Hi Everyone,
I am a first time fish owner and need advice. I have fallen into the trap of following my local pet stores advice that setting up my tank 1 week prior to getting my betta was enough time. From looking on here I am now very worried as my tank is not cycled. I really don't want this to harm my beautiful new male betta Jasper. I have a 5 gallon tank with silk plants, a betta hammock, gravel, log cave at the bottom, betta floating log, filter, heater set at just under 80f. I also have a 3d background as my tank had an internal mirror on the back I wanted to cover so I didnt stress my new baby. I got Jasper 3 days ago and I bought a testing kit 2 days ago and the readings were ammonia 1.0, nitrate 500, nitrite 25, GH 250, KH 180 and PH 7.6. As the levels were so high I looked online and saw that 30% water changes will help. I done a 30% fish in water only change using water conditioner as I did the week prior to getting him. This brought the levels to ammonia 0.5, nitrate 250, nitrite 20, GH 250, KH 180 and PH 7.6. These are still so high, I'm so worried about Jasper. Does anyone have any advice please?
Despite the water condition Jasper seems so so happy. He is eating 2-3 betta pellets in the morning and he has a small amount of frozen brine shrimp or frozen mosquito larvae for dinner. He swims over to me for his food and eats the pellets from my finger. I soak the pellets in tank water first because he was having trouble eating them dry. He loves to explore the tank and sleeps on his hammock or in his log. He is still a bit nervous of me and will swim away from my finger when I hold it on the glass. I don't think he is 100% comfortable with me yet. Hopefully when he learns I'm not a threat he will follow my finger across the glass. I love him so much already I really want to do what's best for him.
I also put some stress protect in the tank before I got him to help with the change.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thank you :-D
I am a first time fish owner and need advice. I have fallen into the trap of following my local pet stores advice that setting up my tank 1 week prior to getting my betta was enough time. From looking on here I am now very worried as my tank is not cycled. I really don't want this to harm my beautiful new male betta Jasper. I have a 5 gallon tank with silk plants, a betta hammock, gravel, log cave at the bottom, betta floating log, filter, heater set at just under 80f. I also have a 3d background as my tank had an internal mirror on the back I wanted to cover so I didnt stress my new baby. I got Jasper 3 days ago and I bought a testing kit 2 days ago and the readings were ammonia 1.0, nitrate 500, nitrite 25, GH 250, KH 180 and PH 7.6. As the levels were so high I looked online and saw that 30% water changes will help. I done a 30% fish in water only change using water conditioner as I did the week prior to getting him. This brought the levels to ammonia 0.5, nitrate 250, nitrite 20, GH 250, KH 180 and PH 7.6. These are still so high, I'm so worried about Jasper. Does anyone have any advice please?
Despite the water condition Jasper seems so so happy. He is eating 2-3 betta pellets in the morning and he has a small amount of frozen brine shrimp or frozen mosquito larvae for dinner. He swims over to me for his food and eats the pellets from my finger. I soak the pellets in tank water first because he was having trouble eating them dry. He loves to explore the tank and sleeps on his hammock or in his log. He is still a bit nervous of me and will swim away from my finger when I hold it on the glass. I don't think he is 100% comfortable with me yet. Hopefully when he learns I'm not a threat he will follow my finger across the glass. I love him so much already I really want to do what's best for him.
I also put some stress protect in the tank before I got him to help with the change.
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, thank you :-D