Introduction of myself

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Hello
My name is Jette and I'm a 34 year old woman from Denmark.
It's been a while since I had fish so I feel a little rusty on the subject so I'm here to look for great tips and advise.

I recently got a betta very suddenly so I didn't have time to cycle his tank before I put him in.

His tank is 54 liters (a little over 14 gallons) but very sparce and only has sand and four plants, so I really want to add a better substrate, more plants and some hardscape for hiding.
Eventually I hope to give him a couple of betta friendly tank mates too, but that's far into the future for now.
I want to do the best I can for him to have a great home, but now I'm a bit worried about how I cycle a tank when the fish is already in it.
So I'll see if there are any threads on the subject or I'll make one if I can't find the answers I'm looking for
It's nice to meet you

 

[Uberhoust]

Glad to see you here. More plants are always nice. I will also mention that sand is my favorite substrate, but I am only one person, there are a lot of opinions on the subject.

I don't cycle my tanks but always have them planted ahead of time, even my hospital tank. Monitor the Ammonia and Nitrite and do large water changes if they start to show up on the tests. Again a lot of opinions here.

Tank cycling is something the group here debates frequently, but most if not all agree you need to keep the ammonia and nitrite at zero.

Reading the posts is a good way of understanding the trends.

 

[Sgooosh]

Glad to see you here. More plants are always nice. I will also mention that sand is my favorite substrate, but I am only one person, there are a lot of opinions on the subject.

I don't cycle my tanks but always have them planted ahead of time, even my hospital tank. Monitor the Ammonia and Nitrite and do large water changes if they start to show up on the tests. Again a lot of opinions here.

Tank cycling is something the group here debates frequently, but most if not all agree you need to keep the ammonia and nitrite at zero.

Reading the posts is a good way of understanding the trends.

i agree!! welcome!

 

[Slaphppy7]

Welcome to TFF, Jette

See "fish-in cycling" here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

You will need a good quality test kit, most of us use this one, with great results: https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit

You will also need a good quality water conditioner, such as Seachem Prime, or API Tap Water Conditioner

Good luck, and enjoy

 

[Byron]

You have lucked out by having one betta in a planted tank. You will not have "cycling" issues, unless something very drastic occurs biologically, and that is highly remote. Plants take up ammonia/ammonium, and do this rapidly especially the faster growing species. One benefit is that nitrite is not produced, so that issue is eliminated. One betta in a 15g volume of water is not going to have ammonia issues anyway, but the plants make this an absolute. No harm in monitoring ammonia, but I would certainly never expect to see it above zero (using our basic aquarium tests) in this situation.

If you were to set up a new tank with different fish, that would be a different matter, though having live plants still offers a lot of safety. In my 30+ years of fishkeeping with multiple tanks I have never "cycled" a new tank and ammonia and nitrite have never been present at levels I could measure.

Male bettas are solitary fish, so this lucky betta in his spacious tank is all you should consider.

Welcome back to the hobby, and welcome to TFF.

 

[ClownLurch]

Hi and welcome to ffn.
Is that him in the picture? If so can all Danish Bettas talk and what does Weeeeeeeeee mean in Danish? It’s probably best I don’t say what it means in English.

 

[enfiskejer]

Hello
My name is Jette and I'm a 34 year old woman from Denmark.
It's been a while since I had fish so I feel a little rusty on the subject so I'm here to look for great tips and advise.

I recently got a betta very suddenly so I didn't have time to cycle his tank before I put him in.

His tank is 54 liters (a little over 14 gallons) but very sparce and only has sand and four plants, so I really want to add a better substrate, more plants and some hardscape for hiding.
Eventually I hope to give him a couple of betta friendly tank mates too, but that's far into the future for now.
I want to do the best I can for him to have a great home, but now I'm a bit worried about how I cycle a tank when the fish is already in it.
So I'll see if there are any threads on the subject or I'll make one if I can't find the answers I'm looking for
It's nice to meet you

Hej!
Jeg er en dansker

 

[emeraldking]

Hi Jette, welcome to TFF. I've got some fish friends coming over from Denmark once a year. Always fun when they pay a visit.

 

[The603]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Hi and welcome to ffn.
Is that him in the picture? If so can all Danish Bettas talk and what does Weeeeeeeeee mean in Danish? It’s probably best I don’t say what it means in English.

Weeeee means the same in Danish as it does in English.
When it has that many e's it's just a joyful shout/ exclamation.
If you speak English you should know this.
Weeeeee is very different from wee
If it's because you think it's spelled wheeee, then sure, that's an option too, but I googled it and couldn't be bothered to spend too much time on it so I couldn't seem to find a proper answer as to which is the correct spelling. I found more sites that spelled it without the "h" than with it, so that's what I did too. I also think it looks better

Or maybe he just loves swimming in his own pee so much, that he screams about it at the top of his lungs who knows

If you haven't seen the "Queen roller coaster Weeeee" video you're missing out

Also yes. Yes, all Danish bettas talk

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

You have lucked out by having one betta in a planted tank. You will not have "cycling" issues, unless something very drastic occurs biologically, and that is highly remote. Plants take up ammonia/ammonium, and do this rapidly especially the faster growing species. One benefit is that nitrite is not produced, so that issue is eliminated. One betta in a 15g volume of water is not going to have ammonia issues anyway, but the plants make this an absolute. No harm in monitoring ammonia, but I would certainly never expect to see it above zero (using our basic aquarium tests) in this situation.

If you were to set up a new tank with different fish, that would be a different matter, though having live plants still offers a lot of safety. In my 30+ years of fishkeeping with multiple tanks I have never "cycled" a new tank and ammonia and nitrite have never been present at levels I could measure.

Male bettas are solitary fish, so this lucky betta in his spacious tank is all you should consider.

Welcome back to the hobby, and welcome to TFF.

Thank you! I feel much better about him being in the tank while it's "cycling" thanks to your comment.
He has some hardscape and a whole bunch of plants now and is loving life.
In terms of tankmates I was thinking mystery snails or ghost shrimp but I'm not sure I'll even get any. He seems like a pretty happy and curious guy as it is right now. And he may just turn out to want to kill them all if I get any

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Glad to see you here. More plants are always nice. I will also mention that sand is my favorite substrate, but I am only one person, there are a lot of opinions on the subject.

I don't cycle my tanks but always have them planted ahead of time, even my hospital tank. Monitor the Ammonia and Nitrite and do large water changes if they start to show up on the tests. Again a lot of opinions here.

Tank cycling is something the group here debates frequently, but most if not all agree you need to keep the ammonia and nitrite at zero.

Reading the posts is a good way of understanding the trends.

Thank you. Yeah I've found a whole bunch of threads here that I've looked through, and that has set my mind more at ease.
He has some nice hardscape now and a whole lot of plants and seems to be loving life.
I will keep testing the water but the results have been great so far, so I definitely think the plants are doing a great job at helping with that

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Welcome to TFF, Jette

See "fish-in cycling" here: https://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycle-your-tank-a-complete-guide-for-beginners.475055/

You will need a good quality test kit, most of us use this one, with great results: https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit

You will also need a good quality water conditioner, such as Seachem Prime, or API Tap Water Conditioner

Good luck, and enjoy

Thank you so much
I went and got him a lot of plants and some hardscape, along with all the things I need such as the testing kits and water conditioner right away.
He seems to be living his best life in his big planted tank and the threads in this forum helped put my mind at ease.
He'll be fine and the plants will definitely help me a lot along the way, so I'm really happy I could join here

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Hej!
Jeg er en dansker

Hej
Er du virkelig?

 

[Lo Ki Gorgeous]

Hi Jette, welcome to TFF. I've got some fish friends coming over from Denmark once a year. Always fun when they pay a visit.

Oh that sounds fun! I don't know where you're from so I can't say if they travel far to visit you, but I love the idea of having friends who are into fish, come visit sounds like a great time!