Restocking?

[Mulder]

I have a 10 gal freshwater with a HOB filter. The heat is currently around 82F. I had a lone betta in there since November, but she passed away yesterday. I'm really not sure why. I gave the body a once-over and didn't see any spots, injuries, or anything out of the ordinary. There's some live vallisneria and a bit of java fern in the tank. There are also a few miniscule snails (either pond or mystery, I'm not sure). Nitrites and ammonia have been 0ppm. Nitrates have been between 10 and 15ppm.

What do I have to do before I can introduce something? I don't know what caused the betta's death, but I want any new fish or critters to be healthy. Do I need to dry everything out and cycle from nothing? Or is there a quarantine time that's safe?

 

[CAPSLOCK]

If the betta was from a typical LFS, you really don't know the age. So with her being the only fish, and everything else in check/normal, I would tend to think that she passed from a natural cause.

Unless there is some reason for you to think there is some infectious disease in the tank, I wouldn't do anything special if it were my tank. It may be a good time for a good extra-through vacuuming or what such, otherwise you can stock her right back up. May be a good idea to add only a few fish at a time as you don't want to suddenly overload the biocapacity since it only had the one fish previously.

 

[Mulder]

It's going to be a few weeks before I get to even look for new fish. I don't really feed the snails, since they are so tiny and just eat plants and algae. Can I just run the mostly empty tank and it "stays" cycled? Or am I going to get an ammonia buildup?

 

[exhumed07]

with no bio waste from rotting food and fish poo there will be no ammonia or nitrites being produced into nitrates by the bacteria. Essentially the bacteria will starve to death. you can add small and i do mean small amounts of fish food into the tank to decay and produce ammonia to keep all the bacteria alive. I personally don't reccomend it but it is an option. that being said i agree with caps on the what he said about the health of the tank and adding only a few fish at a time.

 

[FreshyFresh]

It's been my experience that as long as you keep beneficial bacteria wet, warm and oxygenated, it can live a long time without food. It kind of goes dormant.