khendry

Hi there. I am brand new at this as was wondering if anyone out there can give me a step by step on how to clean my tank and what I will need to do it. My tank has been set up since Sunday (May 3/09) and I am getting myself ready to do the first weekly cleaning and partial water change. Do I need to do a partial water change every time I clean the tank? I want to cause as little stress to 'Fred' (that's what my daughter named our fish) as possible.

Here are the details:
2.5 gallon tank (starting small)
1 male betta
1 live potted plant
submerged adjustable current filter
heater (keeping it a steady 78)

I have to admit I do not have a testing kit for nitrite or nitrate, but will be getting one ASAP. I read the article about the nitrogen cycle before setting up the tank as well as many other articles here on fishlore. It is all very overwhelming for a newbie. I have been testing ammonia and pH daily since setting up the tank - ammonia is 0 and ph is at 7. My tank is cycled, I used 'Aquasafe' water conditioner, by Tetra Aqua, as recommended at my local pet store.

Any help I could get would be great! Anything I have forgotten to include, just ask and I will let you know. Thanks in advance.

Lucy

Hi khendry welcome to Fish Lore.
I agree, it can be overwhelming. For my 5g's I use a small syphon to vacuum the gravel. I'm not sure if it's small enough for a 2.5g.
Another option is to suck up any waste/leftover food with a turkey baster.
While vacuuming, you'll also be removing some water, replace that water with treated tap water thats about as close to the tank temp. as you can get.
If the filter cartride is dirty, rinse it in some tank water.

We have a lot of betta parents on the board and we'd all love to meet Fred, we hope to see some pics

Edit: I should have added, other members have 2.5's and can give you a better idea of how they clean that size tank

jdhef

Welcome to FishLore

Sorry to tell you this but you got some bad advice from the pet store (but don't feel special, almost everyone gets bad advice from the pet store).

Your tank is not cycled by adding AquaSafe. A water conditioner only removes chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals. (some such as Prime and Stress Coat+ will detox ammonia and nitrites for 24 hours.)

In a nutshell here is how the cycle works:
1. Fish produce ammonia as a water product...ammonia is toxic.
2. In time a bacteria will grow that converts ammonia into nitites.
3. Nitrites are toxic to fish.
4. In time a bacteria will grow that converts nitrites into nitrates.
5. Nitrates in excess of 20-40ppm is toxic to fish, so weekly partial water changes will dilute the nitrates and keep them at safe levels.

So what you really need to do now to save Fred's life, is daily 50% water changes, using a water conditioner such as Prime or Stress Coat+ , until your tank fully cycles. Sadly this could take about 6 weeks.

Additionally, since most of the bacteria that converts the toxins live in the filter media, you should only change it when it is totally falling apart, or you will lose your cycle and be back to daily water changes. The carbon in the filter is only good for about 3 or 4 weeks, but it is really unnecessary, so you should cut the filter media open and dump the carbon out.

You'll probably have a bunch more questions at this point, so feel free to ask away. Everyone is happy to help, and no matter how stupid you think your question is, no one here will think it is stupid. We were all beginers ourselves at one time.

aquarist48

Welcome to Fish Lore Kendry....I was looking over your aquarium information and it has a start date of May 3, 2009. Please keep an eye on your ammonia levels because I'm not certain that your tank has cycled, at least until you get the tests for nitrites and nitrates. Again we'd all love to see pictures when you get and chance and if you have the means. If you have any questions there are a lot of great Beta fans here (and everyone else) that will be glad to help.

khendry

Wow...thanks for all the tips folks. I guess I have some work to do. So if I am going to be doing 50% water changes daily for a while. How exactly do I do that? I assume I can't just grab some water from the tap, or can I? I will be heading to the store this afternoon to pick up some stress coat. Would I just add that to the new water I was adding or into the whole tank once the water is in there?

aquarist48 - I have been and will continue for a while to check the ammonia every day. So far so good. Thanks for the advice.

I will get some pics of Fred up when I get a chance. He is an active little fella and really enjoys napping in his plant!

Lucy

I wouldn't worry about 50% changes until you have an ammonia reading.
Get yourself a never seen soap or chemicals bucket, and use it only for water changes. You can add the recommended amount of Stress Coat+ (not plain Stress Coat, although it's a good water conditioner, it won't detox) to the bucket of new water for the amount of water you're adding. Try and get it as close to the temp of your tank water that you can.
I do it by touch, some use a spare heater, others check with a thermometer.

haedra

You've already gotten some great information, so I have little to add.

I have a few 2.5 gallon tanks; and I was using a turkey baster for while, but was unable to find all the little bits. If you are using gravel as a substrate, I highly recommend getting a mini siphon (I believe Python makes one); as it is small enough to pull out only probably about 40-50% of the water and you can still get all the gook hiding in the crevices on the bottom. Sometimes I've got to wonder how my bettas manage to get their poop where it ends up.

agabr123

hi and welcome to fishlore!

i also have 2.5 gallon tanks, generally what i end up doing (and this isn't your best option, and will work only if the tank is very well established) is taking my gravel vacuum and dragging it around in the gravel right when i start it, that kicks up a lot of the waste which i can then get up very quickly, and don't have to worry about removing all of the water before i'm done. the problem with that is stirring up a lot of the gravel will mess with the beneficial bacteria that is on the gravel so like i said it's not something you want to do in a brand new tank. also, topping off the tank an hour or two before you do a water change is a good idea as well, the more water that's in there the longer you have to vacuum.

can't wait for pics of the little guy

COBettaCouple

My tank cleaning process is to take the decor out, then the substrate with enough tank water to keep the substrate under water. Then a turkey baster to clean up the debris, return the substrate, then the decor. Unplug the heater and filter while cleaning and remove a total of about 40% of the water.

khendry

Thanks again everyone. If not for this forum, I don't know if Fred would be around long! I will get some pics up soon and let everyone know how my first cleaning goes.

agabr123

good luck!