Betta Fish

[ChinnyMom]

oh, they won't hurt anything, and because you are not seeing any negative results, you think they are working, when really it is the bacteria already in your tank doing the job.



hey Bonnie, how's the tank today? have you run any more tests?

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

I didn't get a chance to fill it up today. Work, homework, and babysitting a 3 year old and a 5 month old...all on 3 hours sleep.

Hoping to fill it at some point this weekend though

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Refilled the tank tonight. Just water and prime. No decorations, gravel, etc.

Will test tomorrow after work and post the results

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Results after the tank was emptied of all water, gravel, and decorations. Only water and prime places back in.

Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
PH: 6.6

 

[ChinnyMom]

those test results look perfectly normal for an uncycled tank. your ph is a lot lower than i thought it would be though.

i'd do a really good rinse of the gravel, give it a final rinse with Prime-d water, and put the gravel back in the tank, wait a couple days, and test again. it's just rainbow gravel from a pet store, right?

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

That is what I thought. lol

When I took the gravel out I dosed them with Prime. Sitting in the Primed water now. I'll put them back in tomorrow (hopefully) and test on Wednesday?

Yes, it's just green gravel from the pet store.

 

[ChinnyMom]

sounds like a good plan. you want to give a good 24 hours between adding something to the tank and testing to see if that something is affecting the water chemistry. takes time for stuff to leech out of stuff.

your gravel should be completely inert, as pet store gravel is epoxy coated (that's how the colour stays on it) and that coating seals the rocks pretty much completely. i've never had an issue with epoxied pet store gravel causing havoc with water parameters.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Plan on testing the water tonight.

When putting the plants back in the tank, do it one at a time?

 

[ChinnyMom]

they're just plastic plants, eh? give them a good tap water rinse, do the Prime rinse if you want, and pop them all back in. plastic won't cause changes to the water chemistry at all.

if you have silk or fabric tank plants, hold off on putting them back in, as some silk plants can leech the dye into the water. instead, put them in a bucket and leave them underwater for a good couple weeks to see if the dyes leech out, and test the bucket every few days or so for ammonia.

 

[BooBoo*TheKiddo*]

Yes, all plastic plants.

A little slow at testing the results but I did it today.

Nitrite --> 0 ppm
Nitrate --> 0 ppm
Ammonia --> 0.25 ppm

Ph --> 6.0

High Range Ph --> It didn't exactly match any of them. Wasn't rusty looking enough to be 7.4 and wasn't bright enough to be 7.8.

so far, it is still just the water, and rocks. Thoughts?