Max the Betta

[Utar]

I have not updated Max's thread in a while. I finally rehomed him in his forever 20-gallon long tank. He is doing great and this is a pic of him from an hour ago. He has grown some since I brought him home, he was tiny at that time.

You might find his aquarium stand interesting because I used a table that my dad made when I was just a kid. Dad made this for Mom about 55 years ago when I was about ten years old. The base is made for what was left of Dad's mother's old antique Sears & Roebuck sewing machine. There was a large peddle at the bottom to drive the sewing machine and in those days say in the 1930s (guessing here) everything was made of metal, no plastic. But the peddle is gone, I have no idea where the rest of this is.


Here's a picture of what the sewing machine originally looked like. I found this on the internet so it is not an actual picture of the one my Dad used.



I had started the 20 long for Max on January 22, 2021 but due to several problems over time I didn't rehome Max into the 20 long until April 4, 2021. If you want to read the details I printed them in the next thread.

 

[Utar]

Problems but after a few months, everything is done.

First Max during all this time was in a 29-gallon aquarium, so all this below was fishless. I set up the 20 long as his permanent home.

I first set up Max's 20-gallon long tank on January 22, 2021. I used some of the old aqua soil that I had mixed up about three weeks earlier for a different tank but did not use it all. This aqua soil turned the water a dark brown within two days of start-up. But strange as it might seem the ph was unaffected.

For a month I kept changing the water but within a short time, the water kept turning a dark brown tea color. So I got tired of dealing with the dark brown water, and on February 4, 2021, I started the tank all over again, took it down threw out the old aqua soil. I reset up the tank with new aqua soil, covered with a sand and pea gravel cap. The water did turn a bit brown but not as bad as before and cleared up after a couple of weeks with water changes.

I installed an aqua clear 50 hob using bio-media seeded with beneficial bacteria from an established aquarium. I also installed a double sponge filter that sticks to glass on one end of the tank. I use a small air pump to run the double sponge filter. I added liquid ammonia to feed the BB.

On February 6, 2021, I added liquid ammonia, (Be aware It takes only a drop or two of this stuff, and more than that it reads off the charts on testing.) The test for ammonia showed 2pmm. Tested again on February 9 shows 0.25. I then added more liquid ammonia, but added too much, and the tested reading was off the charts, I recorded 8+ ppm.

I left it alone and tested again on February 12 and got an ammonia reading of 0.5ppm. Tests for nitrite shows very low. Tests for nitrate showed dark red so read as 160ppm So I did a 100% water change. Tested again for nitrates on February 14 showing 20ppm.

And then the week-long freeze happened and lost power, water temp got as low as 50° F. I had a very week generator running to keep the temps up on Max's aquarium and my 55-gallon community aquarium. But I didn't plug in the heater for the 20 long since there was no fish in it.

Well this crashed the cycle and I had to start all over again on the 20 long.

Then I had a bad algae outbreak in the 20 long, sprayed it down really good with hydrogen peroxide which killed the algae but also stalled the cycle. But they cycle quickly recovered.

On April 4, 2021, I finally felt it was safe enough to add Betta Max. So he is in his forever 20 gallon long home.

 

[Sgooosh]

View attachment 133974

I have not updated Max's thread in a while. I finally rehomed him in his forever 20-gallon long tank. He is doing great and this is a pic of him from an hour ago. He has grown some since I brought him home, he was tiny at that time.

You might find his aquarium stand interesting because I used a table that my dad made when I was just a kid. Dad made this for Mom about 55 years ago when I was about ten years old. The base is made for what was left of Dad's mother's old antique Sears & Roebuck sewing machine. There was a large peddle at the bottom to drive the sewing machine and in those days say in the 1930s (guessing here) everything was made of metal, no plastic. But the peddle is gone, I have no idea where the rest of this is.

View attachment 133975
Here's a picture of what the sewing machine originally looked like. I found this on the internet so it is not an actual picture of the one my Dad used.

View attachment 133976

I had started the 20 long for Max on January 22, 2021 but due to several problems over time I didn't rehome Max into the 20 long until April 4, 2021. If you want to read the details I printed them in the next thread.

WOW he looks amazing!

 

[Utar]

WOW he looks amazing!

Thank you, Max is an unusual betta. He is a double tail butterfly betta.