Planning For A Betta Tank

[JoshuaA]

...have a back up plan just in case.

I'll get the Cajun sauce ready

 

[BethK]

Yeah, once cycled, have your fish in there for a month, then add them

 

[JoshuaA]

So I planted the tank with spare plants from my girlfriends tank. We ordered 25 plants and got about 50 haha. Unfortunately the output direction thing got jammed and I couldn't turn it and then I woke up the next day and it had shredded my amazon swords. Anyway I took the filter apart to loosen it and after battling with it for 30 minutes no dice. Then randomly I turned perfectly... put it all back together and oh dear same again the case wouldn't close properly .

So I'm anticipating this filter is going to drive me up the wall through the entire lifespan of this tank.

I've been looking at a Fluval U1 as I know the U2 is a great filter. What other filters do you use for a 40~ tank?

 

[Lacuna]

I have the U1 in a 48 litre tank. I love the Fluval filters, they are completely silent. The flow is very minimal, especially if you turn it right down, which is perfect for a betta. The only problem I have had is that the flow is so gentle, on one occasion the filter stopped working, it must have gotten clogged, and I didn't even notice. I only realised when the kuhli loaches started acting funny, and there was a small ammonia spike. There's no indicator on it to say if it's clogged, so you have to keep an eye on it.

 

[loraxchick]

youve gotten a lot of very good advice and seems like youve done your research and everythings well underway. i would just like to point out that when choosing shrimp i have NO idea why everyone is steering you away from cherries. yes, they are small, but in NO way will a betta eat an adult. and if youve got lots of plants (which seems like you are going to based on your plant list, there will be plenty of places for babies to hide. shrimp are also very fast. faster than the betta anyway.
betta aggressiveness is being overly exaggerated lately. yes, they can not be kept with their own kind, but generally make great tankmates for a very large variety of fish-including guppies which normally are labeled as a bad combination here. ive kept guppies (even fry-the bettas are too lazy to continue chasing...really its more of their curiosity that causes them initially to investigate, subsequently leaving them alone), various shrimp species (never had a death battle as described frequently-betta swims up to shrimp, shrimp scoots away, betta leaves shrimp alone), "dreaded" neons-no nipping or chasing, actually quite peaceful arrangement, everyone minding their own business), otos, varieties of cory, pencilfish, snails, ADFs just to give a good idea.
and no above species were not kept with just one betta in particular. all my bettas have been/are being kept with tankmates and ive never had even the slightest issue. and before folks say i just "got lucky" those are fairly high statistics given the number of bettas in question that have been kept in such conditions.
it has also been my experience that the younger the betta, the more feisty they are. they mellow out as they get older and actually are particularly lazy if anything.
and this post is in NO way intended to start a debate, shoot down other's recommendations or advice, or to begin an argument. i simply want to point out that there are many good choices for tankmates for bettas. they really do make fine community fish. i would certainly stay away from barbs or overly aggressive fish.
again, i am just adding my own experiences here. with more than a dozen bettas of all tailtypes (plakats being labeled as the really agressive ones...havent seen that either) throughout my keeping of these particualr fish.
just a thought to the OP. for the money, cherries are your best bet. and add some lovely color to the tank as well and may very well breed. just be careful that your plants were not copper treated before you bought them-liekly will kill the shrimp.
cheers folks

 

[JoshuaA]

Hey there Loraxchick!

My plants were treated with anti snail chemicals but I soaked them in a bucket over night and then washed them under tap water. Hopefully its all off, well I split 75% of the plants I bought and put them in my girlfriends tank and put 25% in mine. The snails in her tank are still very much alive... unfortunately haha.

So from your experience Neons are ok to keep with the Betta? If this is the case I may well go down that path, I have heard mixed opinions of this. Though most people who claim they nip fins have never tried doing it.

Which order would you suggest adding fish/shrimp?

I was looking at Betta + Corys + Shrimp, Or Betta + Neons + Shrimp. As I think trying to stock the tank with Corys as well as neons will probably over do it.

Finally, I have 2 spare filters to use a small weird filter which appears to be unbranded haven't tried it but the guy who gave me it said it was great. Also a Aquaball though it's far too noisey. I was thinking of just buying a Fluval U1. Yes it might set my cycle back by quite a lot but I think the fact this filter has a spray bar setting will help the plants thrive a lot better. I also think I have set my mind on buying it but I'm just waiting for other people to confirm its greatness haha.

The only concern I have is... I've never used a filter which only consists of a sponge . It's always had some kind of ceramic or other media included !

 

[BethK]

That combo you're looking at is fine

I steer away from cherries cus my betta ate 2 not to say it's the same for everyone,just personal experience

 

[soph_betta]

Heya
the fluval U1 is a great filter i was a bit dubious of buying one at first but now i love it! It does get clogged up quite easily i found but now when i do a water change i just pull the sponge out and give it a good few squeases in the old tank water and pop it back in and in the 6 or so months ive had it have only had to take it out the tank once to clean the impeller.

Looks like you have been given some good advice on here so far but my preference due to experence would be to go down the betta & cory & shrimp route as the neons can be fast swiming and can stress the betta.
Hope this helps

 

[JoshuaA]

Would you be able to give me the dimensions of the fluval U1 please? I can't find them from any shop they don't know them.

Also would you see it possible for me to cut the sponge down the middle and place ceramic media inside? I have half way through cycling a Stingray 15 but would prefer to transfer as much of the ceramic media as possible!

also does your Fluval U1 one have a Spray bar? The spin-able dial for 3 out put settings.

 

[soph_betta]

Heya
Yes it would be possible to cut the sponge down the middle to place in cermic media but i just cut the bottom 1cm off the sponge and placed a few pieces of media in the botton just be careful not to drop it in to the impeller surround.
I couldnt tell you the measurements at the mo but will have a check for you in the morning.
and no mine does not have the spraybar just a straight output and yes it has a ajustiable speed dial on the top.
hope that helps answer some of your questions

 

[JoshuaA]

Alright I just ordered one anyway , I think I'm just going to give it a go. I only paid £14 so if it goes to waste I can throw it out the window at that price.

I will probably cut the sponge and layer it like a cake. Some mature filter floss and ceramic media then finally some sponge to prevent it being sucked into the impeller.

I'm quite confused by Hagen's advertisement on this product though, it implies the Fluval U1 has mutli directional spray bottom/top and spray. I guess I'll have to make my own spray bar our of plastic piping.

 

[JoshuaA]

So this is the tank as it is now....



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The tank is still cycling, as you may notice the nitrite test on the left is off the scale but the one on the right is close to zero. Though this is about the 16 hour mark haha.

It's a change the other day Nitrite hadn't been readable and now it's almost 0. For now though I am still picturing the fish .

I have 5/7 moss balls about to arrive tomorrow however I'm yet to decide what to do with them. I've for some reason had a change of heart and might just throw them in my girlfriends tank. I kind of have the urge to split them and carpet the bogwood but it would seem such a cruel thing to do to such lovely algae balls.

The plants have settled in there are still a few leaves on the swords which need removing but they are sprouting 2/3 new leaves now in the last week, I'm now adding liquid ferts to help them along. Seachem Flourish and Excel are my chosen ferts.

The plant in the middle between the weed and swords I have no idea what it was and it came as a trimming but has thrived from its original size. The anubias came with some Java moss as well which I was pleasantly surprised about, I have little hopes of it taking over my tank but by all means I will let it. I couldn't find any coconuts so had to swallow my pride and purchase the shell...

I'm yet to decide on the final planting though and as I need to order another batch of plants for my girlfriends tank I may actually cover the tank in water sprites as they form a great forest of ferns. This is what we're thinking about doing to 1/2 of my girlfriends tank although it will look bland to begin with we have great expectations for it.

For the Betta... I'm looking at getting some sort of Crowntail hopefully in red... I know its picky but I saw an amazing one the other day and obviously held back on the purchase. Not quite sure whether to put Pandas in there the guy in the LFS said they might out grow the tank and I'd be better off with... and I can't remember the name but he said they'd definitely be suitable and he will custom order them in for me though if I don't like them in the end I don't have to take them.

He also said to put shrimps in there first with the Corys and to definitely get the Betta last. He said as long as the shrimp have began to mature then the Betta won't touch them. He mentioned you can put Neons etc in there but advised against it unless I've got somewhere to rehome them if anything goes wrong, i.e fin nipping. (Rather than taking them back to the shop and risk contamination). I have my girlfriends tank which is actually wanting Lemons and/or Neons in the future so it's always an option. He suggested other mid level fish which are quite peaceful but I can't remember their names either now.

Anyway...

Tell me what you think and what direction I should be taking from here if any!

The bog wood has been leeching tannins since I put it in... it takes about a week before it gets a bit too much but between day 3-6 I think it looks great, it makes the sand look a very beautiful golden colour and the light from the Arcadia pod seems to colour the tank a bit more.... Fortunately since water changes in my mind need to be done every 5 days on my girlfriends tank as it has a GBR in there I think it would be hard not to do the same on my tank and will remove some of the tannins.

So plants are fine in a cycling tank even with bi carb. pH is being held at around 8 with biCarb but the pH will drop to around 7.5/6 when brand new water as thats my tap water stats.


Edit: The Fluval U1 filter sent me insane for about a week as it refused to function properly and the output was undetectable with my hand, after 4 days of messing around with it... I turned the sponge around and it blasted out again. You could see a bacterial colony had actually blocked the sponge. I had introduce a LOT of mature media into that filter in one go and I'm not surprised it got over loaded.

 

[Evobe]

Hey, i am also wanting to get a betta, im thinking about a half moon, what about you? i think corrys are a great idea for a betta tank as it gives the betta alot more room as his only tank mates will be bottom feeders i am also considering them, corry julians are rly nice.

 

[BethK]

Get one of these males.

Tank is looking good, moss balls would go well in there,I know my bettas like to rest on them. I don't think there is enough floor space in your tank for corys, try khuli loaches instead, you could have 8 of them in there.

 

[JoshuaA]

I don't think there is enough floor space in your tank for corys

The picture is quite deceiving there is a lot of space behind the coconut and behind the bog wood. I'm not really a fan of the Khulis.

Really happy to see my Swords picking up in growth though.

In fact the tank is very deceiving, since day one me and my girlfriend have looked at it thinking its very stumpy, even now I do. Yet if you look at the side it is actually much deeper than you think. I just shocked myself again when I went to make sure there was more floor space haha.