inari

Hey guys,

I haven't been on in while. I've had Zengetsu for a while now. I'm actually on break from MSU right now. I did a water change this morning, and realized that it was way below the ideal temp. I slowly added warmer water and got it back up to 73, not quite what i wanted but it would do. The problem is the ambient temp of my house is somewhere around 50 or 60 so it's realatively close. any suggestions to keeping the tank warm. If i have to i will continue to do water changes but that blows through my chemicals and not to mention my already (probably) half dead cycle would be either gone or severely damaged. any ideas?

thanks,

Inari

Lucy

Zengetsu would benefit with water closer to 80F
He really needs a consistant warm temerature. It would be a good idea to get him a heater.
I like the visi-therm stealth heaters. In my 5g I use 50w, but you might be able to get away with a 25w

Good luck.

inari

Yeah i know he would perfer a stable tank. My concern is all the horror stories about those little heaters. I've heard of them not turning off and boiling the fish. idk i might just get one and keep an eye on it since i'll be home atleast for the next few days.

Lucy

I've never had any problems with the visi-therm stealth heaters. I have 3 of them.
They stand behind the product with a lifetime guarantee.
I've heard of 1 or 2 malfunctions with heaters of different brands but it's also important to meet the needs of the fish.

Dozey

I have to agree with Lucy. Most appliances are very dependable these days and have to pass vigorous tests before being aloud on the market. I’m not a fan of “bargains” but sticking to name brand products with proven reputations.

Keep in mind that new cars have mechanical problems and new coffee makers do catch on fire… You know where I’m going with this. It’s rare.

If it helps, I am a computer electronic engineer and can suggest this to ease your mind. Most new electronic devices that have a manufacture fault in them will fail with in 24 hours. So you could run your new heater for 24 hours in a bowl of water before introducing it to your tank.

Further, new electronics have so many safety faults built into them now that generally when they do eventually fail it is with a quite fizzle and not a explosive end.

Get the fishy a heater.

inari

I got him a heater, It's by marine land so i'm hoping that this helps...alot which i did. Now since i had to do such a large water change, my water quality has deteriated. any ideas to help promote the cycle to grow again? I know there are products that help, but I haven't had a lot of luck with them. and Getsy's (short for Zengetsu) tail is deteriorating. I can't remeber for the life of me what that actually means. I thought it was a fungal issue but no such luck with anti fungal things. any help would be great

~inari

Lucy

What are your readings for ammonia nitrites and nitrates?

Why did you you have to do a huge water change and how has it deteriorated?

inari

his tail looks like fin rot, but maybe i haven't been treating it properly. NH4 = <.25 PPM NO3= 0 idk about tne other since the kit i have doesn't cover it. i changed a larger amount of water while i was home. 50% normal change then filled it. another 50% to try and warm it up while i waited so i could get a heater.

i have some anti fungus tabs that i used for fin rot before so i'm wondering if i just didn't treat it long enough.

any help is great
~inari

Red1313

If you think that you're cycle's been lost a small does of tetra safestart may help bring it back into line.
I'm not sure what the best thing to do for finrot is other then keep youre water pristine, use stress coat and if you can add some vita chem.
good luck!

Lucy

Keeping the water pristine is important to help prevent infection.
With out knowing your ammonia reading, it would be best if you continued daily water changes.

Stress factors such as unstable water parameters and temperature can have a direct effect on your fish's health.

soldieroffortune1974

What my guess is,that the low temps,didn't allow the bacteria to start properly.The ammonia accumulated,and cause burns on the fins,then an infection set in and caused fin rot.

Now you have the heater,raise the temp to 83 to kill the spore and fungal infection. Change the water 50% daily,and vacuum the gravel. You can use Maracyn+ or Kenacyn (kenamycin) to get rid of the fin rot. Once the treatment is done (continue with water changes) and add Melafix (antiseptic) to prevent re-infection while the fins heal.

You should notice immediate improvement. Continue the water changes,until the fins are growing strongly again.

Lucy

Before using Melafix or Pimafix on a betta or any other labyrinth fish, please read this:

All Betta Owners Read!!!!! Melafix Alert!!!!!! Read!!!! Read!!!! Danger!!!!

PIMAFIX

soldieroffortune1974

OH yes,the Melafix syndrome, sorry;I didn't see that it was a betta that we were talking about. Everything else is still the same,but omit the part about adding Melafix.

I don't know much about bettas,but I think the same fix would apply for them as well,for fin rot.

Beeker

True, Melafix and Primafix should NOT be used on any labyrinth fish.

inari

Ok thanks for the extra info. I find it rather humorous the melafix comment. I don't know if you've seen my older posts but I was a member way back when that post was made if i remebr correctly. Anyway, back on topic....

Instead of Melafix (or some such junk) would the jungle buddies anti-fungal tabs work well on this type of illness sense it is a fungus?? Also I use stress coat on a regular basis comes with the weekly water changes (as well as the normal like water conditioners) to help reduce stress what about small amounts of 'aquarium salt' not the stuff to make it marine water obviously the other stuff. comes in a gable top carton, the product itself looks like rock salt...etc. would that help/hurt/or do nothing to the problem?

thanks,
~Inari

Lucy

You'll get different opinions about salt. Maracyn-Two and Maracyn,
Maracyn-Plus, Rid-Fungus and Fungus Eliminator are all supposed to be good for fin rot.

soldieroffortune1974

Sodium chloride (salt) has it's uses as it does kill different types of parasites,bacteria and fungus. However,I wouldn't suggest the salt being added to the main aquarium. Since it doesn't come out of the water,not even during evaporation;and the filters don't filter it out,it could be difficult to know how much is in the water.

I use salt as a general tonic,when other methods don't seem to be working,and I only use it in quarantine.I don't know how salt affects a betta,but I can't imagine it would do any harm.(used sparingly)

As Lucy said,you will get a lot of differing opinions.My opinion is that salt can be useful, but it can also be harmful if not used correctly.

inari

Hey all,

Just an update but Getsy is doing much better (yeah it's been awhile) anyway, I have the same heater in my 5 gallon I was wondering if anyone knows how to calibrate a aquarium heater, there were absolutely no instuctions on how to do so on the package. anyway help would be great,

Inari

Regal

I was just reading along... didn't even notice this was an old thread till I got to your most recent post lol.

I don't rely on the temp on the heater. Some just say High and Low and don't have numbers anyway. I just go by the thermometer. For example, both of the 300 watt heaters in my 75 gallon are set in the 70s if you look at the numbers on the heaters but the temperature on the thermometers is about 82. (The heaters are not even kicking on at all now that the temperature outside is higher and the air conditioner is not on yet.) I would also recommend not using those stick on thermometers because they are not very accurate in my experience. Even the glass thermometers are not that accurate imo because in one tank I can have 3 different temps on 3 different thermometers. There better than the stick on ones though for me cause I can’t even tell what numbers they’re on.

agabr123

i go by the thermometer as well, i have several heaters that either aren't calibrated or are just screwed up, and the temperature that's listed on the actual heater that i'd set it to is nowhere near what it actually ends up being.

inari

alright thanks guys, The temp isn't too far off yet in the tank anyway I was just wondering if there was a way to calbrate them