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Quick help with set-up?

605 views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  Oldfishlady 
#1 ·
So I had my new tank set up since 5pm yesterday and it's currently 11:30 am right now. The heater read 78* before I went to bed and right now it still reads 78*. I'm not cycling my tank (unless I end up buying a better filter). I bought new plants and made a betta bed through a tutorial I found online. I rinsed them all with warm water and put them in the tank. The conditioner I have says 1 cap-full for every .5 us gallon so since my tank is 3 gal I put 6 cap-fulls. (I'm looking into a conditioner that doesn't use as much lol)

My questions:
Will the plants be okay since I rinsed them well with warm water?
Why does it seem like I can smell chlorine off the water (or some other weird smell)?
Since the temp has been steady at 78* for 12 hours can I add my fish now?
 
#2 ·
Are the plants real plants or fake...

It sounds like you did every thing correctly.....the smell may be the dechlorinator....but it won't hurt to add a bit more to be safe.....generally you can't overdose with the dechlorinator by a couple of extra caps or so...a whole bottle may cause a problem in a small tank...but not a cap or two more.....

Slowly acclimate the fish by adding small amounts of the new tank water to the Betta over 20-30min and watch its reaction......pouring some of the Bettas water out and adding tank water until 100% new tank water is with the Betta and then add the Betta to the tank...top off the tank with fresh dechlorinated water......
 
#3 ·
The plants are fake, they are plastic and I know that is frowned upon by some people but I made sure there were no sharp edges and also I heard doing a "pantyhose test" can show if it will be able to tear the bettas fins, so I tried that as well.

I will add another cap-full of conditioner.

Also, what does "top off the tank" mean? (This is my first time owning a tank over .75 gal.)
 
#4 ·
Top off....mean you add more water to the tank....when you remove water from the main tank to add to the Betta for acclimation....you toss this water in the acclimation cup- so you need to top off the main tank with fresh dechlorinated water....

Love to see some pics of your Betta and setup.....
 
#5 ·
Oh ok, thank you again for the helpful information! I will post pictures of the whole set-up as soon as I'm finished :)
 
#6 ·
OFL, I did exactly what you said, on how to introduce her to the new tank. She seems to be doing fine, she doesn't seem scared, just swimming around and exploring. One thing I'm worried about is that I have a 50W heater and she seems very curious about it, can the heater burn her?
 
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