Questions

[Connor Rimmer]

ok so my tank has quite a strong current I believe, the pump is looks really vigarous! i believe if I put a betta in there hed not want to go near the thing, because it might blow him away?

anyway i can stop this?

Also, it creates lots of bubbles across the top of the tank, would he feel depressed about those as he may want to try buid a bubble nest and cant?

 

[LauraFrog]

Can you pull the filter apart? I find jamming a big wad of filter floss in the intake usually works. Some photos of how it works (or a diagram) would be really helpful... I've blocked up a lot of different filters but I'd need to see it.

 

[Connor Rimmer]

from the maanual is a HY-203 and a HY-301 pump. ill update with pics if i find em.

All I know is it sucks air through a small pipe that I can make a big ass knot in so it stops the air take, but i worry the motor will overheat or something.

 

[spicynoodle116]

Get an air valve. I just got mines today and its blowing about 3-4 little bubbles a second, it doesnt disturb the water at all and theres no bubble build up.

It looks something like this.

 

[AmberLynn]

Filters aren't necessary with bettas since they breathe from the surface. You could always just pull the heater and do more frequent water changes, I never put filters in with my bettas when I had them, I found that the current would stress them out more times then not, and when something was done to block the flow and slow the current the filter didnt work as effectivly and I still had to do regular water changes just the same

 

[Honeythorn]

No, they breathe through their gills the same as any other fish. The labyrinth organ is there because in the wild many of them end up trapped in small pools and pits of water where the oxygen content is low. So they breathe atmospheric air to stay alive. It is a survival ( NOT general living ) mechanism which is pretty useless in a well kept tank where the oxygen levels are perfectly fine.

I cannot fathom any reason not to have some sort of filtration. It saves a lot of time and stress from water changes, keeps your water parameters FAR more stable due the bacterial colony in and on the media, and also removes general fine particulate waste. As for the current being too strong, get a sponge filter. The produce virtually no current, and will not disturb even a sensetive fish, and the betta can't get sucked against an intake and damaged because there isn't one.

There is absolutely no excuse not to have one.

 

[Ficious]

i have a 1.5 gallon with an art deco filter and it was very strong, so i put the heater and a plant in front of the outflow. plants are very good at slowing current down.

 

[LauraFrog]

I don't bother filtering anything less than 3 gallons because it's too hard to slow the current down enough. In that I agree with AmberLynn. The problem is the water changes you have to keep doing every second or third day. If your filter is air driven, the easiest thing to do is to cut the airline and put a gang valve there. Adjust the taps, both on the airline to the tank and the airline to nowhere, until you have a manageable current in the tank. How big is it again?

 

[Connor Rimmer]

my nature of taking things apart has bit me in the ass.

I took my pump/filter out to see if I could lessen the flow somewhere, I found out how and then went to go put it back. Except wierly its asif its been turned around!

Its hard to explain but basicly its asif the motor/pump has been turned on its head so now the air whole that would blow air our is on the bottom and not the top, zso its rather annoying actually, i must find a way to fix it!

 

[LauraFrog]

It sounds fairly complicated, which is a pain. Simple filters are better (not least because this terminal clue-lacker can pull them apart and put them back together!) but it is usually possible to make complicated ones work. Seriously though, if it's air driven cutting the airline and using a gang valve as described in my last post is definitely easier than trying to clog it up. There's less guesswork involved because you can modify the air flow rate to suit your betta.