Before And Afters Of My Little Tank

[Taybird]

Greetings all, been around here for a while... never bothered with the technology long enough to try to post pictures.

Here are before and after pics of this silly orange tank I have. 6L (ish)
One stowaway snail
One lil' girl.. Betty.

I'm looking for ideas for filtration (Do i need it? I'm really good about regular water changes, and a little substr. vac'ing) and aeration (bubble wall?!?!) I would love to hear about your experiences.


Before


After (I got rid of the filter, as the current was waaay too strong, even on the 'friendliest' setting)

 

[Haych]

what is betty? i cant see her!

 

[Taybird]

oy! sorry! Got so caught up trying to resize the dang photos, that I forgot to mention, she's a little female betta.
here she is:




and here's her tankmate



(edited)

 

[aly_starh]

Nice Betta, but 6l is Kinda small, i would say 12l min.
But seen as you have that with no filter now, make sure you do daily water changes of atleast 50% woth dechlorinated water.

 

[Haych]

she is nice, but i am sorry to say that them tanks are way too small for any inhabitant of imo (i had one and had to change it as it just was way too unfair on the fish i had)

lovely betta though

 

[Taybird]

Thanks Haych and Betta_246,
It's smaller than I'd like, and super frustrating because it's not designed to work with any filtration system than the one it comes with, has no light source etc etc..

I think at this point, I'm just making due, and biding my time until I find something larger and affordable.

 

[Haych]

whats the measurements? i can work it out for you

 

[Just_Another_One]

I believe that tank is 1.77 gallons and is marketed towards GOLDFISH

It should be fine for your Betta temporarly until you can upgrade to a bigger tank. You could also remove a bit of the gravel to give her more swmimming space..It seems like you have alot of gravel which is really not needed.

I use to have that exact filter and what I did was put a chunk of filter sponge over the outlet thing and it was perfect. My betta could swim right in front of it and not be blown around at all

Your tank looks really nice and im sure Betty loves it Depending on where you live and your house temperature you may want to consider a small heater for her. She will be more active in warmer water

Here is a pic with the sponge over the filter outlet... Yours doing need to be that big just a little square maybe half of what I used. It works really well

 

[jasminekiddell]

I have that make of tank but mines a size up a 21l im positive that that tank is a 14l as my friend has it and im positive thats the 14l, i think 14l is a good size! You could make a sponge filter? They take up little space and work wonders!

 

[Haych]

funds are all dependant, i know, but iirc, that little tank from somewhere like pets at home is around £20-30, someone on here is selling a rio 180 LITRE tank for £100

try your local papers, adverts, like gumtree.com and change city for your nearest, and sometimes even ebay can be good (bit not always!)

 

[Taybird]

ooh! thanks for all the help guys!

@Just_another_one: does putting an obstruction in front of the output put wear on the motor of the filter? (perhaps i could heat my thank this way too!! j/k) I know that I do NOT have the 1.7gal..that whole line of tank is marketed toward goldfish, because the stuff for betta' is the size of my coffee cup. awful. Also, my lfs guy told me that you can't put a heater in this kind of a tank... (though he may not know his @$$ from his elbow)

@ Jasmine, it does really add a little something to my office! (has your friend figured out how to hook a light source up to it?)

 

[Taybird]

Haych,

it's 12 in across (31cm)
8 in high (20cm)
andabout 6 in deep (16cm)

but it is concave, and angled strangely toward the back.

have at it!

 

[Honeythorn]

You could easily find a bigger tank than that on Ebay, at car boot/garage sales, in the newspapers, free ads ect. 5 gallons is what you need for a betta, and a sponge filter does not cost much.

5 gallons can easily fit on a desk, or in a space 12-14 inches square.

I got all my tanks bar one at car boot sales. The best bargain was a 12 gallon for £1 It came with a small Rena Filstar internal cannister filter which I use in Bronson's tank

My aquastart 320 5 gallon ( containing Bronson ) was only £8 . My girl's 12 gallon tall was £5 and my 30 gallon community tank was £22 with an Eheim 2215 external filter thrown in for free ( and they are around £80 new ) I have another couple of 5 gallons in the attic, one is a hex and cost £5 , the other is a plastic Algrde tank and cost £3.

There are some great cheap tanks out there, you just have to look 12L is far too small and needs to be filtered and heated. You CAN heat that tank, I have no idea why the guy in the shop said you couldn't . No heater would melt the plastic because heaters sit in suction cups away from the walls.

It would be fine as a shrimp tank but not for a betta.

 

[Haych]

your tank (if square) is 2.07 gallons, 7.83 litres, but obviously take the curve out, its less

 

[Taybird]

aw crap.... checking out kijiji.ca *right now*