My New, Old Tank. :)

[FishFixation]

that erally looks fab! the set up and all the hidey holes, leaves (basically things for him to do once hes in there) look great!
i would have been tempted and gotten him.
doubtful that bacteria in a bottle did anything really. you would still need an ammonia source to feed them once in the tank. another reason i would have gotten the fish, tried the miracle product(if it worked, awesome for you), and done fish-in. it really is no big deal to test and change everyday, when youd be testing then dosing anyway.
cant wait to see the fish you choose. he has a nice home there!
cheers

Yeah, I'm really tempted to convert this to fish-in because I can't find a source of pure ammonia (where can ANYONE find surfactant-free ammonia??), and I think the goldfish pellets I was using caused a lot of the murkiness that I cleaned out yesterday. I've switched to using betta food in the hopes that it's a bit cleaner, but I'm frustrated that I still haven't seen the ammonia spike (although mysteriously, there was a small amount of nitirite last night). You'd think that a tank this small would build up ammonia fairly quicky... it's a 3 gallon tank that holds about 2.5 gallons with the decorations in.

My test kit sucks though. It only tests ammonia and nitrite, it uses powder packets instead of drops, it takes about 30 min start to finish, and it expired in March. I really regret the purchase, but since I've used 1/5 of the packets, I don't think I can return it, and I feel obligated to use it up. It was probably clearance/no returns anyway.

I also shouldn't add a fish until I can get my pH down a little. From the tap, the water is about pH = 7.6, which I know is too basic. I'm sure magic drops exist to fix this, but I don't own any yet.

Long story short, unless I get an appreciable ammonia spike over the weekend, I'll start actively looking for the "right" fish at my local fish stores.

 

[loraxchick]

i wouldnt worry too much about adjusting the Ph. what is the pH of your tap water? if it is similar, chances are the fish store has the same/similar pH and any fish within their care should be used to it (pH is not all that shocking to fish anyway. playing with chemicals to lower it usually is worse than the Ph to begin with. just acclimate properly and you should be OK. also, that wood in there will most likey lower the pH a bit as that is what the tannins from the wood tend to do.
the only thing about a basic Ph (like you have there) is that the ammonia will be more harmful than if it were a lower than 7.0 pH (where ammonia presents itself in a less-harmful ammonium form).
do you know any where you could get some mature media from? you could cut a piece of sponge from the mature filter and seed your new filter. once bacteria are indeed IN the filter, they take very little time to multiply given the right conditions (warm temp+food).
with fish in cycling in a smaller tank, realistically you should be doing a significant water change every-everyother day (upward of 50%) for about a month.
and you can still use that test kit even without nitrate. if you have readings for ammonia and nitrites for some time then they suddenly disappear and stay gone, you can reasonably believe that the filter is cycled and just stick to weekly 30-40% waterchanges.
hope that helped a bit.
cheers

 

[FishFixation]

Thanks for the info on the pH. I'm just concerned that it is so high, and surprised that it isn't lower because of the driftwood. (Makes me wonder- how basic WOULD it be??) Before reading your post, I purchased a bottle of API's pH Down, but even a pretty heavy dose of that has done little to change things. I've heard that a high pH can contribute to algae blooms, and that is something I'd really like to avoid. I also just want to do what's best for the betta...

No, I do not know where I can get some mature media. My only option would be to ask the local fish store, and I don't trust that their stuff would be disease-free enough for me, so I'm starting from scratch. The guy at the local aquariums-only store told me I HAD to get this stuff called Stability, so I've been using that daily (for one week) since Tuesday, and then you're supposed to reduce the use to once weekly. I don't know if it's actually helping like it claims, but hey, it couldn't hurt.

I bought an API master test kit today and discovered that I actually do have positive readings for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, which tells me that I'm making progress! They were all pretty low, but at least they were there! I think my other test kit was crap.

I also bought some ammonia and added I think 8 drops of that, which brought me from around 0.25ppm up to about 1ppm on the ammonia. I've read sites saying to aim for anywhere from 0.5ppm to 5ppm, but since I still have some betta food rotting in there, I'll stick on the low end for now and just see what it does. I think it'll keep going up on its own, unless I'm so far along in my cycle that the bacteria can handle that load. I doubt it.

It's probably still a bit excessive/obsessive, but I'm going to try to LIMIT my water testing to every 12 hours or so. I'm just so excited that I can't get it off my mind! I want to test it constantly! Haha...

 

[Harlequins]

Fab tank and good luck with your cycle

Ref to your ph,you would be better leaving it has it is,rather than trying to get it down with a ph solution,mainly because its a steady ph has it is,messing with it causes it to fluctuate therefore causing discomfort for any fish.

 

[FishFixation]

Readings this morning:

ammonia: 0.5 ppm (was 1.0 ppm last night)
nitrite: 0.5 ppm (unchanged)
nitrate: 10 ppm (unchanged)
pH: 7.2

I like that half the ammonia was gone. I'm still not at the '0 ppm within 12 hours' point, but as I see it, I'm over halfway there. Those little bacteria are gonna multiply in no time. To get the level back up, I added three more drops of ammonia 30 minutes ago. Now it's about 1.0ppm and I'll check it again in 12 hours.

So excited! I'm seriously like a little kid!

 

[loraxchick]

that is actually very promising. do you have nitrate in your tap water? just curious. maybe this mysterious "have to have" product is ACTUALLY doing something. lots of folks say they are all a waste of money, but to my recollection, no ones actually tested it out. just kinda passes on the info theyve heard. so this should be interesting to see how fast your filter cycles using this product. what is your temp set at for now. bumping it up a little (to like 85) will speed things up (ie bacterial colonies will grow faster)..just another thought.
good luck and keep us posted.
cheers*edit ot add*
and high Ph doesnt have anything to do with algae. light + nutrients and poor flow (and not enough fast-growing plants) = algae. so no worries there. keep the light OFF in the tank while cycling if you dont want to start seeing green algae (becasue as it is now, theree's lots of ammonia as a food source for algae. no light=algae wont grow).
cheers

 

[FishFixation]

that is actually very promising. do you have nitrate in your tap water? just curious. maybe this mysterious "have to have" product is ACTUALLY doing something. lots of folks say they are all a waste of money, but to my recollection, no ones actually tested it out. just kinda passes on the info theyve heard. so this should be interesting to see how fast your filter cycles using this product. what is your temp set at for now. bumping it up a little (to like 85) will speed things up (ie bacterial colonies will grow faster)..just another thought.
good luck and keep us posted.
cheers*edit ot add*
and high Ph doesnt have anything to do with algae. light + nutrients and poor flow (and not enough fast-growing plants) = algae. so no worries there. keep the light OFF in the tank while cycling if you dont want to start seeing green algae (becasue as it is now, theree's lots of ammonia as a food source for algae. no light=algae wont grow).
cheers

I tested my tap water, and I DO have 10 ppm nitrates, so I suppose I'm actually at baseline. Maybe I'm not as far along as I'd hoped. (Dang.)

My temp is currently at 80, but I think I will increase it a tad. I set it to 80 because I was thinking I might convert to fish-in, but that's no longer the plan.

I'll turn the light off and hope the algae stays away, but I realize I'm at especially high risk because I'd been doing the fish food method which adds phosphates that the algae also likes to eat. Fingers crossed that I can keep it under control this time around!

Edit: Added in:

One more question for you - I see from your profile that you have snails and such in your three-gallon betta tanks. Have you had any trouble with the water quality from the added bio load? I've thought about getting a snail, but I was warned on another forum that a tank as small as mine can't support both the snail and the betta. What kind of filtration do you use on those tanks? Thanks.