Water Parameters For Betta

What GH, pH, NO3, NO2 & KH levels are ok for a betta fish?

Sorry I am a newby so I need it put simply please.

 

Bettas prefer softer water with p.h around 7. But I have 3 bettas, my p.h is constantly at 8.0 and hard water, when I was reading up on what to use to adjust my parameters, all the info I found said bettas can easily adust and it would be better just to leave me water alone. I've had my bettas for about a year and all is well. I get lots of bubble nest, so I know they're happy

 

bettas can live in a ph rangeing from 6 to 7 and like soft water and would recommend useing an indian amond leaves to keep the hardness soft and the ph around 6.5 u can use peat moss in your tank

 

The pH doesn't matter as long as it's between 6 and 8. Ammonia should be 0 ppm, nitrite 0ppm and nitrates less than 40ppm.

 

So I tested the water.
Nitrate was 0
Nitrite was 0
PH was 6
GH (hardness) was 60ppm
I can't remember what the KH was

Should I be doing anything differently? (50% water was changed more than 24 hrs ago)

 

Believe me your doing great if your nitrate levels are 0? Would like to keep myself in a nice heavily planted 5 gallon or so tank. Species specific pool style tank, few nerite snails maybe. Most water supply is neutral 7.0, should be fine in this treated for chlorine/chloromine. Remember for chloromine sometimes a bigger dose of the water treatment you use. I have tried filtering/softening water in past for a south American set-up, bit of a pain every water change. Fish should adjust to around neutral no problem.

 

For nitrates, it should be around 1-20 ppm. Above that is dangerous. 0 nirtrites, 0 ammonia, 1-20 nitrates, pH should be anywhere from 6-8. Temp should be 78-80.

 

Wouldn't waste my money on R/O (reverse osmosis) water.

 

If you want to be sure if all your levels are safe you absolutely need a test for the ammonia. Stripe tests are really inaccurate, you should buy the ApI master liquid tests. Do you know about the nitrogen cycle? Your tank doesn't look cycled to me.

 

Still trying to work out how to use forum, not great with computer's. Got me thinking that is why I put ? at the end of 0 nitrate reading. Seems a bit excessive also with 50%water change, I'm finding 1/3 works well on my set-ups at moment.

Sorry forgot you said you were a newbe, yeah make sure you have got your filter cycle working correctly, if you do or don't know the filter cycle, nitrate used to some degree by plants, is the end product (less harmful)of the filter cycle that you dilute or should say reduce level of, by doing your water changes

 

Still trying to work out how to use forum, not great with computer's. Got me thinking that is why I put ? at the end of 0 nitrate reading. Seems a bit excessive also with 50%water change, I'm finding 1/3 works well on my set-ups at moment.

In a small tank, during cycling, the parameters can change very quickly. In my opinion, 50% is the best to ensure the safety of the fish. If the tank is less than 5g, daily of every two days.

 

In a small tank, during cycling, the parameters can change very quickly. In my opinion, 50% is the best to ensure the safety of the fish. If the tank is less than 5g, daily of every two days.

During cycling, yes, but after that a weekly change of 20-25% should be enough. Just keep an eye on Nitrate levels. Ammonia and Nitrite should stay at 0 unless you add something to the tank. My 3.5 gallon is completely cycled and I have been doing one gallon changes ( 1/3 of the actual volume) every Sunday. It's working out well. I shoot to keep Nitrates at 20 or less and my Anubias Nana, Windelov Java Fern, and Marimo Moss ball help with that.

 

your doing really well but I would do what dch48 recomends with the water changes

 

Hello! To make a long story short I started fresh on my tank. It’s a 20 gallon TALL tank. New gravel. New ornaments. New everything. I have a HOB filter that has all 3 compartments:
The media is from my old tank,
The carbon was swapped about a month ago,
And the Sponge was rinsed over tap water ( yes I did learn that was a HUGE Nono )
However that is what’s currently in the filter.
I also have a heater set to 78 degrees along with two thermometers in the tank.

On a previous post of mine many agreed that it would take my tank forever to cycle as I only plan on housing 1 single betta along with a mystery snail, there for they said it would be okay to just add the betta in without cycling up the tank.
( I did not post pictures of the water parameters )
The other day the water was cloudy and bubbles formed to which I thought of being normal as it was a new tank. It ended up disappearing but I wanted to check my water levels as I’m an overthinker on these types of things... I just checked them and holy cow.. I’m scared to add a little guy in here just because of my own selfishness but what out your guys opinions? Do you agree that I should simply go buy one as the tank would take forever to cycle? Or should I wait it out?
Below our the pictures of my readings,
Along with a picture of my tank currently (I also understand that it’s a tall tank and they need plants along the entire tank so they can have resting room at the top, I just haven’t purchased them yet. I also would like to note the flow is minimal. )
Thanks so much for the advice/help as everyone on here have been supportive and life savers!

 

No, definitely don’t add the Betta. Why is the ammonia so high? Have you been putting pure anmonia or fish food in?

 

No, definitely don’t add the Betta. Why is the ammonia so high? Have you been putting pure anmonia or fish food in?

I haven’t put anything in except the SeaChem prime conditioner. The only other thing that I could think of is about a month ago I rinsed the sponge under my tap.. other than that nothing else has been put into the tank. It’s been up and running since Tuesday

 

Can you test your tap water for ammonia real quick? Theres no reason to be seeing ammonia at all if you have nothing in the tank.

 

Can you test your tap water for ammonia real quick? Theres no reason to be seeing ammonia at all if you have nothing in the tank.

Yep I will do that right now and post a picture!

The one with the orange scribble on the lid is from my tap. The other is a retest from my tank. I must have made an error along the way. Does this look correct?

Yep I will do that right now and post a picture!

I posted pictures! Sorry I’m dumb on here and didn’t realize I had to directly respond for you to get a notification. Thanks for helping me out!

 

No you don’t, I got the original so it looks like your tap has ammonia, which isn’t good. I’d honestly contact your city water and give them the business, because although it’s not gunna kill you, it’s not good for you amd definitely not good for your fish if you do water changes with it.

 

No you don’t, I got the original so it looks like your tap has ammonia, which isn’t good. I’d honestly contact your city water and give them the business, because although it’s not gunna kill you, it’s not good for you amd definitely not good for your fish if you do water changes with it.

This is what I would use to do the water changes. I do use the prime water conditioner as mentioned above so would that continue working for my changes? Should I double what I would normally do? Should I use two conditioners? Also, do I let my tank sit like this for quite some time or do I continue doing water changes? When is a safe time to add in the beta?
Sorry for all these crazy questions I just don’t want to do anything incorrectly. Thank you so much.
I will do my best to contact them as well!!

 

my tap water has .50 ammonia too. since your current tank water has 0 ammonia, you're fine. even if you do a big water change like 50%, your tank water will only be at .25, and should be gone within a day or two. .25 ammonia won't kill your betta. it also helps if you have some floating plants like anacharis or hornwort in your tank, which will eat up the ammonia.

the nitrates level isn't bad. to lower it you can do a water change, like 25 or 30%. once it gets above 40ppm that's when you might want to do a wc. the cloudiness was probably just a bacterial bloom or disturbance from a water change.

don't freak out, take a deep breath, and slowly acclimate your betta if the parameters between his old water and the new tank are different. your fish will be fine. do not use more than one water conditioner, you only need prime. prime will detoxify up to 1ppm of ammonia for up to 48 hours. dose only the amount the bottle says. overdose only when necessary, which in your case, it isn't.

 

my tap water has .50 ammonia too. since your current tank water has 0 ammonia, you're fine. even if you do a big water change like 50%, your tank water will only be at .25, and should be gone within a day or two. .25 ammonia won't kill your betta. it also helps if you have some floating plants like anacharis or hornwort in your tank, which will eat up the ammonia.

the nitrates level isn't bad. to lower it you can do a water change, like 25 or 30%. once it gets above 40ppm that's when you might want to do a wc. the cloudiness was probably just a bacterial bloom or disturbance from a water change.

don't freak out, take a deep breath, and slowly acclimate your betta if the parameters between his old water and the new tank are different. your fish will be fine. do not use more than one water conditioner, you only need prime. prime will detoxify up to 1ppm of ammonia for up to 48 hours. dose only the amount the bottle says. overdose only when necessary, which in your case, it isn't.

So it’s okay to add a betta in? When doing a water change what do you recommend doing?
Before when I had a betta I did a 25-30 percent water change weekly however I’m not so sure that was correct. Thank you for the advice on the plants as well, I do want to add some live ones in there! Would you recommend doing that 25% water change before buying the beta? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks so much for the advice

 

sure, I don't think it'd hurt to do a small water change to get some fresh water in there and help lower the nitrates. when did you do your last one? 25% weekly sounds good. once the tank is cycled, you might only need to do it once every two weeks.

a good nitrate-soaking plant is devil's ivy/pothos. a lot of people keep it as a house plant, but you can take a bit of it and stick the stem part into the water at the top of your tank, or have it grow out of your hob. it'll grow roots and help with the nitrates. but then again, so will water changes.

 

sure, I don't think it'd hurt to do a small water change to get some fresh water in there and help lower the nitrates. when did you do your last one? 25% weekly sounds good. once the tank is cycled, you might only need to do it once every two weeks.

a good nitrate-soaking plant is devil's ivy/pothos. a lot of people keep it as a house plant, but you can take a bit of it and stick the stem part into the water at the top of your tank, or have it grow out of your hob. it'll grow roots and help with the nitrates. but then again, so will water changes.

Well I did a complete fresh start on the tank so it’s all new water. I did this on Tuesday so this will be going on day 3!
Also, a very very very dumb question. But with the plants do I put them in the tank right away.. or do I have to rinse them off? Can’t believe I’m asking such a question LOL. Thanks again

 

if it's only been 3 days, then your tap water probably has some nitrates in it too. i'd go ahead and test your tap not just for ammonia, but everything else as well. it's always a good idea to know what you're putting in your tank.

it's not a dumb question! there are lots of different ways to rinse plants: it depends on what you're most comfortable doing. some plants are very delicate. I just rinse my plants under warm tap water. it's probably not necessary, but then you can soak them for a bit in water treated with prime to get any chlorine off.

some people quarantine their plants for a while to make sure they aren't carrying any parasites or bacteria. others do salt dips, or diluted bleach dips, or potassium permanganate dips. some live plants might have pest snails and eggs on them, so if you're worried about that, be sure to inspect them closely and remove any pests.

if you're getting tissue culture plants from the pet store (comes in tubes or packets), just rinse them off and put them in your tank.

 

if it's only been 3 days, then your tap water probably has some nitrates in it too. i'd go ahead and test your tap not just for ammonia, but everything else as well. it's always a good idea to know what you're putting in your tank.

it's not a dumb question! there are lots of different ways to rinse plants: it depends on what you're most comfortable doing. some plants are very delicate. I just rinse my plants under warm tap water. it's probably not necessary, but then you can soak them for a bit in water treated with prime to get any chlorine off.

some people quarantine their plants for a while to make sure they aren't carrying any parasites or bacteria. others do salt dips, or diluted bleach dips, or potassium permanganate dips. some live plants might have pest snails and eggs on them, so if you're worried about that, be sure to inspect them closely and remove any pests.

if you're getting tissue culture plants from the pet store (comes in tubes or packets), just rinse them off and put them in your tank.

I believe I uploaded photos of all my results but I’ll reupload them here. Would you mind looking at them?? Just want to make sure your opinion doesn’t change on getting the beta..
Also okay great, thank you for the advice on the plants I thought that was a ridiculous question LOL. If you can’t look at my water parameters, then I appreciate all the help you have given me and wish you the best on your little guys. Thank you soso much!

 

yes, I looked at them already and I think they're okay, which is why I said not to worry and just put a betta in there, hehe. that's for your tank, right? not tap?

nitrite and ammonia are excellent at 0. nitrates look like they're at 5, maybe 10-20? which is fine. your ph is a bit high, but your betta will get used to it. if you're getting a betta from a pet store nearby, you guys probably use the same tap water, so that's good. you can try driftwood or indian almond leaves to lower the ph a bit and give your tank a nice natural look your betta will appreciate. you definitely don't have to, though. don't use any chemical ph buffering products because they'll just mess with your tank.

 

yes, I looked at them already and I think they're okay, which is why I said not to worry and just put a betta in there, hehe. that's for your tank, right? not tap?

nitrite and ammonia are excellent at 0. nitrates look like they're at 5, maybe 10-20? which is fine. your ph is a bit high, but your betta will get used to it. if you're getting a betta from a pet store nearby, you guys probably use the same tap water, so that's good. you can try driftwood or indian almond leaves to lower the ph a bit and give your tank a nice natural look your betta will appreciate. you definitely don't have to, though. don't use any chemical ph buffering products because they'll just mess with your tank.

Awesome! Sorry I’m a bit of an idiot with technology LOL. And someone just recommended the Indian almond leaves and said it worked wonders so I’ll definitely consider trying that out in the very near future. I had a PH rock previously which seemed to make things worse. Can’t wait to try out some live plants and see how the leaves work.. I’m very excited to get the ball rolling on this tank. Thank you so much for all the help and all the advice. It means alot!

 

nooo, it's okay. it's absolutely no problem! I have to go to sleep now (ugh) so if you have any other questions or concerns, there are always others that can help.

I love the leaves but they will turn your water yellow if you put too many in. i'm trying to get dark water for my tank but I need to put a ton more in haha, or boil them and make concentrated black water to just pour in.

be sure to share pics once you get your new fishy friend