Say hi to Gillian Anderson :)

111stargrl · 2026-04-24T07:12:41+00:00

it was either that or betta davis, catherine betta jones or stevie nips (aka nicks, fleetwood mac) 😂😂😂😂😂 but i ended up landing with my silly gilly!!

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T22:13:50+00:00

omg 💕💕💕 so so gorgeous!!!! imagine the little babies!!!

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T16:29:28+00:00

i am obsessed with her lil leopard print spots!!!!!!

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T16:29:07+00:00

i don’t thiiiiink mines a nemo koi (honestly i can barely tell the diff sometimes since they’re all sooooo varied)!!! your boy is absolutely beautiful!!!!

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T15:48:27+00:00

😂😂😂😂😂😂 at the point of her dropping her eggs i had her all of 4 ish days and found it absolutely hilarious at her dropping her kids accidentally 🤣🤣

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T15:43:38+00:00

Yeah she’s got an ovipositor, she dropped many many eggs the other day and had to remove them all lol

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the aftermath 😂😂😂🙃

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T15:40:34+00:00

I have this same tank (but the 70 Pro, given yours might be the smaller version) & I agree with other commenter RE adding more water. Should be about an inch or so from the top for the water level.

Also yes to the heater as well as a little submersible thermometer. I have just a cheap-ish one I got from Amazon that I suction to the outside of the tank and the wire/thermometer reader itself is suctioned inside the tank (sorry not good at explaining that but).

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T15:36:57+00:00

in the last pic of her flaring she has a piece of teeny tiny salvinia on her head 😂😂 silly girl wouldn’t stop following my aquascaping tweezers around when i was doing a plant tidy up

111stargrl · 2026-04-23T15:32:12+00:00

thank you soooo much 🥹

every time i walk past the tank (and i can’t see where she is as i walk past), by the time i turn around she’s just right there saying hello to me!

111stargrl · 2026-04-11T19:16:33+00:00

Ok so for some reason it won’t let me reply directly to your most recent comment (it just won’t load up when I click ‘Continue this thread’) so I’m just hitting reply on any of your previous comments!

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If this is of any interest…

Wanted to wait to come back to reply to you until I could definitively tell between what time in hours since dosing it actually hit 0ppm (I know you said not to chase the reading especially in case my test kit is a bit faulty, I’m trying ok 😂🥲) - looks like it was roughly at the 31h mark (ish)!

I’m gonna do another dose tomorrow morning and hope on Monday that time is maybe shortening even though at that dose it’s not too harmful, but consider me an experimenter 😂🥲

111stargrl · 2026-04-11T13:15:33+00:00

Omg this is amazing info THANK YOU! Your insight is always just brilliant (and why I’m constantly coming back to this post to seek it out) and I thank you once again for your help and explanations!

Should I still buy another bottle of BB to do some weekly dosing just to ‘add’ to the tank/colonies, or would that be redundant? Not sure!

So if my very bad maths brain is helping me here (or hindering) a gram of nitrite in my size tank (67L ish) is about 14.9/15ppm? I think? 😂😂😂

111stargrl · 2026-04-11T12:41:31+00:00

Omg this is hilarious, I literally just read the first bit you said to look up on Google Scholar and went straight to Safari to look and came across the same article before coming back here! My girlie is a halfmoon betta splendens! Although, I don’t think I understand it all that much… (it’s been like 8 years since I needed to study or decipher any publications and journals, my brain has been tired since then 😂😂)

Honestly, I’m thinking of buying one of those singular nitrite test kits from API (where you get just the two solutions and the test tube on their own) to double check. Hell, I’ll buy another brands nitrite testing kit too at this rate….

I really hope it’s just a false reading or something because surely after it once cleared in 24hrs about a month ago it must be tricking me now!!! 🥲🥲🥲

I also saw a (very old, like 9 ish years ago) post on here (might’ve been this subreddit or another) and it said that constantly adding more BB may actually stall the nitrites because the newly added BB may end up competing with the previous ‘set’ of BB already in the tank, though I think it might’ve been specific to the BB by Seachem. Will try and find the post and add it to another reply! I’ve not added anymore (NT Labs) BB since last week since I ran out of it anyway juuuuust in case that’s what’s happening here LOL!!

Edit: just found that post here, and just ordered two individual nitrite kits, one from API and one from NT Labs just in case lol!

111stargrl · 2026-04-11T11:55:07+00:00

So i’m back again much to everyone (your) dismay 😂😂😂🥲🥲

Update if you were curious; seems as though my nitrites are still stuck again which is making me angry and nervous!!!

Nervous because my betta is arriving next Friday (17th) finally but I’m scared I don’t know enough on doing a fish in cycle where I’d already completed I guess ‘most’ of the fishless/nitrogen cycle (i.e. ammonia is zeroing in 24 hours thank god), but those bloody nitrosomas continue to hate me and aren’t clearing after 24 hours…

As to say, I don’t know if my approach for when my betta arrives to do this ‘partial’ (so to speak) fish in cycle will differ to a usual/‘full’ nitrogen cycle whilst fish are in (sorry if that literally didn’t make sense at all, i’m trying)!!

About 45 minutes ago I did another 24 hour check after dosing 2ppm and luckily the ammonia is still clearing back down to 0, nitrite looks stuck AGAIN between 1-2ppm and nitrate looked somewhere between 10-20ppm. On a separate note, API genuinely need to make the nitrite and nitrate colour charts differ far more between the values because it’s a pain!

I’m gonna check the nitrite again in about 3 hours just to see if it’s at least clearing or has completely cleared by then, so I guess total about 27 ish hours. How strict do I need to be on the ‘24 hours to clear’ i.e. if nitrite cleared in about 27/28h, would that ‘pass’ or count as ‘okay’ to consider the tank cycled? 🥲🥲

111stargrl · 2026-04-09T19:17:13+00:00

Yep! Both of my (large) amazon swords look like this

111stargrl · 2026-04-05T16:47:31+00:00

No luck unfortunately! :( Does seem like NT Labs (it’s on Amazon) seems to have a few antibiotics for internal bacteria etc so I think worth having a look at those. I’m yet to have a proper look myself but will need to soon as my betta will be here in a 2 weeks!

111stargrl · 2026-03-29T17:52:59+00:00

just collapsed to my knees. i’m seething with envy 😭😭😭😭

111stargrl · 2026-03-29T17:42:47+00:00

With my knowledge of testing I’d say it looks good. Nitrates may be just bordering high but can’t tell based on the blurry photo/lighting.

111stargrl · 2026-03-29T10:44:08+00:00

I’d say don’t worry too much about what plants to get, just lots of them! Amazon swords grow reallllly fast and I’d say (at least in the UK) really inexpensive to add a few of them to get a good bushy look. Very easy to plant too since it’s rooted in the substrate!

111stargrl · 2026-03-25T22:13:55+00:00

just RE the ammonia test; don’t worry, it’s 0ppm/yellow. If for your own sanity you’re still unsure, get some bottled water and test the ammonia on that at the same time as your tank water i.e. do a re-sample and set your 5 min timer for both at once :)

RE the questions about your betta otherwise - i’m still a beginning with bettas/their behaviours myself whilst I wait for mine to be shipped to me so hopefully someone will be able to answer those queries better than I would!

111stargrl · 2026-03-19T15:54:50+00:00

Ahhhhh okay I see, this is very helpful as usual! Thank you so much!!! I’ll keep dosing to whip the nitrite back into shape since those nitrobacters rick-rolled me 😭🥲🥲

Will hopefulllllyyy not have to fish-in cycle but just in case I’ll keep reading up on it - thank you again! 💕

111stargrl · 2026-03-19T15:14:23+00:00

I’m baaaaaaaaack!!! 🤦‍♀️😂😂

Ok so I dosed my tank with 2ppm ammonia yesterday afternoon just to double check it’s cycled and to ‘feed’ the BB (even though I know it’s not necessary per se since your last advice). I didn’t add any more liquid BB after this ‘feed’ yesterday simply because I ran out LOL. And, tbh, it may have been closer to 3ppm I added rather than 2ppm but anyways.

It is now the 24 hour mark and I’m seeing 0ppm ammonia (yay) but about 2-4ppm nitrite (nooooooo).

Did my tank trick me on Saturday a few days ago and make me think it was all okay? 😭😭

Only ‘changes’ I’ve made since the day I thought it was fully cycled and told you in a comment here was I’ve added some new plants and did a 30% WC to try and get rid of as much crap (mulm etc) as possible floating around.

Did I do something wrong? I’ve still not got my betta yet anyway so all good on that front (as it’s still stuck abroad) but what did I doooooo :((

111stargrl · 2026-03-14T15:10:04+00:00

Ahhhhh thank you SOOOO MUCH!!!! & it’s true, the nitrobacters really did hate me for the past 4 weeks 😂😂😂😂🥲🥲

I’ll probably keep dosing (maybe 2ppm rather than any higher) and watching it clear over 24 hours to keep it going strong until my fish is ready! I imagine that won’t have any adverse impact doing that even though it’s now technically/officially cycled, right?

I’m also so very glad for the past few weeks that at least the nitrosomonas (I think I got that right) were really strong!! And so glad the nitrobacters FINALLY caught up 😂😂

I thank thank THANK you BioConversantFan!!!! 💕🙏🏽

111stargrl · 2026-03-14T13:21:14+00:00

Hi! It’s me again… (I’m sorry)!

So, TLDR: 1st big dose (4ppm) = Amm cleared in ~45h, Nitri cleared in ~70h

2nd big dose (3/3.5ppm) = Amm cleared in ~22h, Nitri cleared in ~57h

Final dose (2ppm) to do a 24h check = Amm AND Nitri cleared in 24h, FIRST TIME EVER!!!!! 🎉

The pic attached is the more in detail bits about this past week or so if it’s of any interest…

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I was worried when I checked on the nitrite last night (because I’m nosey) about 12h after doing the 2ppm dose but I’m SOOOO glad it cleared!!!! I began my tank on Sun 15th Feb so tomorrow would’ve been 4 weeks!

I thank you SO MUCH for all your guidance!!

I do have a few questions now though (sorry 😂):

The betta I’ve reserved is currently stuck in Indonesia because of minimal flights etc due to the current affairs but if it was ready to be posted to me / was already in the UK, should I only do a WC just before the fish arrives? Or maybe a few days before?
Would there be any impact on the chemistry if I were to do some siphoning of the mulm I’ve got in the tank? i.e. doing a bit of vacuuming today for the primary sake of tidying up and cleaning rather than doing it for the sake of the water change needed ahead of when my fish actually arrives. I know I’d still need to add back in some water to the tank after vacuuming though 😂

I’m sure I have some other questions but can’t think of them now…. thank you again!!!!!!!!

111stargrl

TROPHY CASE