# What to do with 5-gallon cycled tank after betta is moved to a hospital tank?



## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Hi all,
I am very disappointed, as although Tommy has always been a tail biter since I got him about a year ago, he has gotten MUCH worse ever since I moved him to his fully cycled 5-gallon tank a few months ago. I worked so hard on this tank, and now I feel like he hates it :-(

Anyway.. the point of my post is: I have now moved Tommy back to his 1-gallon as a hospital tank until his fins heal. My question is, is there anything I need to do with his cycled 5-gallon tank for the time being until he moves back into it (IF he does)? For example, do I need to keep dosing it with ammonia every now and then until he moves back into it since there isn't a fish in it now? Or is it fine to just leave it alone? Should I even leave the heater and filter going?


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## shellieca (Jul 12, 2012)

Yes you will need to feed the BB, so either low doses of pure ammonia or 1 mystery snail.


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## pittipuppylove (Feb 23, 2012)

You'll need to feed the tank some form of ammonia to keep the bacteria alive - you could either dose liquid ammonia or add a bit of fish food daily. I don't know if you need to keep the heater going, but you need the filter on to keep the bacteria that lives there fed and damp.

Hope Tommy starts to feel better!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Thanks everyone! I will definitely do this. I hope Tommy gets better soon, too! Now my next questions is~ I am currently in graduate school and will be going home for Winter Break next week. I will be gone for about 3.5 weeks, so what do I do about feeding the BB then? :/ Can they go that long without being redosed?


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## pittipuppylove (Feb 23, 2012)

I'm honestly not sure... But this may be a case that you could use one of those vacation feeder blocks. It's usually advised to avoid them because they foul up the water pretty bad, but it would supply a constant source of waste that the bacteria could feed off of. Only thing is that I don't know if there are any that last that long.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Chuckee (Nov 17, 2012)

My two cents: Leave Tommy in his gallon. I have two that refuse point blank to live in anything large... I gave up trying and planted them some nice 2-ish gallons, and they're both happy. The male hasn't done the fin biting thing since, and the female has left off with the stripes and hiding. 
So, my advice for your five gallon: Get another betta!


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## callistra (Jun 29, 2010)

My fish freaked out when I first moved him as well. He was seeing his reflection in the mirrored sides and split a bunch of fins before I finally got him settled down. I got a bunch of not shiny cardstock type paper and colored all shorts of shades on it and affixed it to the sides on the tank. It would have helped if I did the back too.. but point being he stopped freaking out as much. It took some time, but he has adjusted. Make sure you have lots of thick foliage (either real or silk) and places for him to hide.


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Thanks for the tips, everyone! Chuckee, I very well might get another betta! Either that or put other types of fish in the 5-gallon until I think I have enough time on my hands to care for another betta. And Callistra, that's such a great idea about the non-shiny cardstock paper-- I think I am going to try that! I do need to get some more silk plants.. I just don't have a lot of time or money right now. That's on my to-do list, though!

I am going to look into buying something that will distribute food into the 5-gallon over the course of my Winter Break. Actually, I have an idea.. why don't I just use the 5-gallon tank's filter in Tommy's 1-gallon tank since I will be taking Tommy with me over my break (i.e., Tommy will be traveling with me and I'll be taking his 1-gallon with me)? The filter I use is the Hagen Elite Mini, so it will work with a 1-gallon tank. After all, it's the filter that you cycle; not the tank water.

Thoughts??


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Another thing... sorry if this is skewing too far from my original topic (please alert me if it is and I will stop)-- if Tommy's tail biting has been so much worse in his 5-gallon, then why was he building weekly bubble nests in it when he doesn't tail bite as much in his 1-gallon, but doesn't build bubble nests in it??


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Honestly, the bacteria should be fine for months between feedings, I don't think anything is needed for it.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Chuckee (Nov 17, 2012)

TigerRegalia said:


> Another thing... sorry if this is skewing too far from my original topic (please alert me if it is and I will stop)-- if Tommy's tail biting has been so much worse in his 5-gallon, then why was he building weekly bubble nests in it when he doesn't tail bite as much in his 1-gallon, but doesn't build bubble nests in it??


Actually, that's a different problem. I have a male like that. He was fine, until I moved a lady into his POV. Now he's a frantic bubbler (He'd made exactly one puny, half-assd one previously) and darts around and shredded his tail and most of his plants. :|
He remains in the same place, but the female got moved, and he appears to have calmed down. I think he was horny.


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Chuckee said:


> Actually, that's a different problem. I have a male like that. He was fine, until I moved a lady into his POV. Now he's a frantic bubbler (He'd made exactly one puny, half-assd one previously) and darts around and shredded his tail and most of his plants. :|
> He remains in the same place, but the female got moved, and he appears to have calmed down. I think he was horny.


haha!! That's funny about your male. I do not have any other bettas at all though, so I don't know what's making Tommy prefer to build bubble nests in his 5-gallon rather than in his 1-gallon if he seems to stressed out with his daily tail biting in the 5-gallon. Bettas are quite complicated little beings!


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Olympia said:


> Honestly, the bacteria should be fine for months between feedings, I don't think anything is needed for it.
> _Posted via Mobile Device_


Thanks for the tip, Olympia! I will take this into consideration into my final decision for what I'm going to do over Winter Break. I'm going to do some more research, but hopefully I won't end up needing to feed the BB over those 3.5 weeks!!


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## Chuckee (Nov 17, 2012)

TigerRegalia said:


> haha!! That's funny about your male. I do not have any other bettas at all though, so I don't know what's making Tommy prefer to build bubble nests in his 5-gallon rather than in his 1-gallon if he seems to stressed out with his daily tail biting in the 5-gallon. Bettas are quite complicated little beings!


Sorry, should've clarified what I meant by posting that. I wanted to share that the similarities (tail-biting, nesting) may be situational parallels.
I was throwing out a possibility that your betta might have been so thrilled or overwhelmed by all the extra space that he went into macho-mode, thinking to prepared.
I don't know where you got Tommy, but it also seems possible to me that his previous experience dictates to him that big tanks = breeding tanks. General consensus seems to be that bettas don't get sold until they've been bred once or twice...


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Chuckee said:


> Sorry, should've clarified what I meant by posting that. I wanted to share that the similarities (tail-biting, nesting) may be situational parallels.
> I was throwing out a possibility that your betta might have been so thrilled or overwhelmed by all the extra space that he went into macho-mode, thinking to prepared.
> I don't know where you got Tommy, but it also seems possible to me that his previous experience dictates to him that big tanks = breeding tanks. General consensus seems to be that bettas don't get sold until they've been bred once or twice...


Thanks for the info! You make good points that I've never thought about before. I got Tommy from Pet Smart, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has an association between big tanks and breeding. The longer I shop at PetSmart the less I am a fan of it in general.


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## Chuckee (Nov 17, 2012)

TigerRegalia said:


> Thanks for the info! You make good points that I've never thought about before. I got Tommy from Pet Smart, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has an association between big tanks and breeding. The longer I shop at PetSmart the less I am a fan of it in general.


Yeah, I personally dislike Pet/Smart, too. They're not animal friendly, and they're too sales oriented, rather than information oriented.
Petco is hit or miss. Some of their stores are completely pet and person friendly, other ones are... not good.
The one nearest me just got shut down; the store manager was a "dog-trainer" and a Moron. She didn't know anything about any animal that I asked or heard others ask about. I mean, watching her teach her dog class made me walk up to one of the people in it and correct her misinformation.
The next closest one is staffed by almost entirely by people who appear to have major health problems. Nothing against them, but when your cashier is too blind to see which bills you give them, and the person you're trying to ask information from is too deaf to hear you and the one doing a price check for you can hardly move... it just makes it hard to shop there.
But then there's really good ones around here, too. The one by my work is one of the best pet stores I've ever been into!


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## Hallyx (Jun 11, 2011)

Olympia's right that the bacteria will last a month or more without dying. It will reach a kind of comatose state or suspended animation which will take several days to recover from (mine took several days). 

Feed the tank up to high ammonia carrying capacity before you leave.


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Hallyx said:


> Olympia's right that the bacteria will last a month or more without dying. It will reach a kind of comatose state or suspended animation which will take several days to recover from (mine took several days).
> 
> Feed the tank up to high ammonia carrying capacity before you leave.


This is fabulous news, Hallyx! :-D I was starting to plan to just bring the filter with me to keep it running in Tommy's 1-gallon tank that he'll be staying in over the break (which I didn't entirely want to do since his fins are healing right now).

So, what is "high ammonia carrying capacity"? Does that just mean to dose the tank to a high level of ammonia readings?

My other questions: Should I leave my filter running while I'm gone? Also, once I return from Break, how will I get the BB to recover from their comatose state?


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## Hallyx (Jun 11, 2011)

TigerRegalia said:


> So, what is "high ammonia carrying capacity"? Does that just mean to dose the tank to a high level of ammonia readings?


Slowly increase the daily dose of ammonia until you can dose to 4.0ppm and have it zero out in a day. That's about as high as it gets before stalling. Too much ammonia will kill the bacteria. If it's hard to get to 4.0ppm, put additional filter foam in there for larger colonies.



TigerRegalia said:


> My other questions: Should I leave my filter running while I'm gone? Also, once I return from Break, how will I get the BB to recover from their comatose state?


Yes, you have to keep the filter running slowly to flow food to the bacteria. They will slowly start to die. As they do, they feed the rest of the colony. When you return, dose ammonia to >2.0ppm and recycle. With any luck, it should recover in a week. Let us know how it goes.


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Hallyx said:


> Slowly increase the daily dose of ammonia until you can dose to 4.0ppm and have it zero out in a day. That's about as high as it gets before stalling. Too much ammonia will kill the bacteria. If it's hard to get to 4.0ppm, put additional filter foam in there for larger colonies.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, you have to keep the filter running slowly to flow food to the bacteria. They will slowly start to die. As they do, they feed the rest of the colony. When you return, dose ammonia to >2.0ppm and recycle. With any luck, it should recover in a week. Let us know how it goes.


Thank you so much for the info! I am a little stressed out, though. I am leaving for home this Wednesday, so I don't think I am going to have enough time to do this. I think I am just going to take the filter with me and use it in Tommy's 1-gallon tank over the break. Do you think this is a good option?


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## Hallyx (Jun 11, 2011)

It's a fine option, just less convenient. But considering your time constraints....

Keep track of your readings and water-change schedule. I'd be interested. Let us know how it went with Tommy as soon as you get back. 

Have a wonderful holiday.


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## TigerRegalia (Jan 28, 2012)

Sure thing- I'll keep you all posted! I am interested in how it works out too since the filter has been in the 5-gallon tank up until now.

Btw, I'm so glad I have this community to turn to because the love I have for Tommy isn't understood by others outside of this forum as far as I've found! And I'm just in a fabulous mood right now because I managed to get an A on the final exam I just took, and tomorrow is my last day of the semester )))) Anyways, yes I'll keep you posted! Thanks for all the help!

Happy Holidays from Tommy and me!


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