Found the Problem

Hey guys its been a while since Ive been on. From the moment I lost my last crowntails Shimo and Tutsuya, Ive been trying to figure out why my babies didn't last the legendary 3-4 yrs like they should. Turns out that it was my water!!! The water here in Texas isn't that great in all areas and i knew this but didn't think it was that bad. Even with the correct amount of conditioner in a nice size tank, food, heat and love and still a fail ...because of my water being "well-water" theres a lot of hard chemicals that even the conditioner cant take out at least thats what the guy i bought my current boy from told me. So he suggested that I can just buy some special pre-conditioned betta water thats only 3.99 each at Petsmart or just get some water from there since i know its of good quality and fill some bottles up there and just use the conditioner i have. So i took his advice and I'm tryn out the betta water right now to see what happens.

As of right now my new boy Yuki Rose is in a decent sized betta bowl because i wanna make sure this water works for him before i move him to a more suitable home. Its only been a day and a half and he has an appetite already and moving normal. There was even a bubble nest when i got home form work today .

Ps: Ill try and get some pics up today or tomorrow so u see why i call him Yuki Rose even though Yuki is a boy name

have you tryed rain water. that might be better than the water you have. if not then just carry on doing what your doing. hope he carry on ok :]

Thanks I hope so too and no I havent tried that. Dont have much access to natural resources in my area unfortunately lol.

Hey whats the easiest and best way to move a betta out of a betta bowl and hopefully not stress him out while I change his water.

just put him in another tub while you do the wc. what size is the bowl? and dose it have a filter and heater?

No its just a simple 1/2 gallon square shaped bowl at the moment til i move him to something bigger. the one i want to move him to will have all tht stuff though ....he's gonna have to take this bowl deal for a week and a half to two weeks until im conviced tht this water works ...i say a week and a half because both of my last boys died within a week and they had a heated and filtered 3 gallon tank with bloodworms every weekend. Man they were living the good life!!!

Hi
The little bowl will do as a temporary measure, but the water will need changing every day. When you set up the larger tank, you'll need to do regular water changes whilst the filter cycles which could take a number of weeks

Yes i understand that completely but i just wanna be sure that this works first...really hate to see him in there but its only for test purposes only, nothing permanent. im for his happiness 120%

But can u explain filter cycles to and why it takes weeks I never understood that.

Its called the nitrogen cycle.

Here's the simple explanation of what happens in a mature filter -
Waste products from fish food and fish waste causes ammonia, which is toxic to fish. Bacteria in the filter media convert the ammonia into nitrIte, also toxic. Then other forms of bacteria in the filter convert nitrIte into nitrAte. NitrAte is only bad in high amounts, and is normally kept under control by routine water changes.

In an uncycled filter it takes anywhere from 6-12 weeks for the bacteria colonies to grow in order to convert the ammonia and nitrIte.

There's a more detailed write up on the website in my siggie:)

ok now i understand...so if i do a water change every two days would that be ok??

Hi
In 1/2 gallon I would do water changes every day. In the new tank, partial water changes, 50%, every 3 days should be fine.

ok thanks

oh yea one more question since im using special betta water instead of tap water, does that make a difference on how many times i change the water and how much ammonia he produces?

Nope:) The ammonia will still rise:(

Well i guess ill start filling up bottles from my local Petsmart cuz its too expensive to buy special betta water to last a week. I could only find 32 fl. oz for $3.99 there and not any in bulk. My boy really likes it u wouldnt happen to know where i could get some in larger quantities would u?

I use HBH Betta H2O

do you have a walmart? you could always get drinking water from there and condition it. if you save the gallon jugs you can fill them there for much cheaper than the betta water is. i think that water would be ok for your betta.

yea but i think ima use regular tap from my job at petsmart and just use the conditioner i hav cuz its pretty expensive the way im doing it i realized.

there ya go! hope it works for ya!

but im worried about him adapting to the conditioned tap. whats the best way for him to get used to it. any ideas

i would think you can drip acclimise(sp?) him to it. thats what i do when i get a new fish to get them used to the new water slowly so they arent shocked.

ok ok drip the new stuff slowly with the old stuff got it

good luck!

thanks

go to walmart and buy a few cheap .79 cent water jugs, save them and look up a water business... my fil has one at his laundry mat, he has a big filter and uv light system and you get 5 gallons of water for 1 dollar. its clean purrified and safe enough to even use in baby bottles for formula, we drink it instead of our well water cause the well water is gross.

Yea i did that as a matter a fact but i went on ahead and filled the jugs with the water from work since i knew its wat they had to begin with so theres not a big change