First Betta Fish & Q's About Setup

I've been using Brita-filtered water in my small aquariums (6G and 10G) since August 2006 (I change out several gallons a week from each tank, and have used gallon water jugs put aside with water ready for each change). If i can drink Brita water, they can surely swim in it (and I use Prime to condition their water). Using a filter like a Brita will be cheaper than buying spring water. Our tap water is okay (at least to bathe in), but it is hard and has plenty of minerals which would be leaving white deposits in the aquarium if I didn't run it through a Brita filter first.

If you can't find the pure amonia (no soaps or scents), but you have a friend with an established, healthy aquarium(s), you could run the filter on that for a few days to help the filter gather good bacteria. Also, your friend might give (or loan) you gravel or rocks from their aquarium that also have good bacteria established on them. Just some alternatives to speed up a cycle.
 
I was just about to ask if Pure Amonia is called by any other name? I just went to a pharmacy and they looked at me like I was crazy, they had no idea what I was talking about, lol. Can I find Pure Amonia at HomeDepot or Lowes? Is there any other way to establish a tank without Pure Amonia?
 
pure ammonia is becoming increasingly difficult to find,

As mentioned, you can add dead/decaying things to your tank instead of ammonia, I think an algae wafer works. I don't know if this creates a false positive or what, but my ammonia went off the charts, yet no deaths.

Warning: this can be somewhat smelly.
 
Yup, I cant find it anywhere I just got off the chatroom and most people said I could find it at walmart or anyhardware store, but no luck for me. lol, I evan went to Petsmart and asked what they used to cycle their tanks and they said they didnt they just put fish in...so no help there...They refered something called Cycle? But I dono, I guess I could just try that wafer, or someone here had mentioned shrimp? But if I do that, how do would I follow the Tank Cycling Guildlines if I cant control the amount of amonia being put into the water? >.<
 
You don't, just watch for Nitrates, once they show up in levels above 20 PPM, remove whatever you added, wait about 24 hours for ammonia to go down, add fish. Also consider doing a partial water change (PWC for future referance)

And please don't waste your money on useless "instant cycle" products, very rarely do they work.
 
I dont plan on using that Cycle stuff anyways dont worry. Okay So im going to try one more place, Ace Hardware, hopefully they have it there but if not im going to do the waffer/fishfood thing.

Okay so add a waffer, wait for nitrates to reach 20ppm, once they've shown up remove whats left of the wafer? Wait 24 hours, do a parcial water change, test for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Ammonia and Nitrites should be 0 for an established tank right? Should the Nitrates still stay at 20 ppm even after the parcial water change? What happens if I do the water change and the ammonia and Nitrites hasnt gone down? Continue with the waffer/fishfood until the Nitrates go back up to 20ppm and try again?
 
You may need to wait a little longer for ammonia and nitrites to fall to zero. But once they do, don't wait long to add your fish.

If the Nitrates are not below 20 PPM after the water change, keep up the water changes until they are below 20 PPM.

20 PPM of nitrates is only an indicator that your good bacteria has established itself, the lower the nitrates the better. Most will agree that below 20 PPM is good. Some will say you can have nitrates up to 40, others won't let it get above 20.
 
I got my ammonia at Ace Hardware..."Janitorial Stregth Formula" ...It comes in a gallon jug and was with the cleaning products.....A gallon will basically last you forever as with your tank it will probably only take 2-3 drops to get you at a 4-5ppm range to start a fishless cycle.
 
Check out the bettatalk.com site for good tips on bettas too - what you heard about betta's not liking filters is more related to the water flow - most don't like a strong current.
 
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