High ammonia, nitrite and nitrates

Congratulations on the new room offer! Hope it's a good fit for you

Great looking tank, too! I'm glad he seems to be recovering

 

Definitely hoping the roommates will be a good fit! I'm definitely looking for a more academic based environment and smoke/drinking free. We'll see though. It'll be much helpful financially also.

I'll miss this little guy for the month but at least his tank will cycle when i'm gone. The bottle I bought is pretty small though..amazon gives me a much bigger one for half the price Petco was charging. Will he be okay without a lid?

 

Depends on the betta, some jump, some don't. It would be better if he had a lid, definitely! Simply draping some plastic food wrap over it is fine

Hope you get in there!

 

I might go pick one up from petsmart since it's a little closer than petco. I have one at school because I was afraid the fire alarms would scare him haha. I love how my mom just asked me if were going into the fish business

 

Ha ha, all the equipment starts building up doesn't it?

You can lower the water level down to help prevent jumpers from ending up outside the tank. We had one male betta who did jump and we found him too late and he died. I had another who never jumped.

One of my females in my sorority jumped the first week I got her and never has again. She was ok, found her in time and she recovered. Her girl pals have never jumped but I keep the water level down now an inch to inch and a half now just be safe.

 

Yes exactly I spent about $80 today instead of $40 I planned on haha. My mom is like what are we going to do with all this? He seems so happy now and i'm glad. I did go grab a lid for about $13 with tax included that is glass and looks nice. I will be adding TSS+ tomorrow around 6:30 since we moved him to a different place in the house a little while ago. Will keep you guys posted on the apartment. Hopefully this tank will cycle while i'm gone

 

Are you going to have your mom do any testing in a week or two or will you be back by then to test yourself?

 

I was going to take my test kit back with me so I can track my tank at school. I bought a carbon pad to help with the odor. I was going to test his tank myself when I came home for thanksgiving or is that too long to wait?

 

Just make sure she feeds him sparingly and does not overfeed which is SO easy to do. Tss+ should do its job. Have her do large water changes starting in two weeks, a good 40% a week.

 

I plan on making a care sheet for her to reference sometime tomorrow. I'll make sure to mention no water changes for two weeks. Is 5 pellets a day too much for him if she were to do 3 in the morning and 2 at night with maybe exchanging the 2 pellets at night with freeze dried bloodworms?

 

Sorry for the double post but right before going upstairs for the night I noticed he ripped his tail (he's a veiltail) and it looks like it ripped down all the way to his body... i'm wondering if he got stuck in the filter flow and couldn't pull himself out. He also has a little odd hole in the middle of his tail but that might be from his old tank if the ammonia did that...what can I put over the intake tube of the filter?

He's doing okay swimming sorta... my mom tried to get her to follow him so she could see the rip but after he made it halfway across the tank he fell to the ground panting almost.

 

A clean, not washed with detergent, piece of nylon stocking held on the end of the intake with a rubber band might do it! Was it a HOB you got again? I've looked at so many filters today...

 

Sorry for the double post but right before going upstairs for the night I noticed he ripped his tail (he's a veiltail) and it looks like it ripped down all the way to his body... i'm wondering if he got stuck in the filter flow and couldn't pull himself out. He also has a little odd hole in the middle of his tail but that might be from his old tank if the ammonia did that...what can I put over the intake tube of the filter?

He's doing okay swimming sorta... my mom tried to get her to follow him so she could see the rip but after he made it halfway across the tank he fell to the ground panting almost.

It sounds like you got an aqua clear HOB. Petsmart should have round sponges that would slip right over the uplift tube. If it won't stay use a ponytail holder to keep it I place. Just be sure your mom knows that will need to be rinsed in old tank water or treated watt once a week to keep it relatively free of detritus.

 

Sounds good maybe I can run out and buy some. She probably will only have to change the water once because I will be cycling it and I won't have her touch it for a few weeks to make it easier on her. I'll make sure she knows

 

Could be the coral decoration that tore his tail, that one is pretty rough/sharp if I remember correctly.

Have her do a water change after two weeks.
The 5 pellets/bloodworms should be ok but tell her to remove any with a turkey baster that falls to the ground and he doesn't eat.
And to rinse the filter media weekly in dechlorinated water.

 

He keeps getting close to the filter intake and almost ripping himself away and I did see he had another tear today. He hasn't gone close to the coral but I'll keep an eye on him. I'm almost wondering if it's the tall green silk plant because he likes to sit in the leaves and maybe the stem is plastic.

Sounds good should she do a 50% then in 2 Saturdays? I am dosing TSS+ tonight.

She knows to make sure he eats all one pellet before offering him another one but I'll make sure to say if he doesn't eat make sure they come out. I'll tell her to cut the meal down to only 3 every once in a while since he was getting underfed for a while because of the bad ammonia in my other tank.

 

Oh ok, you should be able to adjust the flow on that filter also if its the Aqua Clear.

Yeah, 50% in two weeks is good. Tell her to dechlorinate first and match temperature.

 

The low flow seems to be better for him but he still seems like he is having trouble swimming and is keeping to the other side of the tank.

She did complain about the noise and said when they go to bed (their room is down the hall from where his tank is) that it would be too loud and the flow would have to increase so the trinkling water isn't so loud.

I also added that if she sees any signs of salt on his body to send me pictures, is that enough for the disease section? I don't want to overwhelm her.

I also added to only wash in discarded tank water if she really wants to but I can when I come home and to dechlorinate and also to match temperatures and not pour directly on top of him and that he can stay in for the changes.

 

To reduce the trickling you can either fill the tank up as close to the bottom of the outflow as possible or try slinging a water bottle under it to break the free fall of the stream of water.

 

Okay I might just up the water level then, would that delay when I can start the cycle since i'd need to put prime in the water? Sorry I just want to make sure he will be okay when i'm gone. I know she will not pay as close attention as me since he's my little buddy haha

 

You could always swap that one out for a little internal filter. They make virtually no noise and usually have adjustable flows and a flow you can direct where you want it to. I use the Aqueon internal filters in my 7g tanks but there are others. I think the Top Fin at petsmart has a very quiet internal filter.

She can top off over this week with some spring water if the water level falls much and after a week can top off with dechlorinated water.

 

Maybe I'll run over there tomorrow after my lunch and get one if I have enough cash laying around or I'll go buy the sponge to cover the output (I have a huge square in my room back at school I should have brought)

I'm sure the AquaClear will be fine and he will get used to it as long as it's on the lower flow. I might just start his cycle tomorrow and top the tank off right now to lower the noise output. I don't find it that loud and they are usually not home except for the weekend. I should have just brought his marina home but I didn't think i'd be buying another tank.

 

To reduce the trickling you can either fill the tank up as close to the bottom of the outflow as possible or try slinging a water bottle under it to break the free fall of the stream of water.

You could also get a new soap dish with suction cups. Stick it to the side of the tank just above/at the water line and put pebbles in the soap dish. That'll catch the water and diffuse it and since it's near the top of the water the water won't have far to drop and so won't make much noise.
This will reduce your surface agitation which could lead to a protein film unless there's an air stone in there. Just a suggestion. I know you're trying to keep the water level a little lower so there's less risk of his jumping out.

 

Definitely will try the soap dish thing! Any specific material for the dish itself?

 

I went to home depot and happened to find a suction cup plastic soap dish with holes in it for about $3 and it definitely helped the flow! I can actually afford now to keep the flow a little higher without agitating him too much and he seems much happier now that he can safely swim near his favorite heater and the noise has definitely come down.

Thanks for everyones help and I'll update this thread when I read my tank parameters monday.

 

Definitely will try the soap dish thing! Any specific material for the dish itself?

Sorry I didn't see this before you went to the store. Since it's. It a reef tank for the most part any type of plastic soap dish that's never been used as a soap dish would be just fine. It sounds like you did great! I'm glad it worked for you!

 

I went to home depot and happened to find a suction cup plastic soap dish with holes in it for about $3 and it definitely helped the flow! I can actually afford now to keep the flow a little higher without agitating him too much and he seems much happier now that he can safely swim near his favorite heater and the noise has definitely come down.

Thanks for everyones help and I'll update this thread when I read my tank parameters monday.

I'd be curious to see a picture of the setup with the soap dish.

 

Here you go! It's kind of hard to see in the picture. We don't have the best lighting in here. The holes on it were a little too big to put my gravel in. Definitely will be going to pick up a few more of them to buffer filter flow when I set the 20 long up (whether that be this year or a few more). He seems so much happier now that he doesn't get blown around everywhere

 

The holes aren't big enough that he might try to squeeze through them, are they? Looks great anyway!

If the holes are a little big you might try placing an unused pot scrubber in the dish or a piece of coconut fibre basket liner in it to discourage him

 

The holes aren't big enough that he might try to squeeze through them, are they? Looks great anyway!

If the holes are a little big you might try placing an unused pot scrubber in the dish or a piece of coconut fibre basket liner in it to discourage him

A small bag of pretty pebbles would also do the same thing and look a little prettier. You can get small bags of pretty pebbles at most pet stores and even WM.

 

He doesn't seem too curious about them yet, I mean he possibly could but.. yikes haha.

Only thing I have around that is safe for the aquarium is a carbon cut-to-fit pad that will be going back to school to help with the bad odor in my other tank and I am putting TSS+ in within the next few minutes so not sure if that will create issues if I were to place that underneath the filter output.

 

These are what I was thinking of:

As long as they haven't been used you can just rinse them thoroughly in old tank water or treated tap water and then stick them in the dish

 

Oh ok, I get it now I think ha ha. So is it suctioned to the filter itself then?

 

It's suctioned below the filter on the glass itself. I'm now afraid to block the holes because it still allows the new water to flow through without weighing the plastic down..

 

Just putting a coarse piece of filter floss on it will be fine and not weight it down.

 

Just putting a coarse piece of filter floss on it will be fine and not weight it down.

Yeah that would work too. If you don't want to put pebbles they make plastic pebbles that are really light if you want to try that but the filter floss (or 100% polyester quilt batting -new- ) would work great!

 

Would the carbon pad be okay since I have that on hand?

 

Sure.

 

Would the carbon pad be okay since I have that on hand?

Yeah that'd work great too!

 

Put the carbon pad in the tray and some gravel. I also am now able to up the output flow to max since it buffers the flow so much more.

Am definitely sad leaving him tonight. Can't wait until I will be able to see the little guy again.

Will update tomorrow with how the 5.5 is progressing and see where to go from there.