New fish owner, unless you count the parade of bettas and single bulletproof goldfish I had during the ‘90s.
tl;dr
I’m looking for advice as to whether to move my fish to a bigger tank now, or wait until it has re-cycled / stabilized. I must have thrown off the cycle when cleaning / doing a partial water change and we’re now fish in cycling with Prime and having a fun bacterial bloom (which I know is probably good, I just feel so bad for the fish).
Longer Version
We got a 3 gallon tank on the advice of a pet store employee (I now know better! Same for the plastic pirate ship! We’re learning!). We did cycle it before putting a Betta and single snail. The tank is equipped with a filter (upgraded the media from the cartridge to a sponge and ceramic rings) and heater, temp steady at 79 degrees.
Per above, I must have crashed the cycle somehow – I did use a new vacuum to suck up some bigger debris from the gravel and did a partial water change – because a few days ago the parameters went wonky. We’ve been back in ammonia land and as of yesterday are going through a bacterial bloom. When I realized the parameters were off I did start the fish in cycling protocol with Prime (again, a few days ago). I test parameters with the API freshwater kit. Yesterday we were at 0.5 ppm ammonia and 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate.
I have in the meantime gotten a new 10 gallon tank because as I educated myself about tank chemistry and fish I quickly realized the 3 gallon tank would not be big enough for the Betta to live comfortably.
Should I wait until the small tank completes this new cycle, or just rip the band aid and transfer now? I would move some of the gravel, plant, and filter media (if it makes a difference in speed to new cycle).
Getting rid of the fish is not a great option, he came from a big pet store and despite his sub-par living situation looks better now than when we brought him home last month.
Thanks in advance for any tips!
Posted by aquabrwn