Planning For A Betta Tank

[JoshuaA]

That's a great deal

Haha it seems alright at the moment, stupidly I assumed my prospective table was perfect for it... however the table has a slab of glass in the middle so I removed the glass and cut a piece of mdf exactly the width and height... just its a little too tall! Can the edge of a fish tank over hang or is this going to be very dangerous? I mean I look at the the Fluval Edge tank and notice nearly all of the tank is actually over hanging. It must be ok right?

I bought the heater/air pump(for gf) and spare filter of the buy/sell here. I thought I may as well stock up with spares for quarantine tanks for me + girlfriend and substrate in case my sand doesn't cut it! So it will help if faeces hits the air blowing device.

I'm going to go for the heavy planted option, I'm thinking this may represent the Bettas natural environment more so, it also will be more eye pleasing and avoiding plastic plants is a must for me! I'm debating on what light unit to use though.

 

[Jonty]

no, the edge of the tank can't overhang.

 

[JoshuaA]

no, the edge of the tank can't overhang.

Out of curiosity then what stops this tank from breaking?

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Waitrose sells them, failing that, you can buy an already made hut on ebay for £3

Put it this ways... I've never seen a waitrose in my LIFE lol.

I'd feel harshly ripped off if I had to buy a hut for £3 , I will find a coconut and I will eat that coconut and then I will make a hut. It will happen!

Haha we now have a waitrose (I wouldn't pay their prices). If you have a Morrisons or ADSA close by they normally have them in stock.

 

[JoshuaA]

Haha we now have a waitrose (I wouldn't pay their prices). If you have a Morrisons or ADSA close by they normally have them in stock.

Good idea, got both of them around here. Asda do fantastic make your own pizzas so I think we know what is for dinner!

You like the seagull? <

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

Haha we now have a waitrose (I wouldn't pay their prices). If you have a Morrisons or ADSA close by they normally have them in stock.

Good idea, got both of them around here. Asda do fantastic make your own pizzas so I think we know what is for dinner!

You like the seagull? <

What seagull?

Give ASDA a shot (although if you are driving/paying bus fair to all these places, then a £3 cave from e-bay would have been cheaper )

 

[Assaye]

You've had loads of help so I'll just pop some extra advice in.

+ Bettas like warm water and many tropical fish would practically wilt at the temps bettas like (27ish C). Corys have a very wide temperature range. Peppered corys will suffer is the tank is warmer than 25-26C and sterbai corys like it warmer and get chilly at the low temps, for example. Just make sure that whatever cory your choose is small enough for the 40 litre (so I'd avoid any that get bigger than 2 inches) and will like the warmer temperatures. I'll be honest that I'm not sure about what temps pandas like but they're nice and small.

+ If you choose the right plants you can plant very heavily without CO2. However, with all tanks a low/unstable CO2 level can allow certain kinds of algae to take hold. I would aim for a mix of fast growing plants in the background and hardy, slower growers at the front. The male will handle a heavily planted tank very well. They love to sleep on the leaves or hide in moss.

+ Block small holes in caves, such as the holes in a coconut or the hole at the end of a plant pot. Bettas love to get stuck. Even if the hole looks FAR too small for them to swim though, they'll try.

Here is my low-tech planted tank with female bettas. I'm using two large stem plants that I've not IDed. These have grown right to the surface and the female bettas love to hide in the top leaves. The corys also love to sleep on the larger low-mid level leaves. The rest of the tank is planted with low-mid level cryptocorynes and anubias. This stuff is easy to grow and despite being a slow grower it will get big over time. I use no CO2, no ferts and low lighting. I do have a problem with black brush algae but that's more to do with my maintainence routine and stuff that's happened in the past than the "spec" of the tank.

The female bettas love to hide in the moss and between the leaves of the crypts. They'll swim in all sorts of tiny places. Having a good background and a few taller plants gives you (and the fish) the illusion of a more heavily planted tank and will make the fish feel more secure without you needing to plant as heavily. The fish all have their little hiding places in the low cover and are very peaceful. The corys are very active and love to swim up near the surface and play in the filter flow. They're very confident and I think the dense ground cover helps foster this.

 

[JoshuaA]

That's a lovely tank Assaye, It's the kind of approach I'm looking at and I will probably be aiming for quite a few more plants!

Currently the main plants on my list are

Vallisneria spiralis Common
Echinodorus bleheri
Elodea canadensis
Echinodorus amazonicus
Anubias
and then finally some Moss balls

These will be divided between mine and my girlfriends tank! However we're probably going to get about 50 plants in total (pack deal) and then use what we want and give the rest to my compost bin.

I'm currently debating on what option to take now, currently the filter media is being seeded in my girlfriends aquarium and some of the ceramic media and certainly taken on some bacteria. I'm also struggling on what filter to use a Eheim 2206 Ball one or my Stingray 15 filter, or the mini filter the fish tank comes with. Either one will accept the ceramic filter media.

To top it off, the more I read about planting aquariums densely the more I read that cycling a filter prior is counter productive as the plants compete with the bacteria for the food source. I'm considering taking the option of waiting for a noticeable/viewable bacterial colony on filter media, transferring into the filter in my tank. Then planting it and dose it with 1ppm of Ammonia and seeing the result the next day ( I don't want to over do it in case it poisons the plants) If the results don't come out well within 12 hours I won't introduce the Corys to begin with. I will keep going with the cycle if the results aren't good. However as I'm specifically picking pond weed (super grower) and I noticed it growing about an inch a day in my girlfriends tank at some times I think it will be a great addition for cleaning up the water. I will be able to propagate it easily too.

However with the current plans on how heavily I intend to plant it the chance of it removing the waste the Corys(introducing first) produce is high. I also won't be adding the Corys until my results are clear of Ammonia/Nitrite.

I'm debating on whether going for Coconut + Drift + small terracotta pots, or dropping the driftwood out. Driftwood will be the centrepiece of the tank if it is but due to its lowering pH properties and my soft water I don't know whether it's going to be a good idea as pH shifts can happily easily.

Anyway it's going to be a week or so before my girlfriends tank gets planted I will probably do it at the same time. My girlfriends tank is going for a heavy planting also but she has also has had a fish-less cycle going for some time with a strong bacterial colony now.

 

[JoshuaA]

Ok so today I decided she'll be cycled! I feel like my stingray 15 is too big and too powerful for the 38/40 litre tank that it is. Even if I twist the output to go back against the glass wall it seems a little dodgey.

The unfortunate thing is my heater didn't come today which I expected it should of done given that it was posted on Thursday. So the tank is currently cycling in luke warm water soon to be cold . Hopefully I will see some signs of Nitrite in the next few days though (some quick seeded media was introduced) and hopefully monday I will have the heater.

My girlfriends tank is nearly finished starting with 0.0 on Ammonia and Nitrite so I'm delaying my Betta/Plant setup until her tank is sorted.

 

[BethK]

PHOTOS PHOTOS PHOTOS

 

[Larkspur]

Just want to point out that having a background in general seems to help a lot of different fish. My boyfriend had an empty QT tank and his syndontis were very stressed. As soon as we added a background with a picture they calmed down and now they rest in the corner on top of the gravel close up against the background. No more frantic swimming back and forth in their tank.

 

[BethK]

Just want to point out that having a background in general seems to help a lot of different fish. My boyfriend had an empty QT tank and his syndontis were very stressed. As soon as we added a background with a picture they calmed down and now they rest in the corner on top of the gravel close up against the background. No more frantic swimming back and forth in their tank.

I agree with that too

Nothing fancy, I think it's calming to them,makes them feel less condensed or something.

 

[JoshuaA]

Just want to point out that having a background in general seems to help a lot of different fish. My boyfriend had an empty QT tank and his syndontis were very stressed. As soon as we added a background with a picture they calmed down and now they rest in the corner on top of the gravel close up against the background. No more frantic swimming back and forth in their tank.

Haha, you know that's the first thing my girlfriend said when I stepped back to look at it. She went "Why can I see the wall tiles?", It's definitely something I'm going to do, the tank is going to stay at her house in the event we need an emergency tank if something goes wrong then I can drain it out. I will be bringing it to my home within 2 weeks ish~. All our stuff is at her house and her tank is a much more important project at the moment so!

 

[JoshuaA]

It would appear the mature media transfer has worked already... I put 4ppm in last night around 5pm.

This morning

Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrite 0



3 missing Ammonias Unfortunately there won't be much progress as the tank is currently a coldwater tank haha. My heater didn't arrive yesterday so I'll have to wait till monday to set it up properly.

I still need to order my light unit. I'm looking at an Arcadia Arc Pod 11w? This will be suitable for the 40L tank with a Betta in right? I will be planting it also obviously.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

It would appear the mature media transfer has worked already... I put 4ppm in last night around 5pm.

This morning

Ammonia 1ppm
Nitrite 0



3 missing Ammonias Unfortunately there won't be much progress as the tank is currently a coldwater tank haha. My heater didn't arrive yesterday so I'll have to wait till monday to set it up properly.

I still need to order my light unit. I'm looking at an Arcadia Arc Pod 11w? This will be suitable for the 40L tank with a Betta in right? I will be planting it also obviously.

I now see your seagull .

It's not fair; 21 days in and my ammonia is finally staying about 1ppm. I'm fed up lol