I clean my beta's 2.5 gallon tank completely every 8 days. I run all plants, her house, heater and filter and all the gravel under warm tap water. I put a splash of white vinegar in her empty tank, fill it with water and use a bottle cleaning thing to scrub the entire tank with, then rinse it 6-8 times in the shower. Then I refill the tank with decorations (same ones, except for 1 or 2 different ones), put tap water in, conditioner, and plug the heater back in. When the water reaches the high 70's, I graduaiiy add her new aquarium water to the temporary tank she is in. I add water every 15 minutes for 1 hour. My question is I bought some aquarium salts because I thought she had swim bladder. She is fine now, but should I use the salts in place of the vinegar, rinse them out, or add them to her tank?
AQ salt is for external problem not swim bladder disorder, that would be epsom salt, you do not want to use AQ salt unless you need to so the bacteria that cause things like fin rot and so on do not get a tolerance to it.
Ok, thanks for clearing that up for me. I read on the label that it is also used as a preventive, I guess that's just more miss informed stuff the pet stores tell everyone.
I clean my beta's 2.5 gallon tank completely every 8 days. I run all plants, her house, heater and filter and all the gravel under warm tap water. I put a splash of white vinegar in her empty tank, fill it with water and use a bottle cleaning thing to scrub the entire tank with, then rinse it 6-8 times in the shower. Then I refill the tank with decorations (same ones, except for 1 or 2 different ones), put tap water in, conditioner, and plug the heater back in. When the water reaches the high 70's, I graduaiiy add her new aquarium water to the temporary tank she is in. I add water every 15 minutes for 1 hour. My question is I bought some aquarium salts because I thought she had swim bladder. She is fine now, but should I use the salts in place of the vinegar, rinse them out, or add them to her tank?
Please clarify what I have been doing. I have a 2.5 mini bow tank, when its time to change the water I have been doing is running the tap water into my brita then pour into two pots, let sit for two days then pour into tank, then add water conditioner. Should I avoid the brita part and pour tap water into pots let sit for two days then pour into tank or just add the tap water directly into tank, condition then put fish in?
Please clarify what I have been doing. I have a 2.5 mini bow tank, when its time to change the water I have been doing is running the tap water into my brita then pour into two pots, let sit for two days then pour into tank, then add water conditioner. Should I avoid the brita part and pour tap water into pots let sit for two days then pour into tank or just add the tap water directly into tank, condition then put fish in?
I think, whether you need to run the water into brita (it's a filter system, right?) will depends on the tap water quality. but in any case, letting the water "sit" for 2 days certainly better than adding the water directly into the tank :)
Ok I have a question. Previously my male veil tail was in. 2.5 gallon filtered tank. When I would do water changes I would cup him in the same cup he came in and then do 100 changes of the remaining water, rinse plants and substrate, rinse out the tank itself, then replace plants and substrate, fill the tank with pre conditioned water, then float cupped fish for about 30 minutes before releasing him.
Since I got the 5 gallon it's taken me awhile to figure out the routine. For one thing, initially (a week or so after setting up the tank) had two African Dwarf frogs in there but quickly figured out that the fish and the frogs were not super compatible, and additionally that the bioload was too high for that tank. I really should probably have had at least a 10 gallon. Anyway that lasted a week and it became clear that the frogs needed to go. So they did. Since then I did one major overhaul after the frogs vacated (100% water change, emptied out and rinsed all so substrate and plants, etc.).
Last week I did a stir of the substrate and turkey bastered any debris and then did a 50% water change with the fish still in the tank. The reason I did it this way is because the additional horizontal space afforded by the larger tank allowed for increased room to maneuver without feeling like I was going to injure or stress Murray. When I added the water I did so slowly by using the turkey baster and siphoning the clean and conditoned water in slowly so i wouldn't shock him. I then did the same this week except I removed the substrate (I use the larger, naturally colored rocks from the fish section ...they're smooth so they won't damage his fins and I like them because when I was removing them weekly for cleaning they were a lot easier to deal with than sand or gravel) instead of doing a stir snd skim. I didn't remove all of it, just enough to be able to see if there was any crud hiding at the bottom, which I sucked out, rinsed the substrate and replaced it, and then I rinsed the plants and replaced those and then added some new ones. Through all this, Murray seemed very relaxed, and I would prefer to continue doing things more or less this way until or unless a 100% change is necessary. He seemed way less stressed than he does when I have to cup and remove him. So my question is ... is this ok? How do those of you with tanks of 5 gallons and above handle water maintenance?
Last edited by bannlow2471; 03-30-2013 at 07:31 AM.
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