Daily water changes 1 gallon. It's a 5 gallon tank. If I leave it for a week without changing water it gets really bad biofilm on everything and it will have one heck of a stench. Clean sponge filter once a week by squeezing it out in dirty fish water that I take out. Not sure what to do. I add clarity once in a while but it doesn't seem to help much. Don't know what to do.
Posted by AdministrationTiny34
24 Comments
Have you tried Purigen?
I’m not completely sure, but I think it could be a bacterial bloom. Because you’ve been cleaning the filter continuously, the beneficial bacteria population could’ve died down, leading to blooms. This is what I think is happening. Some people have success with UV sterilizers. Hopefully someone can provide more advice.
Have you tried planting it more heavily? Introducing duckweed and water lettuce really helped clear things up for me.
A UVC steriliser filter might help out a lot
Any livestock at all or empty?
is there maybe not enough filtration going on? like you shouldnt have to worry about that much biofilm and a stink after only a week. biofilm is normal in the beginning, but if its accumulating a lot on the surface there might not be enough water agitation. i do see that you have a sponge filter going, but maybe its not enough. also, the daily water changes are probably doing more harm than good.
What your ammonia dont see on test strips
If dosing bacteria hasn’t helped. I’d look at uv sterilizer powerhead on Amazon. They work great.
Don’t clean the filter so often you’re losing the good bacteria, don’t change water so much probably doing more harm than good. Get a bubbler to get the surf moving to break that tension up. That’s what I would do
If i dose bacteria it’s like biofilm he’ll by morning
The cloudy water + biofilm really only means one thing: you have a bacterial bloom. Understand that these water conditions are very dangerous to your betta. Your numbers look good but bacteria, fungi, and parasites are the most notorious fish killers. As for why this is happening: your filtration sucks. Some people like sponge filters, I don’t think they’re all that great. All 26 of my tanks have a pre-sponge filter, activated charcoal, bioballs, and polishing fibers. Yes, betta like low circulation, but this will be hard to achieve in a 5 gallon. Either upgrade to a 10 gallon with multiple modes of filtering or rethink your filtration you have now. Sorry this is happening, best of luck
Edit: the main point here is that low circulation doesn’t take priority over water conditions
1. Do a 25% water change once a week not every day, clean the filter only if you notice it getting dirty or clogged (clean mine usually once every 2-4 weeks). This will help the ‘good’ bacteria take over.
2. Throw some plants in that bad boy and get something to mix up the surface like a bubbler. This will really help
shrimp eat biofilm but yeah more plants. i don’t reccomend duckweed because it can easily get out of control and form an impenetrable barrier on the surface
Get an air stone running and crank up the filter. Feed less and don’t add anything to the tank. Leave for a week and see if there’s any improvement.
Try to add a bunch of plants, change ur water & filter less often & get a bubbler!!
In my experience, clarity does more harm than good. Time is the only way to fix cloudiness and attempts to speed up the process usually make it worse. Get an air stone and pump and cut back on the water changes to once a week at most. You can stop them altogether and monitor the water parameters, do a change when they start getting out of whack or once it clears up.
Why is it getting a stench? That means there’s something rotting in the tank. Are you putting food or something in there to try and cycle the tank?
Do not clean the filter
Definitely stop cleaning the filter. I squish mine in tank water once every 2 months and have never replaced it. Frequency required depends on your nitrate buildup, tank volume, plant #s etc, but also heavily depends on filter media. I strongly recommend getting rid of activated charcoal-polyester fiber filters, and switching to a ceramic biomedia combined with a bog-standard filter sponge.
My other comment is your tank water is very hard. I’m assuming you top up with tap water? Have you tested your tap water against these parameters? Safe for human consumption =/= safe for aquariums. I live with extremely soft water (meaning my kettle has no signs of scale after 7 years, and when I test for kh and gh for my tank both are below the detectable limit). Conversely my BIL deals with hard water and it really fucks with his tank. DI or RO water might be an option but I think they’re quite expensive and inconvenient.
The fact you’re not struggling with nitrate and nitrite shows this isn’t a typical cycle crash/ bacterial bloom, this is a more complex issue.
Interesting, in my 10G betta only tank with a 20G sponge filter or in my other betta only 10G tank with 10G sponge filter, I used to squish out the filter as well. I’d say to not get a UVC/UV sterilizer yet and leave the sponge filter alone for a couple weeks, use a gravel vacuum to change out the 1G of water. Leave the filter alone, but even then it shouldn’t do that. You could try adding more live plants, less food, an additional filter, or even just letting it go by naturally (leaving it alone). Biofilm is not harmful, a lot of inverts eat/need it, no worries there as it is natural and can/will appear on decorum/natural botanicals
Get a UV Clarifier. Mine worked wonders against this exact issue.
Stick more live plants in there. That solves most problems.
stop doing water changes. just get a good filter and let it cycle. put rooting plants like an amazon sword. only chemical you really need it prime unless your parameters are way off.
Just leave it alone it will clear on its own. Just be patient and give it a couple weeks. You have done to much! I’ve been through this with my tank.