I was the person who received the viral white elephant betta fish (so messed up, so unethical, I know. I’m still really angry and upset about it). I am trying really hard to give him a good life despite not being prepared for a fish, which has included SO SO much research and spending so much money. I was given him in a cup, so I purchased a 6 gal tank, plants, drift wood, rocks, etc. I used primer, conditioner, and biological startup to do an in-fish cycle (I know not ideal, but I had no choice) and all my parameters are perfect at this point. However, I have an insanely disgusting bacteria bloom that is like out of control. I added an air stone for aeration and I believe the brown color is from the new drift wood, but the white film and cloudiness are so bad and only getting worse. I would like to scoop it out and do a partial water change, but I am getting mixed reviews online about whether that will fix it or make it prolonged. Does anyone have any advice on how to make it less gross? Or does it hurt the process if I at least scoop out some of the gross film? I also heard this can happen from cleaning and big water changes, so I am scared to make it worse. Any advice helps! And please refrain from the harsh comments about owning a fish unprepared because, believe me, I know!!!!
https://i.redd.it/9jgraflt3jgg1.jpeg
Posted by mimscat
6 Comments
We don’t know what perfect is. What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph? You have a sponge filter and waterfall filter? Cloudy water usually is a bacteria bloom. How long has the tank been running?
what are the actual ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels in ppm?
Hey so if you have 0 for all three levels, that tells me your tank has never been cycled as you SHOULD have healthy nitrite in there if you cycle was complete. I’ve heard the strip tests are notoriously inaccurate though. Maybe try picking up a fresh water testing kit cause if you’ve been feeding your fish and he’s been pooping etc- you absolutely should have enough ammonia in there to have cycled. Something is def wrong with your water
can you walk us through what you’ve been doing up until this point for your fish in cycle? were you testing daily and doing daily water changes?
the filter media speeds it up potentially but won’t instant cycle things.
having 0 nitrates in a fully cycled tank is usually reserved for VERY heavily planted tanks with a very low bioload so i’m worried something happened to your cycle or if the test results are accurate. it also sounded like you were maybe using the strips which I definitely wouldn’t trust entirely.
I never trust those strips. I’ve never seen them be accurate.
In tank cycling isn’t as hard, imo, as everyone says. Treat a couple gallons of water, do a 10% water change every day (9.5 cups is a 10% change for a 6 gallon), and test the water every day for 2-6 weeks. Also, rest assured, your betta will not lack oxygen. You have a planted tank and the fish has a labyrinth lung. I’m curious about your filter. I think you might have shocked your tank, but I also don’t think the filter is doing enough. Can you tell me about the filter?
Hey, hun. Please don’t be discouraged, you’re doing so great and your fish appreciates it so much.
If you’d like, you can boil the driftwood and that might help with all the biofilm coming off it. You can also use a turkey baster or something to manually scoop out the yucky bits. I highly recommend one for tank maintenance, it’s hard to gravel vacuum small tanks sometimes and this is a great alternative.
It’s a bit hard to see in the photo with no lights, but if it’s just the driftwood it won’t harm him. Just run the filter for a while and that should help.
As for the strips, make sure you follow directions perfectly. If it says read after a minute, set a timer on your phone. They’re very inaccurate because of user error, not because of the strips themselves. Use them as directed and it’ll be fine. You don’t need to run out and grab ANOTHER super expensive thing right this instant, though it might be a good idea in the long run.
For now, just keep testing to make sure all is well. I swear some people don’t read the actual comments (where you stated it’s a brand new tank, you just got the fish, it wasn’t your choice, etc 🙄). Obviously it’s not cycled. That’s okay. I’ve done fish in cycling a million times and never had a single death from it. It’s doable. Just test daily and do water changes whenever it gets too high. For now, don’t worry too much about the cloudiness, just manually take out any yuckiness so it’s not as unpleasant for the lil guy. The filter will take care of the rest.