Hi everyone,
I have not been on in a while since everything had been going well with my Betta and of course kids running me ragged! Anyway, not to prolong the subject, I have come across a dilemma.
My betta was previously kept in a 10g filtered, heated tank with neon tetras. Tank went through some wonky cycling issues and I lost the tetras and nursed the betta back to health a few times. Problem was that the tetras were harassing the betta all the time and I got tired of him getting nipped so I bought a 5 gallon fluval chi and put him in there alone. He was SO happy! You should have seen how he started flaring again and swimming around like he was the king of the castle with his fins all fully displayed! Everything was fine for a month and a half or so, and then I noticed he started hanging around the top corner all the time. He didn't look sick, and he was eating fine, but as the days went on, he would always hover around the top corner of the tank. Then last week, one morning, I went in to check on him and noticed that his anal fin was ripped to shreds and he was all pale, and the section above his anal fin looked kind of black, as if the blackness was on the inside. He was also curled into a C shape and could not straighten himself. There was nothing wrong with him the day before! I quickly took him out of there and into some water with salt, assuming he had gotten caught somewhere and mangled his fins. Unfortunately, he must have been too far gone because he didn't make it the next few hours! My poor little guy had been through so much and recovered, that it amazed me that he succumbed so quickly to whatever had happened. He had a habit of always getting bloated but it would always go away eventually. By the way, I had used water and some media from his original tank in the chi so it wasn't like it was a new setup. All readings were good for water quality and I hadn't been testing it on a regular basis after the first couple of weeks he was in there.
Now here is the thing. Normally, my water readings are as follows:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20ppm
pH - 7.8
KH - 5
GH - 11
This time, when I tested the water, the readings were the same, except that KH was now 8, and GH was 19! That is a drastic change. After some research, I realized that since the chi has no lid, the rate of evaporation was a lot. Pretty much, every two days I would have to top up about 4-5 cups of water as it would get below the minimum water line marked on the filter. I didn't know at the time that topping up water would cause the hardness to increase because the minerals did not also evaporate with the water so I am guessing that is why my hardness increased so much. Of course I did water changes, but not that frequently compared to the amount of water that needed to be added on an every second day basis.
My questions are:
1.) could this have been the reason my betta just took such a turn for the worse and died? It makes sense, although it doesn't explain the mangled fin.
2.) How do I safely bring down this level of hardness? I doubt there are many fish that prefer this condition of water. Since the betta died, I didn't want to keep it fishless so it would uncycle so to speak, so I bought a couple of balloon belly mollies and 4 ghost shrimp and with it came a teeny tiny hitchhiker trumpet snail baby. I am holding out for another betta, this time a crown tail or half moon but my store didn't have any just yet. My plan was to leave the aforementioned mollies etc. in there till I bought a new betta and then move those guys to my 10 gallon tank that has 3 danios in it as well as a rock shrimp and pond snail. This way I can QT the new fish before putting them in my bigger tank and keep the chi going too until a new betta comes.
That said, I don't want to kill the mollies with such a high hardness. Any advice out there?? I know technically a stable level is better than a lot of instability trying to get to a correct number but isn't 19 way too high? I was advised by pet store to maybe top up the chi with distilled water that way I wouldn't be adding anymore minerals to the already building up amount there is. I was also told not to do water changes with distilled though as that would remove the buffer quality of water. Am I on the right track here? Also, should I be adding any salt for the shrimp and if so, which kind?
Sorry for such a long and involved dilemma. I always seem to encounter these strange things!
TIA for any help!!!
SVC
I have not been on in a while since everything had been going well with my Betta and of course kids running me ragged! Anyway, not to prolong the subject, I have come across a dilemma.
My betta was previously kept in a 10g filtered, heated tank with neon tetras. Tank went through some wonky cycling issues and I lost the tetras and nursed the betta back to health a few times. Problem was that the tetras were harassing the betta all the time and I got tired of him getting nipped so I bought a 5 gallon fluval chi and put him in there alone. He was SO happy! You should have seen how he started flaring again and swimming around like he was the king of the castle with his fins all fully displayed! Everything was fine for a month and a half or so, and then I noticed he started hanging around the top corner all the time. He didn't look sick, and he was eating fine, but as the days went on, he would always hover around the top corner of the tank. Then last week, one morning, I went in to check on him and noticed that his anal fin was ripped to shreds and he was all pale, and the section above his anal fin looked kind of black, as if the blackness was on the inside. He was also curled into a C shape and could not straighten himself. There was nothing wrong with him the day before! I quickly took him out of there and into some water with salt, assuming he had gotten caught somewhere and mangled his fins. Unfortunately, he must have been too far gone because he didn't make it the next few hours! My poor little guy had been through so much and recovered, that it amazed me that he succumbed so quickly to whatever had happened. He had a habit of always getting bloated but it would always go away eventually. By the way, I had used water and some media from his original tank in the chi so it wasn't like it was a new setup. All readings were good for water quality and I hadn't been testing it on a regular basis after the first couple of weeks he was in there.
Now here is the thing. Normally, my water readings are as follows:
Ammonia - 0
Nitrites - 0
Nitrates - 20ppm
pH - 7.8
KH - 5
GH - 11
This time, when I tested the water, the readings were the same, except that KH was now 8, and GH was 19! That is a drastic change. After some research, I realized that since the chi has no lid, the rate of evaporation was a lot. Pretty much, every two days I would have to top up about 4-5 cups of water as it would get below the minimum water line marked on the filter. I didn't know at the time that topping up water would cause the hardness to increase because the minerals did not also evaporate with the water so I am guessing that is why my hardness increased so much. Of course I did water changes, but not that frequently compared to the amount of water that needed to be added on an every second day basis.
My questions are:
1.) could this have been the reason my betta just took such a turn for the worse and died? It makes sense, although it doesn't explain the mangled fin.
2.) How do I safely bring down this level of hardness? I doubt there are many fish that prefer this condition of water. Since the betta died, I didn't want to keep it fishless so it would uncycle so to speak, so I bought a couple of balloon belly mollies and 4 ghost shrimp and with it came a teeny tiny hitchhiker trumpet snail baby. I am holding out for another betta, this time a crown tail or half moon but my store didn't have any just yet. My plan was to leave the aforementioned mollies etc. in there till I bought a new betta and then move those guys to my 10 gallon tank that has 3 danios in it as well as a rock shrimp and pond snail. This way I can QT the new fish before putting them in my bigger tank and keep the chi going too until a new betta comes.
That said, I don't want to kill the mollies with such a high hardness. Any advice out there?? I know technically a stable level is better than a lot of instability trying to get to a correct number but isn't 19 way too high? I was advised by pet store to maybe top up the chi with distilled water that way I wouldn't be adding anymore minerals to the already building up amount there is. I was also told not to do water changes with distilled though as that would remove the buffer quality of water. Am I on the right track here? Also, should I be adding any salt for the shrimp and if so, which kind?
Sorry for such a long and involved dilemma. I always seem to encounter these strange things!
TIA for any help!!!
SVC