Something to Share II

Hi all

Here is some stuff that a very good frez send to me. Hope it helps all betta lovers

cheers
Malcom

Even if you plan to place ONE betta in a 10 gallon tank alone, the tank will
get ammonia and nitrites before the nitrifying bacteria form. It is
important to buy test kits, at least to check ammonia and nitrites (yes,
there is a difference between nitrItes and nitrAtes). You must add a
declorinator which removes not only chlorine, but also chlorimine to tap
water before adding it to the tank! Be smart, fishless cycle your tanks
and/or bowls! Ammonia and nitrites do irreversible damage to fish's gills,
and bettas DO have gills although they also have the labrynth organ.

If you have already set up a tank not knowing this, get the kits. Check. If
you have high ammonia and/or nitrites I have to warn you...bettas fins will
be burned off by ammonia/nitrites. The best way to rid your tank of these
toxins is water changes. Do a partial (20-50%) until you have them at a
reasonable level. You'll have to keep checking and changing the water often
until the bacteria are established.


NITRIFICATION CYCLE EXPLAINED (BIOLOGICAL FILTRATION)


If you would like a more technical site, here's one:


TECHNICAL DETAILS OF NITRIFICATION





PH


The pH range tells you if your water is acid, neutral, or alkaline. 7 is
neutral, less than 7 is acid, and above 7 is alkaline. Water of 7 is 10x's
more acidic than water of 6. This is why it is important not to change your
pH more than .2 in a 24 hour period! Maintaining a stable pH balance is
usually more important than trying to get the optimum pH for your fish. As
long as you're in the 6.5-7.8 range, I wouldn't mess with the pH.

Bettas are quite hardy fish and really can exist and breed in a pH from
6.8-7.6. The best pH is from 7.0-7.2. If you would like to lower your pH, a
safe way to do it is by using a brita filter. I don't trust chemicals and
would warn not to mess with them. They will likely stress your fish
unneccessarily. Bettas don't seem to be very particular on this subject and
seem to fare quite well in a wide range of pH.




KH (buffering)


KH is the water's ability to maintain a certain pH, even when acids or
alkalines are added. This is why when people try to raise or lower pH they
get the pH "bounce." The next day (or sooner) it's right back where it
started. The KH acts as a sponge and absorbs the added chemical. Eventually
it'll top off, and at that time the pH will change quickly with added
chemicals. A "newbie" who tries to change the water pH will overlook the
buffering and fail.

If there is low KH in your tank your pH will lower as the presence of
nitrates build up. If your KH is lower than 5, you need to keep an eye on
your pH and nitrate levels (weekly testing) to see how your buffering
capacity is doing. If your pH begins to drop before the normal partial water
change, you will have to begin a new routine of more frequent water changes,
or possibly raise the KH.

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE!
Distilled water doesn't have any KH (or anything)! Therefore, if you use
this in your tanks there could be wild fluctuations in pH! This is VERY
stressful, and sometimes fatal to your fish!




GH (general hardness)


This is the amount of magnesium and calcium ions in your water. When people
say "soft" and "hard" water, this is what they're talking about. This is
read in two different ways, dH (degree of hardness) and ppm (parts per
million, or mg/L). 1 dH = 17.8 ppm CaCO3. Most test kits give the hardness
in units of CaCO3, which means the hardness is equivalent to that much CaCO3
in the water.

Bettas prefer waters with combined KH & GH of 2-8 when just raising, and a
total 2-4 when breeding. I have never messed with the hardness of my water
and have had no problems. My water's combined (add GH & KH, then divide by
2) total is 8, which is mid-range for most tropical fish. Some people use a
mixture of 50% tap water with 50% distilled water to lower hardness. I
wouldn't suggest messing with the hardness unless you have extremely hard
water. The brita water filter lowers the hardness and buffering slightly,
but not significantly. This is good!

ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT NOTE!!!
All the different parameters of your water interact (pH, KH, and GH). This
is why it is best NOT to mess with these when you are a beginner. It is best
to "get the fish thing down" before you even consider changing water
chemistry. If you mess with one thing, it will affect another.




A MESSAGE BY DAN ON THE ACME PET FISH TAILS BOARD CONCERNING BUFFERING
PILLOWS:
These buffers don't work and will cause you more grief than you can imagine.

First, lets talk about the white flecks (the person ended up with white
flecks all over the tank after using a "proper pH 7.0" pillow). You've
precipitated what WAS soluble carbonate which has become insoluble carbonate
due to an acid reaction. Due to your KH however, the pH will remain
unchanged.

Typical "hard water" contains calcium and magnesium salts which exist as
carbonates. Carbonates in solution exhibit a phenomona known as "buffering."
When an acid is introduced to a water sample containing carbonates, the
carbonates react with the acid and neutralize it, releasing carbon dioxide
and a small amount of heat. The CO2 is exhausted at the water surface and
the net result is no change in your pH. This effect is called "buffering"
and is due to a quirk of chemistry involving the exchange of hydroxl ions
and rebonding. Simply put, carbonates stabilize the pH as long as they are
present in sufficient amounts. When the carbonates become depleted, the pH
of your water will plummet rapidly with the introduction of even a small
amount of acid, killing fish, plants, and your biofilter. The chemicals sold
for adjusting the pH of your water are typically but not necessarily acids
of phosphate.

You should know also, that sudden pH changes can be quite deadly to some
fishes. This is most often due not to the change in pH itself but rather, to
the associative concurrent changes in (a) the toxicity of ammonia (which is
more toxic at higher pH), (b) nitrite (which is more toxic at low pH) or (c)
carbon dioxide (which is also more toxic at low pH and which interferes with
normal respiration).

If you want to maintain a lower pH, the best way to handle this is to use
distilled or RO (Reverse Osmosis) water to dilute your current tap water to
the pH you des

[SilverStallion]

added to FAQ
http://www.arofanatics.com/forums/sh...86#post1176586

thanks bro! ^_^

Thanks Malcom.. now I know the pH of my aged water at 7.4 is still considered okay..

yuh, the best method is a consistent one

cheers
Malcom

I think that the advice is idealistic but unfortunately not very practical. Taking every step of what is mentioned would cost a fortune considering the number of individual tanks most of us have. My hats off to anyone who follows through the entire exercise.

to reduce ammonia and nitrates is to reduce the amount of waste in the tank rite?

yuh you can say tt, but you still need to change water

[lim_kheng_lip]

Malcom thanks for the info. Would like to check in the paragraph stated brita filter is it refering to this http://www.allergy.com.sg/brita.html

Thanks