# first tank attempt a failure



## Aceman8z (Feb 20, 2006)

Well, I finally finished my ten gallon divided tank for my three bettas. I was really happy with the set-up. unfortunatly before I could pull the camera out to post some pictures to show it off disaster has struck. I started up the tank the first week of may and added my bettas and used stress-zyme to try to prevent any big ammonia spikes. I heard that SZ hadn't worked for some people but I had tried it in one of my friends goldfish tanks with some sucess so I thought it would do. I was wrong the first week went fine fish were happy water tests were good. Then I did about a 1/3 water change (may have been my first mistake by not taking out enough water). But, the water and fish were good until the end of the second week. Then I noticed my blue vail tail had a split in his tail... This had happened before when I traveled him from school to home and it later healed on its own. I thought he might have just been flaring at the betta in the neighboring compartment to much causing him stress. The next day when I saw another one of my bettas tail shredding i knew it was a water problem. Water test showed water level had ammonia levels of at least .5 ppm. so they were suffering from amonia poisining. When a 50% water change did not improve the water I performed a 85% water change and went out and got some bio-spira. The amonia levels were controlled for a few days, but the damage on my bettas had been done so I've taken them out and put them in in "hospital bowls" and started to treat them. They are still active and eating... just not lookin so hot. My tank will be totally restarted and I plan on using bio-spira again since it seemed to actually help improve the cycling of the tank. What are some other ideas I can do differently in the next attempt to make a tank to make it sucessful? I'm thinking about adding a heater the next time and maybe a small amount of aquarium salt to prevent disease, but that doesn't deal with the water quality issues. Any ideas would be greatly appeciated it will probably be a few weeks before my fish heal (assuming they make a full recovery :/ . Thanks.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Do you have a filter? If yes, then Bio-spira should instantly cycle it and you only need to do regular water changes, maybe 1/3 per week. If no, then you will need to do 80-100% weekly forever and Bio-spira won't help much. I like Prime as a dechlor and double the dose when cycling a new tank. Test ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate daily until the ammonia and nitrite go to 0 and the nitrate starts to rise. You could try a fishless cycle while your betta are recovering. When you divided the tank, did you use sealant? And if so, did you rinse it many times after it cured (2-3 days)? I think a heater is a great idea, good insurance against cold rooms and helpful if you ever need to treat for ich.


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## Aceman8z (Feb 20, 2006)

yes my tank has a whisper 10 filter in it... it's good to know how much waterchange I should do while using bio-spira... it was working but i've had to pull the fish out for treatment and no ammonia equals dead bacteria but I will definitely use it again when I get the tank started up again. the dividers are clipped onto the tank at the top and no sealant was used


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## Echo (Apr 23, 2006)

Do you know how to fishless cycle your tank?


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## Aceman8z (Feb 20, 2006)

I've read about it... but i'm unclear on what type of ammonia to add to the tank or how much... i've also heard you can "feed" the tank fish food flakes to add ammonia... would bio-spira interact with the true ammonia?


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## Tonymd (Apr 24, 2006)

Ive had great luck with putting a established filter in the new tank.


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## Tonymd (Apr 24, 2006)

Or a squeezing from a sponge filter from a established tank. ( Put it into your filter)


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## Guest (Jun 1, 2006)

You shouldn't have added all three of your Bettas at once. You should have added some Zebra Danios to get the tank start to cycle, then one by one, add you Bettas.


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