go! lol

Most of the bacteria is in the filter, gravel and on the decorations.
Moving the gravel would help, but it would be better to use a peice of filter media from an established tank if you have one.
Good luck.

Blub

I think you have an established tank, but it's hard to tell which one of you is which and which tanks you own! So, get some media from the established tank, and put it in your Betta tank. It will almost instantly cycle it! Remember though - a death cup is much worse than an uncycled tank for a Betta.

TFA101

Yeah, I still have my 20 gallon with my 7 year old clown pleco. I'll use some of the media and add a bit of gravel too. Anyways, time for extra chores if I'm gonna keep this betta in my house....

chickadee

Water does not carry much in the way of bacteria. The actual carriers of the bacterial bed are pretty much in this order:

Filter media
Gravel
Decorations
Walls of tank

Water would have a tiny bit but not enough to do anything with. I do not know why people even list it as a bacterial carrier.

I always keep a sponge filter or two bubbling away in established tanks for this purpose. I try to keep the 25 gallon size as they are up on stands and I find the most practical size. But if you do not have one if you want an instant cycle the best way is to use a piece of the filter media from the cycled tank. You do not need the whole thing just say a third of it and then put a new media in beside it in both tanks and it will reseed them both or cut the established one in half and leave half in each tank and put a new media in with each old half and then both tanks will be cycled and the new one will be seeded within 2 weeks completely.

Rose