Ah!

[bluesword23516]

So I have been working on my betta tank for a while now.  Today I went to the pet store to buy some supplies and I broke and bought my betta and some shrimp.  I believe everything is safe.  The only thing I am worried about is the gravel, I put some of the old gravel in the betta tank, but I cleaned it with hot salt water and rinsed really well. So i hope its ok.  
 
I'm just super stressed now  I put the shrimp in the tank and they seem to be ok, they were in a plastic container for a while. 
 
So how to I get my betta our of her cup and what do I do with this moss ball I got?
Do I wash off the moss ball?  
 
I'm so lost, please help!

 

[TallTree01]

Not sure whether washing with salt water was the best idea to be honest. It should be fine though. Not enough salt to do any harm. If your really worried you could do a couple WCs to get the the salt concentration down.
With my fish when I get them I fish them out the bag/ cup/ bucket with a net and transfer straight over after achieving equilibrium of temperature.
I give all my new plants a rinse under AQUARIUM ( not tap ) water before planting. With moss balls though you must be careful not to pull them apart.

 

[Meeresstille]

I hope your Betta is doing great in his new tank. Just want to add a few options on how to acclimate new fish.
 
There are a few different ways to acclimate. You can float the bag with the fish in the tank so the temperature can get equalize. You would then take a cup of tank water out of the bag and replace it with a cup of tank water. You repeat that every ten to 15 minutes 3-4 times. This will give the fish enough time to get used to the water parameters in your tank. You then can either let the fish swim out of the bag into the tank, or net the fish if you do not want any of the water in the bag get into your tank. The reason why this is advisable is, that you would reduce the chance of bringing anything into your tank via the LFS tank water. Others may argue, that water from the LFS and diseases may still be on the fish anyways so it does not really matter and you could empty the bag into the tank after acclimating the fish.
 
In your case it is just a Betta going into his own tank, so there are no other fish that are at risk. If you were to introduce a new fish into your community tank, it would be advisable to quarantine the new fish for about 5-6 weeks. If the fish has been infected with something it would show up during that time. It is a lot easier and cheaper to treat one (or a few) fish in a quarantine tank than a whole community where possible fish deaths could get very costly.
 
Another way to acclimate is doing a drip-acclimation. You would carefully empty the bag with the fish into a small bucket and run an airline tubing from the tank to the bucket. You fashion a knot in the tubing, by tightening or loosening the knot you can adjust the speed of the drip. You start a suction in the tubing so the water can start dripping from the tank into the bucket. You can cover the bucket to darken it, that will keep the fish calmer. In 60 - 90 minutes you net the fish out and place him into the tank. The drip-acclimation is the better option for very sensitive fish, or if the tank water from your LFS differs greatly from yours. That may be the case if you are getting the fish from a different city, that is on a different water supply.
 
You brought your Betta home in a cup. In this case I would have emptied the cup into a container that is a little larger and added about a third more of water. Every 10 minutes I would have added some more water, and then net the Betta out to place into the tank. The mossball will be fine with a few occasional squeezes in tank water to clean it out. Food and waste particles like to settle on and in it, so cleaning it during water changes is a good habit to get into. I hope all goes well with your tank. With a few water changes any salt residue from the substrate will lessen like Tall Tree already mentioned.

 

[bluesword23516]

I hope your Betta is doing great in his new tank. Just want to add a few options on how to acclimate new fish.
 
There are a few different ways to acclimate. You can float the bag with the fish in the tank so the temperature can get equalize. You would then take a cup of tank water out of the bag and replace it with a cup of tank water. You repeat that every ten to 15 minutes 3-4 times. This will give the fish enough time to get used to the water parameters in your tank. You then can either let the fish swim out of the bag into the tank, or net the fish if you do not want any of the water in the bag get into your tank. The reason why this is advisable is, that you would reduce the chance of bringing anything into your tank via the LFS tank water. Others may argue, that water from the LFS and diseases may still be on the fish anyways so it does not really matter and you could empty the bag into the tank after acclimating the fish.
 
In your case it is just a Betta going into his own tank, so there are no other fish that are at risk. If you were to introduce a new fish into your community tank, it would be advisable to quarantine the new fish for about 5-6 weeks. If the fish has been infected with something it would show up during that time. It is a lot easier and cheaper to treat one (or a few) fish in a quarantine tank than a whole community where possible fish deaths could get very costly.
 
Another way to acclimate is doing a drip-acclimation. You would carefully empty the bag with the fish into a small bucket and run an airline tubing from the tank to the bucket. You fashion a knot in the tubing, by tightening or loosening the knot you can adjust the speed of the drip. You start a suction in the tubing so the water can start dripping from the tank into the bucket. You can cover the bucket to darken it, that will keep the fish calmer. In 60 - 90 minutes you net the fish out and place him into the tank. The drip-acclimation is the better option for very sensitive fish, or if the tank water from your LFS differs greatly from yours. That may be the case if you are getting the fish from a different city, that is on a different water supply.
 
You brought your Betta home in a cup. In this case I would have emptied the cup into a container that is a little larger and added about a third more of water. Every 10 minutes I would have added some more water, and then net the Betta out to place into the tank. The mossball will be fine with a few occasional squeezes in tank water to clean it out. Food and waste particles like to settle on and in it, so cleaning it during water changes is a good habit to get into. I hope all goes well with your tank. With a few water changes any salt residue from the substrate will lessen like Tall Tree already mentioned.

 
 

Not sure whether washing with salt water was the best idea to be honest.

It should be fine though. Not enough salt to do any harm. If your really worried you could do a couple WCs to get the the salt concentration down.
With my fish when I get them I fish them out the bag/ cup/ bucket with a net and transfer straight over after achieving equilibrium of temperature.
I give all my new plants a rinse under AQUARIUM ( not tap ) water before planting. With moss balls though you must be careful not to pull them apart.

 
Ok, so this is my plan for the moss ball, I already have the betta over (her name is rose because she is red but also has a pretty brown middle and green in her tail so the Rose part also plays in with Doctor Who)   So for the moss ball I am going to take out a little tank water in a cup, squeeze the moss ball out gently over the sink and let it refill itself in the tank water.   Will this work? 

 

[Meeresstille]

You could also use some freshly de-chlorinated water, but yes, what you described works fine!

 

[bluesword23516]

Ok, thanks!!!