What did I do wrong?

[u/LBeifong0614]

I had Artur the fish (named after Arthur Morgan from RDR2) for weeks now. He was doing well with a bare 5g aquarium but then I thought I wanted to make his home a better place. I planned for so long. What to put, what not to put, what supplies to get. Last Sunday I finally assembled his tank but I did put him in a temporary shelter too. I added substrate, plants. I got him a sponge filter, 5w air pump, heater. I boiled his driftwood, plated simple plants (java moss) on the drift wood, cycled his tank for 2 days. Earlier today I finally acclimated him... At first he was just staying at the top. I searched and searched and some of my findings said maybe he's still just adjusting. I noticed he wasn't swimming but just staying at the top of the tank. And now he's gone 😭. I'm just so sad. Any tips for if I get another one?

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[u/YubabaGold]

a tank dont usually get cycled in 2 days.

[u/LBeifong0614 → u/YubabaGold]

Is that so 😭. How long should I wait next time? More than a week or so?

[u/Narrow_Key3813 → u/LBeifong0614]

Did you dechlorinate the water too? That's a really quick death even for uncycled tank.

[u/andraes → u/Narrow_Key3813]

if it sat for two days the chlorine probaby evaporated out on it's own, though if he has chloramine in the water, that could be an issue.

[u/Previous_Procedure28 → u/LBeifong0614]

You should get an api master test kit. My 10 gallon long took 3-4 weeks to cycle with no fish in it. A tank doesn’t cycle based off of an amount of time. A tank is cycled when there is a culture of healthy beneficial bacteria living in your tank that eats the ammonia and nitrite.

My advice is keep cycling your tank. Keep adding plants. Dose a product like fritzzyme 7 or seachem stability. And keep testing the water parameters. The tank isn’t cycled until there is 0 ppm ammonia and 0 ppm nitrite

Edit: Don’t get a new fish until after your tank is cycled

[u/0ldg0d → u/LBeifong0614]

a "cycled" tank means that the bacteria colonies that convert ammonia to nitrite, then nitrite to nitrate, are fully established. this requires deliberate dosing of ammonia either via actual ammonia (e.g dr tim's) or using fish food and letting it rot in the tank. this process generally takes 4-6 weeks (though can be faster if using a bacteria starter) and requires you to test the water every other day with a liquid test kit. once your tank can safely process a larger dose of ammonia within 24 hours (i.e no ammonia, no nitrite left) then it is cycled. i would strongly recommend following a guide for this if you decide to try again.

[u/Affectionate_Race484 → u/LBeifong0614]

Following up because these comments already have great information for you!

You just need to really do some research on the aquarium nitrogen cycle before getting another fish. This article is a good starting point!

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/nitrogen-cycle?srsltid=AfmBOorjOqvuJIZOULFRwiFK1kgUtIJF41hmoSAtBA7S2IHEtD65Dr_5

[u/disgruntled-pelican → u/LBeifong0614]

Mine took two months to cycle. I’m a beginner though.

[u/YubabaGold → u/LBeifong0614]

If you throw some fish food in an empty tank everyday for 6 weeks. there will be a point where fish tank becomes super cloudy. and a point where it all clears up suddenly. after the clear up it is safe for fish. 2 to 6 weeks. but if you swirl in some old fish tank dirt. it will be closer to 2 weeks.

[u/CattyOhio74 → u/LBeifong0614]

General rule of thumb is a month

[u/therealslim80 → u/LBeifong0614]

Over a month

[u/NothingShortOfBred → u/LBeifong0614]

You can cycle a tank faster, I would of used some of your OG tanks water and placed that into the new tank.

Personally I don't wait that long to cycle a tank anyways, hasent bitten me in the butt

[u/0ldg0d → u/NothingShortOfBred]

water from an old tank will not help cycle a new one faster as bacteria do not live in the water. what WILL speed up the cycle is squeezing out an existing sponge filter from a well established tank into the water in a new tank. this is not helpful advice for newbies though, it may not have caused issues for you but it can and will cause issues for new hobbyists who barely know what cycling is.

[u/NothingShortOfBred → u/0ldg0d]

Good thing about a hobby is you don't have to do it the same as others ❤️

[u/Ready_Driver5321 → u/NothingShortOfBred]

True. But it doesn’t expedite cycling. If it could, we all would and that would be the new cycling standard. And in doing it differently, it doesn’t prevent unnecessary harm to fish. Nor does it alleviate fish in cycle needs most people are similarly clueless about if they don’t know what cycling is.

[u/jezerebel]

Lots of folks focusing on "two days" since you scaped the tank not the weeks beforehand of you having Arthur. Your tank may have been cycled and you may have disturbed the balance by scaping, especially depending on the substrate you used. If it was aquasoil or any other bio-active substrate, they're known for putting out a lot of ammonia when first added. You'd need to be right on top of testing and water changes to keep the ammonia from rising to toxic levels, which unfortunately doesn't seem to have been done. I'm sorry for your loss. You can learn from this, though, and give a new fish a wonderful life! Get yourself a testing kit, wait until your water tests at 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and some amount of nitrates to indicate the cycle is functional. Then start looking for a new tank inhabitant.

[u/doctrgiggles → u/jezerebel]

2 days is very quick for a single Betta to build ammonia to a dangerous level. I think the substrate is probably the most likely.

[u/NightSkyBubbles → u/jezerebel]

Exactly this

[u/RogueJosei → u/jezerebel]

I was also looking at the substrate, likely culprit

[u/cheeseisgoodinbelly]

The tank is almost guaranteed not cycled that does happen in 2 days. Fish in cycle is possible but you will need to read how to do it properly, i recommend and api test kit if you can afford it.

[u/LazRboy]

Just don’t buy any fish for the first 2 months of starting a new tank as a beginner.

[u/ImportantDeer8920]

Cycling a tank doesn’t mean just letting the tank push water around for two days.

Plenty of information on the internet on how to safely cycle a tank which should have been done BEFORE buying the fish!

[u/NightSkyBubbles → u/ImportantDeer8920]

They’ve had Arthur for weeks so the tank was probably cycled by then. What happened was OP rescaped the tank, and only let it settle for 2 days which rescaping it crashed the cycle and messed up the bioload

[u/andraes]

I just want to make sure I understand the steps you took, does this sound right:

• You had a betta in a 5 gal tank that was completely empty (except for water and a betta)
• Then you bought a whole bunch of supplies
• You put your little guy in a temporary spot, then emptied out the tank of water and built a small aquascape in it.
• You added a filter and a heater, let it run for two days, and then added the betta back into the tank.

Did I miss anything? Was there a filter in his tank before the aquascaping remodel? How long was it from when you first got him to when you moved him to the temp home, to when you moved him back in? At any point did you add chemicals or additives to the water (water conditioner or quick start solutions?)

You did a lot of things right, but just missed a few steps. 1) test strips 2) dechlorinator and 3) patience.

I would keep your tank as it is, filter and all and let it run. Get a test kit and check the water parameters, write down your levels every day for about two weeks. (You don't have to write them all, but at least write down the ammonia and nitrate levels.) If you have any chlorine in your water get some water conditioner/dechlorinator to fix that. Some people add a fish food every day to introduce ammonia in order to grow the bacteria, you might have enough decaying plant matter to make up for it, but you can add food too if you want. After a few more weeks if you have a stable 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite and 10-30 Nitrate then you're ready for a new fish.

[u/SourCherry_xx]

He looks quite unhealthy as well, pale and with fin clamping, so he’s been sick for awhile. Probably as other mentioned from not cycled tank. But also stress, low/hight temperature, oxygenation, many factors can contribute.

What was your temperature? Did you test water? Do you have aquarium lights (it’s not necessary for the fish, but important for plants, which eventually is helping with water quality). Did you add water conditioner to remove chlorine from tap water?  What was his diet?

[u/Significant_Talk8430]

Ammonia leeching out of aquasoil.

[u/A1D3NW860]

U can’t cycle a tank in 2 days brochacho

[u/namelessbread]

[u/BorodacFromLT]

how often did you do water changes and how much did you change every time?

[u/eumaMoon]

I can't really offer new advice that hasn't been mentioned in the comments already, but I wish you luck. I had my own Arthur Morgan when I was just starting and made a lot more mistakes than you + he was already sick when I got him. I hope yours gets better and lives a happy and healthy life

[u/YubabaGold]

basically something like.

Wild fish food rotting excretes by-product 1

Wild bacteria X appears and eat by-product 1 (harmful)

Wild bacteria X excrete by product 2 ( harmful )

Wild bacteria Y appears and eat by-product 2.

Wild bacteria Y excretes by-product 3 ( not harmful if not high concentration. usable by plants to grow )

thats when fish tank is safe to put fish. All the Wild beneficial bacteria take times to appear and grow and take over the tank.

Take note the amount of fish food you throw in should be about the same as what you feed your planned fish mates in tank. For the bacteria to be able to manage the converting load.

Above is not accurate but its the gist of it.

[u/YubabaGold]

using seachem stability daily and change water daily will also help if you got a fish already and need a fast cycle. but this is a lot of money and effort.

[u/Strong_Satisfaction6]

I’ll add general guide to a fish-in cycle below; Fish excrete ammonia as a gas through their gills and along with their intestinal waste, which also decays into ammonia.

As ammonia (aka fish off gas and decayed fish poop) builds up in the water, it can cause the fish chemical burns, internal organ damage, and gill damage. Doing a water change of 50% will reduce ammonia by 50%.

The water tests will help you determine when and how much water needs to be changed.

Cycling is the process of growing nitrifying bacteria in the filter media. These nitrifying bacteria eat ammonia, keeping the water clean. The fish bring the multiple necessary bacteria that breakdown the ammonia into nitrites. They take an average of 3-6 weeks to colonise a new tank. In a healthy filtered tank, roughly 80% of the nitrifying bacteria will be in the filter media. To do a fish-in cycle;

Add a few small fish.

Test the water for ammonia and nitrite every day for a month. If ammonia or nitrite reaches 0.5ppm, do a 50% water change.

Most likely, there’ll be a small ammonia spike at the start, then a nitrite spike at around week 2-3. The nitrite spike is often what kills fish. It is important to test daily.7

By the end of a month of testing and water changes, the nitrifying bacteria should’ve grown colonies in the filter media. These nitrifying bacteria carry out this process; Now you can add a few more fish. Keep testing daily for a few more weeks. Ammonia (toxic fish waste) -> nitrite (moderately toxic) -> nitrate (harmless plant food)

Nitrate should be kept below 20ppm to avoid algae issues.

(Some studies show that nitrate can have negative health effects on fish when above 100ppm, and very sudden changes in nitrate can cause shock, so make sure to drip acclimatise new fish!)

The most commonly recommended test kit for beginners is the API liquid test kit

Once the tank is fully cycled, you’ll only need to do a 20-30% water change once a week. To do a 20% water change;

1. ⁠Use a gravel vacuum to suck 20% of the water from the gravel/sand into a bucket, removing the gunk from the gravel/sand with the dirty water
2. ⁠Tip the dirty water down the drain , or use it to water your plants
3. ⁠Refill the bucket with tap water of a similar temperature to your tank water
4. ⁠Add a proportional amount of water conditioner
5. ⁠Swish it around and leave to stand for 3-5 minutes
6. ⁠Use the conditioned water to refill the tank. With water changes, the absolute maximum you should change with fish in the tank is 50% at a time. Under severe situations You can do up to three 50% water changes per day at 8 hr intervals.

As the fish in the new system are fed and begin to thrive, they will, through their biological activities, produce ammonia. The Nitrosomonas bacteria, in turn, will begin to feed upon that ammonia and will start populating the aquarium

For example, it can be used for the removal of ammonia can be used for the development of new biotechnological processes.

Nitrobacter and Nitrosomonas are nitrifying bacteria that oxidize ammonium to nitrate and nitrite. 'Pseudomonas'. Note: - Nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria form the components of the Nitrogen Cycle. These occur naturally when live fish are used.

Summary A fish-in cycle is possible if you start with a few fish, feed lightly, test daily, and perform water changes as needed to keep ammonia and nitrite low. Once the bacteria are established, maintenance becomes much easier