Was given a tank + betta by a coworker and need help

Do let us know what the tests show. With Numbers. ;) Not... "fine" ;) :) Just incase.

And just to add a sugestion to whats already been brought up. I'd say, just clean 1 side(panel) of the tank a day, at most.

All that algae isn't a bad thing for the fish. So I wouldn't be suprised by the tests comming out looking pretty good. Probably still high nitrate, but easliyl thats fixable.

Also, I'd save the tree/rock cleaning for Very Last.

Feeding: sense you'll be gone for 2 days on the weekend, I'd feed every day you are there.
 
Quoting Hebily: "I wouldn't keep anything in there, with a betta, except maybe a female betta."

NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The male will kill the female!

due to the small size of the tank, you don't have enough room bio-load wise for anything else in that tank.

i concur with everyone that says clean slowly, a bit at a time. you don't want to shock poor mr betta with too clean an environment if what he is used to is the murky existence he's been living in.

i wish you luck with your new office finkid! keep us updated! and before and after pics of the tank 'revitalization'!
 
Hebily said:
I wouldn't keep anything in there, with a betta, except maybe a female betta.
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No, no, no, no, no. Very bad idea there. If you put a male and female betta together when they're not spawning about 90% of the time you end up with severely wounded or dead fish.

Edit: typed to slow again. :)
 
BettaFishMommy said:
Quoting Hebily: "I wouldn't keep anything in there, with a betta, except maybe a female betta."

NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The male will kill the female!
Click to expand...

Oh. I've always heard that 1 male and 1-6 females will get along fine, you just cant have two males. My old roomate has a male and female together in a 1 gal, without issue. I guess it depends on the male.
 
Hebily said:
Remove the algae SLOWLY. lil patch here, the next day another lil patch... If you remove it too quickly you could cause chemistry spikes. I wouldn't keep anything in there, with a betta, except maybe a female betta. the "lil guy that's supposed to help keep the tank clean" is probably an oto. If he's still alive, he should be fine... BUT if it is an oto, you don't want to remove ALL the algae, or it will starve. That's 'otocinclus affinus'. If you google that, you'll find pics, and be able to say if that's what it is or not. keep the light on for ~8 hrs a day. no more than 12. if you don't have a timer yet, the light can be off all weekend. much better for a betta than it being on all weekend. The algae is not going to hurt the betta. Prolly makes it more comfortable. they live in really murky, overgrown water in the wild. that's all the Q's that I think I haven't seen answers for. Have fun. BTW, I would NOT use ANY chemical algae killer!

OH! Do I see a sticker thermometer??? I bet that is an acrylic tank! If so, that thermometer is giving you room temp, NOT tank water temp. Acrylic insulates well, and those stick it on the outside of the tank thermometers do not work on acrylic tanks. Get one of the glass therms that go inside the tank. they should be like $3 at most.
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i googled an image and you were right. he said the fish was an oto. however i cannot find the thing. i took out the rock and looked around with a light and only saw the betta swimming around. so i have no idea where it may be :(

you were also right about it being acrylic. thanks for the note about the thermometer i will pick up a glass one when i stop by after work.

i ran tests from the kit i bought and got the following readings:
ph 8.4
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0

the ph was almost dark enough for 8.8 but not quite (closer to 8.4) i googled it and it seems a bit high for a betta (google says 7 is preferable for a betta) the rest of the tests look good from what i can tell which i'm quite surprised about. i need to get a chlorine test because the guy i talked to said he always washed the filter/pump out with tap water. he also said he added tap water whenever there was evaporation. he didn't add anything to the water, just dumped it in.

hopefully i can slowly clean this thing better and better, add some plants, and possibly a snail or something to help keep things clean.

thanks alot for all your help and insight! this site rocks
 
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SMinNC said:
Check the tap water pH.

Most people here(and anywhere else) will suggest just using whatever that is.
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thanks. i'll do that after work, i already used up all of my lunch on this thing :o

is it normal for there to be 0 nitrates? people said it should be 20 or 40 earlier, maybe i did the test wrong? i followed the instructions perfectly
 
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