Can I Add Beneficial Bacteria?

Hi,

I recently bought a "baby girl betta" from Petco who turned out to be a boy and started chasing/nipping my cory cats. The betta took it upon himself to stalk one of my cories in the bottom of the tank, so I immediately moved him to a 10 gallon I had bought in anticipation of him needing moved. Because I didn't have time to do a fishless cycle on the new tank, I took 5 gallons of the old tank water along with 3 plants and put them in the new 10 gallon with the betta fish. Not even 24 hours later, the tank reeked like some kind of rot. I drained a little more than 50% of the water and added some carbon but the smell is still there. Is this the tank cycling or some other problem? Can I add a tank start up product with the betta already in there? Nitrates are reading around 20 and nitrite shows 0. The fish doesn't seem to be stressed out or anything either.

 

I have high Nitrates (10-20 ppm No3) in my 5 gallon due to the plants I put in dying, you'll actually find that anything under 40ppm should be fine but still something to continue testing and take what actions you can to lower it. It may be the plants adjusting to the different tank (dying and regrowing), mine just aren't doing well unfortunately. I can't really provide much insight to the smell, my 5 gallon smells kind of like wet dog with the cover off and my face over the tank which isn't pleasant but I figured it was just because of the plants and current water quality. I never expect anything to smell good when fish tanks are involved I do water changes once a week (%20-25) and clean the glass with a big change (roughly %50) once a month. When I do my big changes I add some bacteria back in. When I started my 10 gallon the folks at my LFS recommended TLC Freshwater Bacteria as most of their customers preferred it over other live bacterias or quick start products. It cycled my tank in about a week and says on the bottle to redose with big water changes or after overfeeding to help keep water clean and clear. IMHO this stuff is great. Long answer short, yes some are ok to add with fish in.

 

I just picked up the Jungle brand one called Start Zyme and it says it can be used monthly when doing water changes so I figured if it can be added monthly it should be ok. The other tanks have a smell, it isn't off putting like this is. Hopefully it goes away soon. Thanks for the response

 

I just picked up the Jungle brand one called Start Zyme and it says it can be used monthly when doing water changes so I figured if it can be added monthly it should be ok. The other tanks have a smell, it isn't off putting like this is. Hopefully it goes away soon. Thanks for the response

Let me know if it works! Frequent water changes might also help. Depending on room you could also try some moss balls as they like to suck up nitrates too.

 

I added a moss ball last night I might hold off on adding anything and see how it is tomorrow and if need be I can add it then.

 

I added a moss ball last night I might hold off on adding anything and see how it is tomorrow and if need be I can add it then.

If the tank isn't quite cycled I might add some anyways. It wouldn't hurt. But the moss ball should help too. I will be re adding some myself tomorrow with a water change and the dead plants out.