1st Wc After Cycle

I’ve had a baby Betta a little over a month. She’s in a 5.5G tank by herself. The tank finished cycling I believe this weekend. Nitrates are I believe 10-20, definitely less than 40 ammonia and nitrites 0. When should I do a water change and how much? Should I wait for nitrates to get to 40 or above, and if they do get above 40 should I treat with Prime or just use the conditioned water with a water change?

 

Also I’m now trying to cycle a 10G tank. I cut a piece of this and put in the filter of my cycled 5.5G tank.
Would it help the 10G cycle if I put that piece from the 5.5 in the 10G or is it too soon since the 5.5 just cycled, or wouldn’t help? Thanks for any help

 

I’ve had a baby Betta a little over a month. She’s in a 5.5G tank by herself. The tank finished cycling I believe this weekend. Nitrates are I believe 10-20, definitely less than 40 ammonia and nitrites 0. When should I do a water change and how much? Should I wait for nitrates to get to 40 or above, and if they do get above 40 should I treat with Prime or just use the conditioned water with a water change?

You ideally want to keep nitrates to below 40ppm, so you can do a water change or wait until it hits 40ppm, either way is fine. I'd probably just do a small water change now, say 20%.

Prime is a water conditioner, so just use that. Although it is very concentrated so you'd only need 0.25mL or less to dechlorinate the water you're adding in, unless you dose the whole tank. I only need 0.5mL to treat each 20L bucket of water I add to the aquarium, although I usually just put 1mL in. Prime is more useful at detoxifying ammonia and nitrite to 1ppm, nitrates aren't harmful to fish until they start getting above 80ppm and you'd be doing water changes well before it got to that level.

I would leave the sponge in your filter for a couple more weeks before seeding your 10 gallon - just to make sure your cycle is stable as you can sometimes get the odd ammonia spike in a newly cycled tank. But yes, adding a portion of sponge to the filter of your 10 gallon will certainly speed up the cycling process.

 

Good Deal I was thinking that it was probably too early as well

 

Forgot to mention I had this in filter as well plus the sponge on the intake

 

Forgot to mention I had this in filter as well plus the sponge on the intakeView attachment 428984

Not familiar with that product, but it would probably require regular changing so that the ammonia it captures doesn't leak out - a bit like a carbon filter pad