Big THANK YOU to everyone who helped

[JillianGarcia05]

Hi all - just doing a feel-good post that today I tested my water after two and half weeks of dealing with ammonia levels and they are finally at 0ppm!! 

Shout out to everyone including Paul at the Aquarium co-op for all your advice on how to get my sweet betta, Augustine's tank back to where it should be. 

Now for an ultimate newbie question. Now that I've got her water parameters in the right direction, what's the best way to keep them that way? I've seen a variety of different "This is how you do it" kinds of advice in researching it online. But curious what you all think.

Thank you!

[AllFishNoBrakes]

I keep my tanks stable by focusing on consistency rather than chasing numbers. I feed basically the same every day, all my lights are on timers, and I do the same water changes weekly. Consistency is key, for me. 

[JillianGarcia05]

On 12/7/2023 at 10:22 AM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

I keep my tanks stable by focusing on consistency rather than chasing numbers. I feed basically the same every day, all my lights are on timers, and I do the same water changes weekly. Consistency is key, for me. 

Thanks, @AllFishNoBrakes! I'll make sure to be consistent from now on. 

[nabokovfan87]

Well done, nice work! @JillianGarcia05

On 12/7/2023 at 9:51 AM, JillianGarcia05 said:

Now for an ultimate newbie question. Now that I've got her water parameters in the right direction, what's the best way to keep them that way? I've seen a variety of different "This is how you do it" kinds of advice in researching it online. But curious what you all think.

I send this video and it's not sarcasm or a joke in any way.  It's not a clickbait title. It's just honest conversation and it's the place I start and remind myself constantly whenever I have an issue.
 

One thing I will mention or specify here as a major note is that understanding your water is key and critical to success.  You have the tank cycled, so learning about filtration and how filtration works might help.  Understanding KH and GH might help!  Understanding the basics of plants might help.  All of that touches on and focuses right around what is the water doing..... testing when you need to.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh

[JillianGarcia05]

On 12/7/2023 at 4:00 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I send this video and it's not sarcasm or a joke in any way.  It's not a clickbait title. It's just honest conversation and it's the place I start and remind myself constantly whenever I have an issue.

Thank you @nabokovfan87 - I appreciate it 🙂

[Galabar]

My advice is to do as little as possible and change as little as possible.

If you are cleaning out a filter, keep the biomedia in tank water.  If you are doing a water change, don't change 90%, etc...

[reefhugger]

The worst habit I had to overcome was chronic over-feeding.  It's fun to feed the fish, watch them chase around, and the little beggars always swarm to the front when I walk by.  I had to overcome that!  It does a world of harm to the fish and the amounts of algae in the tank.  Adding in  a fasting day  and being strict about how much and how often I feed has helped considerably.

[JillianGarcia05]

On 12/8/2023 at 2:08 AM, reefhugger said:

The worst habit I had to overcome was chronic over-feeding.  It's fun to feed the fish, watch them chase around, and the little beggars always swarm to the front when I walk by.  I had to overcome that!  It does a world of harm to the fish and the amounts of algae in the tank.  Adding in  a fasting day  and being strict about how much and how often I feed has helped considerably.

@reefhugger I think that was my issue too, overfeeding. My betta gets SO excited and begs for food. Right now I'm only feeding her once a day, a tiny amount since I'm getting this back to where they should be because before this, there would be food waste on the bottom of the tank.

On 12/8/2023 at 12:19 AM, Galabar said:

My advice is to do as little as possible and change as little as possible.

If you are cleaning out a filter, keep the biomedia in tank water.  If you are doing a water change, don't change 90%, etc...

Defintely learning from this past experience since I was messing with a lot of things well it was trying to cycle. Got a sponge filter now (from the co-op) and have biomedia in the filter too. 🙂

[PineSong]

Hooray for getting things worked out! The thing that has helped me most to have healthy tank conditions is plants, plants, plants. I have enough plants growing that I can't keep nitrates in my water even with 2x week fertilizer so I know for sure my tank can absorb "everyday" fish waste.