Planted Betta Tank! ~~ RESTARTED on 4/25/15....

Well, mostly planted. That hornwort is totally fake, as I'm pretty sure it's illegal to own in my state (can't find it anywhere)....

I had actually started this tank on 4/13/15... but in three weeks, had a terrible outbreak of white slime/cynaobacteria (blue-green algae) covering EVERYTHING. My mistake for not boiling/disinfecting things before I put them in my new tank, assuming they'd be fine. Decided to completely tear the tank down, disinfect, and start over. I had way too much light last time, too - so, starting over with less beginner mistakes this time, I hope!


Here's what's in the tank:

Filter: Marineland Penguin 100B Bio-Wheel Power Filter
Heater: EHEIM Jager 75W Heater (I went a "step up" in wattage because it gets so cold here in Maine -- my 50W was just too wimpy in keeping the tank consistently 78-80 degrees...)
Lights: Marineland Hidden LED Strip Light (6500K, 460 nm) / Blue & White
Air Pump / Airstone: Tetra Whisper pump & 8" airstone bar, turned down on low!
Substrate: CaribSea's FloraMax in Midnight
Plants: Java Ferns, Anubias (rhizomes are EXPOSED - NOT BURIED), Water Sprite (floating), Amazon Sword & Ludwigia
Indian Almond Leaf
Decor: Cave ornament (Exotic Environments), 2 pieces of Driftwood (Malaysian & Mopani)
Fish: Crowntail Betta (Tux)




Water Quality:
I use Poland Spring Natural Spring Water mixed with tap (lake sourced), conditioned with Seachem Prime....

Hardness (Total mg/L as CaCO3): 15-20
pH: 6.8
Temp: 78-80 degrees
Ammonia: 0.0
Nitrite: 0.0
Nitrate: 0.0

 

Looks great! Are you sure the nitrates are 0? Have you tried banging the #2 bottle hard?

 

Yes, I shook it very hard -- nirates are 0.0.....

It doesn't seem to be cycling at all. I did "restart the tank" with a 100% WC this weekend, but kept the filter/bio-wheel medium in-tact (they are dirty, so I know bacteria IS forming somewhere), but my daily readings show no progress.

 

You didn't use Tetra Safe Start or a similar product?

 

Nope, no bottled bacteria or anything - just fish-in cycle.

 

That's probably why it's taking so long......

 

Do you recommend I add it now, or is it too late?

 

It's not too late.

 

I got some!

 

Good! Just dump it all in. The more, the better.

 

It won't hurt the fish at all? It's concentrated (up to 100 gallons) - I can use the whole thing in my 10 gal?

 

It won't hurt the fish at all? It's concentrated (up to 100 gallons) - I can use the whole thing in my 10 gal?

No, it won't hurt them at all. Concentrated just means more bacteria in it. Good bacteria.

 

When you did the 100% water change did you de-chlorinate your water before you put it in?

If you just put the water in without treating did you turn off your filters then treat?

For testing nitrAtes personally I shook the heck out of both bottles before adding them to the test tube. I shook #1 bottle vigorously, added the amount of drops, shook vigorously again for 10 seconds, shook bottle #2 like my life depended on it, then added it to the vial, then pretended I was on the shake weight commercial. Took 3 times of messing up to finally get nitAtes to show up.

 

I shook both bottles & vials -- I have 0.0 nitrates in my tank.

Yes, I dosed with Prime on Saturday when I restarted the tank. It detoxes nitrogen baddies for 48 hours (today), so if I were to use TSS now, I'd be OK, right?

I put Spring Water in first (untreated) -- 8 gallons. Then topped tank off with tap water (I put a few drops of Prime into the container with tap water prior to adding it to tank) - turned on the tank, and dosed the whole thing with Prime.

I always condition water at WCs....

 

I'm at work now, but will run a full panel again when I get home and report here.

 

Alright that is good and yes you should be safe. Since you do use Prime it does throw off your tests for the first 24-48 hours it is in the tank which could be why you are getting 0 NitrAtes.

 

Just did a full panel:

0.0 ammonia
0.0 nitrite
0.0 nitrate
6.8 pH


Added whole bottle of TSS+.

Will report numbers in 24 hrs.

 

Good morning,

At 12 hours, the readings were:

0.0 ammonia
0.0 nitrite
0.0 nitrate
6.8 pH