# What happened?!?!



## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

I had to put my betta back into his 2.5g tank last night because his little pectoral fins were clamped! He was swimming around fine and searching this new home on Sunday and most of Monday so I don't know why this is happening. 

Could there be something in his NPT that could've made him sick or could it have been from the filter? I had it on when I first put him in and the current was a little too strong for him and it freaked him out so I unplugged it. I don't smell any H2S and all of the plants seem to be doing good. Should I do a partial water change in my 10g or just leave it until he gets better? I did notice the odd little "creature" moving in the water near the substrate. They are a little bit bigger then a grain of salt but I've never saw any on my betta or the snail so I'm assuming they're harmless.

EDIT: I also forgot to mention the readings of the tank. For the first couple of days, the ammonia and nitrite readings were at zero but now the ammonia is up to 0.25ppm. The nitrites are still at zero and the nitrates are at 6.0ppm. Why would the ammonia have gone up?


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Red_Rose said:


> I had to put my betta back into his 2.5g tank last night because his little pectoral fins were clamped! He was swimming around fine and searching this new home on Sunday and most of Monday so I don't know why this is happening.
> 
> Could there be something in his NPT that could've made him sick or could it have been from the filter? I had it on when I first put him in and the current was a little too strong for him and it freaked him out so I unplugged it. I don't smell any H2S and all of the plants seem to be doing good. Should I do a partial water change in my 10g or just leave it until he gets better? I did notice the odd little "creature" moving in the water near the substrate. They are a little bit bigger then a grain of salt but I've never saw any on my betta or the snail so I'm assuming they're harmless.
> 
> EDIT: I also forgot to mention the readings of the tank. For the first couple of days, the ammonia and nitrite readings were at zero but now the ammonia is up to 0.25ppm. The nitrites are still at zero and the nitrates are at 6.0ppm. Why would the ammonia have gone up?


Some soils leech nutrients into the water after a while of being submerged. I think I remember another post where you said you did a bottle test? How long did you do the bottle test for? Did you get any ammonia readings during your bottle test? You mention your NH3 reading, but what's your pH? NH3 is non-toxic at certain pHs, so we'd need to make sure that your pH is in the range where NH3 would be a problem, to say w/ certainty that that's the issue the betta is having. In the mean time, I'd take the betta out of the tank and put him in a container with clean water until the NH3 problem subsides.

-ricardo


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

The 0.25 ppm ammonia is probably causing your fish's problem. That's way too high, and its good you got the fish out. 

Soils are very unstable the first few weeks/months, and a bottle test is never the "real thing".

It's good that you're on top of the situation. It's always tricky in the beginning, but if the plants are doing well, the long-term outlook is good.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

flagg said:


> Some soils leech nutrients into the water after a while of being submerged. I think I remember another post where you said you did a bottle test? How long did you do the bottle test for? Did you get any ammonia readings during your bottle test? You mention your NH3 reading, but what's your pH? NH3 is non-toxic at certain pHs, so we'd need to make sure that your pH is in the range where NH3 would be a problem, to say w/ certainty that that's the issue the betta is having. In the mean time, I'd take the betta out of the tank and put him in a container with clean water until the NH3 problem subsides.
> 
> -ricardo


Once I noticed him act differently, I quickly put him back into his 2.5g. I made sure there was clean water in his smaller tank just in case I had to move him.

I did the bottle test for two weeks. There was a lot of ammonia in the water of the test and during the first week, the ph was around 8.2 and the second week it was at 7.1. I'm just going to let the tank sit for the next couple of weeks and I'll try planting some more plants in there and I put some more hornwort in there as well.



dwalstad said:


> The 0.25 ppm ammonia is probably causing your fish's problem. That's way too high, and its good you got the fish out.
> 
> Soils are very unstable the first few weeks/months, and a bottle test is never the "real thing".
> 
> It's good that you're on top of the situation. It's always tricky in the beginning, but if the plants are doing well, the long-term outlook is good.


It looks like he has a bit of fungus on his pectoral fins. I'm currently treating him with Jungle Fungus Clear. What should I do about my little snail? Will he be okay in the tank or should I take him out too? I don't want anything to happen to him either.

The plants seem to be doing well. They've perked up a lot since I've planted them. I only had a 10w fluorescent bulb of 2700k at the time but I now have two 10w, 6500k cool white bulbs in the lamp now so that should help them along.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

The picture you posted of Jake last week showed a fish with a ragged caudal fin and almost no dorsal. In fact, "Jake" could have been "Jaqueline" from that picture.

He should be kept in clean water, kept warm, and fed well.

Good luck!

Bill


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

aquabillpers said:


> The picture you posted of Jake last week showed a fish with a ragged caudal fin and almost no dorsal. In fact, "Jake" could have been "Jaqueline" from that picture.
> 
> He should be kept in clean water, kept warm, and fed well.
> 
> ...


I decided that this would be best to say in a PM, not here.


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

I just tested the water in the tank today and it's still at 0.25ppm. Should I do a partial water change or just leave it?

Also, I had noticed that ever since I put the filter in, the ph has gone up. The first two days when I had it set up, the ph was at 7.4 and now it's been at 8.2 for the past couple of days. I don't think that Blackwater extract would raise the ph since it's suppose to help lower the ph in water.

If I add some peat to the tank, would it really drop the GH down a lot? The GH from the tap is 440ppm(24d).


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

You can change the water, but if there aren't any fish in the tank, I wouldn't worry about it. The plants will use up the NH3 soon enough. NH3 becomes more toxic to fish at higher pHs and at 8.2 your level of NH3 is def. on the more toxic side. You could try lowering the pH of the water, but personally, I'd leave well enough alone. Let your plants grow and see what happens. Eventually things will settle down enough for you to add fish to the tank. It might take a while. Could take a week, could take a month, could take a couple of months. Too often, we over-worry about conditions in our tanks. Now, yours is cause for concern if you have fish in there, but if you don't, relax and let the plants and soil do their thing. The hardest lesson I've learned in keeping NPT tanks, is patience, but it's also the most important I've learned. 

-ricardo


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

flagg said:


> You can change the water, but if there aren't any fish in the tank, I wouldn't worry about it. The plants will use up the NH3 soon enough. NH3 becomes more toxic to fish at higher pHs and at 8.2 your level of NH3 is def. on the more toxic side. You could try lowering the pH of the water, but personally, I'd leave well enough alone. Let your plants grow and see what happens. Eventually things will settle down enough for you to add fish to the tank. It might take a while. Could take a week, could take a month, could take a couple of months. Too often, we over-worry about conditions in our tanks. Now, yours is cause for concern if you have fish in there, but if you don't, relax and let the plants and soil do their thing. The hardest lesson I've learned in keeping NPT tanks, is patience, but it's also the most important I've learned.
> 
> -ricardo


If it takes a week or even two then that's fine but I think it would really eat away at me if I had to wait a month or so to put my betta back in there!


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## flagg (Nov 29, 2004)

Red_Rose said:


> If it takes a week or even two then that's fine but I think it would really eat away at me if I had to wait a month or so to put my betta back in there!


In order to keep NPT tanks, you have to be able to have the patience to wait months for things to settle down in your tanks, otherwise, you're gonna have a very frustrating experience.

-ricardo


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## Red_Rose (Mar 18, 2007)

flagg said:


> In order to keep NPT tanks, you have to be able to have the patience to wait months for things to settle down in your tanks, otherwise, you're gonna have a very frustrating experience.
> 
> -ricardo


I am aware of that. Even though I would like to put my fish back in there, I'm not going to just because I want to see him in there. If I have to wait, I'll wait. It's as simple as that.


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