Tank ok for Betta?

[CV26]

Aside from our main tank, we have another tank which has been home to some young platies for a while now. They'll be going into our main tank soon and we'll be looking for new inhabitants for their vacated home. I was thinking of getting a Betta.

This is the tank...www.fishkeeper.co.uk/aquamanta-nano-35-aquarium

The outlet for the filter flow is very near to the top of the tank and currently we have a spray bar to distribute the flow across the top. To get the water just covering the spray bar, there is only about 1.5cm space between the water level and the tank lid.

We also have an air stone on the go. The tank has gravel in the bottom, 4 live plants - 2 are anubias plants but I'm not sure what the other 2 are. There are also a few rocks.

From my reading up on Bettas my thoughts are...
- they need to be able to reach the surface to eat and breathe. The current filter outlet would seem to be far too high so we would need to add something to the outlet to get the flow to go down into the tank rather than along the top. Is that right?

- they prefer a slower flow. The pump does 200l per hour I think. The plants were very still and we have had problems with dead spots and algae build up. We did add a second pump just to create a cross flow. I'm guessing the Betta probably wouldn't appreciate that second pump, but is the original pump still too much?

- they like hidey holes and leaves to chill on. Our current plants are quite low down (bar one with fronds in the back corner) and the rocks are pretty small too. Would we need to change this ideally or could we try it and see how the Betta gets on?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Essjay]

Bettas do prefer slowing moving water. 200 litres/hour on a 35 litre tank (assuming the fish space is 35 litres, but it may well include the space taken up by the filter) does sound a bit much. There are ways to baffle the filter outflow but I do not know if you would be prepared to use DIY baffles for a tank with such clean lines.
Bettas also like floating plants so I would add some if you can.

As for something for a betta to rest on, a number of people use a betta hammock. This is a plastic 'leaf' attached to the side was with a sucker.


Can I ask, how do the plants cope with the light? My betta's tank came with an LED light that has just white LEDs. The plug/transformer came apart in my hand while unplugging it so I bought another. At that time, I didn't know about spectrum and K rating and the new light had white and blue LEDs with the option for both or just blue. The plants started to slowly die. The reason I ask is that according to the link, your tank light is the same.
I have since replaced the second light with a third which has white blue and red LEDs and the spectrum for this new light looks very similar to the tubes recommended by Byron - and the plants are perking up.

 

[CV26]

Thank you for the advice

We would be prepared to work with the filter. My husband is quite happy to tinker with DIY solutions to problems. The fish come first so if it meant sacrificing the look of the tank a little to have a happy fish, we wouldn't mind.

The plants seem to be doing really well as far as I can tell - the tank has been set up for about 6 months I think. We have high phosphates in our water so green algae is also a fan - we've been working on getting the balance between enough light for the plants and controlling the algae.

 

[Essjay]

One way to baffle the filter outflow is to place a 'pop bottle' over it. In big tanks, a 2 litre is usual but your tank is too small for that, so you'd need a 300 to 500ml bottle. Cut the top and bottom off to make a tube, then fix that over the outlet whichever way you can.