Hi all, I am sure that someone has posted a thread with this topic before but I haven't the time to search through the archives. I have recently purchased a betta that I have housed in a 2.5 gallon tank. Before adding my fish to the tank I put in some tap water conditioner, some ich preventative, and a product called ammonia clear. I keep a small heater in the tank to regulate tempurature, and feed my betta blood worms. During the first week the water was very cloudy but cleared up after about 5 days. I am now going into the second week and I've noticed that the water in tank has a very strong odor that resembles cat urine. I have owned cats in the past and I am very familiar with this smell. I know that ammonia is present in cat urine and it what causes it have that atrocious smell, so I am led to believe that it's ammonia causing the smell in my tank. During the first week I did a 25% water change and today I did a 50% water change. I, of course, treated the water with the aforementioned chemicals and let it sit before adding it back into the tank. Other than doing a complete water change, is there something more I can do? Is there another chemical I could put in the water, other than the one I'm using, to reduce the amount of ammonia? I am going to go do a complete water change right now because I can no longer take the smell. Any and all help will be very much appreciated.
Betta Tank Smells Like Cat Urine
- Thread starter papo_cristo
- Start date
stop using the chemicals. all they do is get rid of the ammonia for the time that they are working. the lack of ammonia causes the good bacteria in your filtration system to starve and either stop growing or die. when the chemicals wear off, there is not enough bacteria present to get rid of the ammonia in the water, which is what causes the spike and the stink.
stick to testing your water (you want a reading of .25 ammonia or less) and keep up with water changes daily. it's only 2.5 gallons, not hard to do. as long as you are using the dechlor product and matching the new water temp to the old water temp you don't have to let the water sit out.
bettas will do fine with flakes or pellets, to keep the tank cleaner only feed bloodworms as a treat, and only as much as the betta will eat. having those sit ignored on the bottom of the tank will foul the water easily.
stick to testing your water (you want a reading of .25 ammonia or less) and keep up with water changes daily. it's only 2.5 gallons, not hard to do. as long as you are using the dechlor product and matching the new water temp to the old water temp you don't have to let the water sit out.
bettas will do fine with flakes or pellets, to keep the tank cleaner only feed bloodworms as a treat, and only as much as the betta will eat. having those sit ignored on the bottom of the tank will foul the water easily.
I second that motion--use chemicals only to treat the water--I use aquasafe, many here use prime. Add a plant or two, it will also soak up ammonia and your water will be that much cleaner. I use betta pellets and can feed my betta two or three with very little waste.
jackie
jackie
