Journal Totally my fiance's tank, definitely not mine - 45U Mid-tech Betta Tank

[SmartAlec13]

Hello, starting up a journal for the second tank. It's totally for my fiance because she wants a betta fish, it's definitely not just a thinly veiled excuse to get a 2nd tank going. No way.

Originally this was planned on being a low tech tank. However I ended up receiving some money from family, so I decided to upgrade it to more of a mid tech.

Equipment:

• UNS 45U rimless tank
• Oase 100 Filtosmart Thermo, with an extra valve stop
• Chihiros WRGB Slim, set to roughly 33% overall power
• A poppy lily pipe and an inlet skimmer
• CO2Art Regulator & Solenoid

Plants:

• Anubia broadleaf
• Anubia (no clue what other kinds, small ones)
• Various Crypts of various types and sizes (I'll dig later in my email receipts to find the types)
• Creeping Jenny
• Limnophilia Heterophylia
• Hygrophila Angustifolia
• Red Root Floaters

Fertilizing:

• 1 pump of APT 3 daily
• Root tabs from Aquarium Co-Op

I wanted to make this a sort of island-ish setup, where the main focus would be the elephant stones and the large anubias. I knew that my other tank would be right next to this one, so I focused the stems on that side since they would be getting the higher light. I did have some challenges getting the stones and aquasoil into a proper shape, and fitting the huge anubias was an obstacle.

Overall I think it's in a good state, starting to get a few diatoms but not much, and I just added the CO2 today, so the tank is officially fully setup. Now, just waiting to cycle and mature a bit before I add in some shrimps, and then a month later, the betta.



Also, if anyone has advice on the placement of the Poppy Pipe + CO2 diffuser, that is appreciated. Part of the problem is that the Poppy doesn't send water in a straight current, it's just a flurry around it, so I cant just place it on the opposite side of the diffuser like I normally would. Where I have it now, it forms a current that manages to draw some of the CO2 bubbles in, but not all.

Final ask, if anyone has better fertilizer recommendations that is appreciated, specifically how much APT3 would be appropriate for this. So far I've been doing 1 pump/day.

 

[SmartAlec13]

I'll have more pictures soon here, waiting for a good day to do a bit of cleaning. I've trimmed away a few of the large anubia leaves on the left, which helped make the area feel a bit more open and give a bit more light to some of the lower plants there. I am already seeing new growth on pretty much all of the plants, which is great, even if some of the moss is struggling to adapt at the moment. A good amount of diatoms as well.

Also new are some cherry shrimp and a betta fish, added yesterday! Very exciting of course.

Side note, this is my first time dealing with sand, so if anyone has recommendations for cleaning it, that is appreciated. The few snails are already dropping a lot of little loads all around lol

 

[Kwyet]

There are several ways of doing it, depending on the situation. You can puff a turkey baster at the sand while you siphon just above the sand. You can attach a utensil of some sort to the siphon or hold it so your finger can drag through the sand while you siphon just above the sand. You can bend the siphon tubing a bit with one hand to control the flow while you actually siphon deep into the sand. You would push it in and then pull it back up, letting the sand fall back down before getting pulled into the tubing. This is easier with a wider siphon, but pulls in more water at a time, so it’s a trade-off.

 

[BranchScape]

I wave my hand over the sand or even stir it with my fingers.

 

[SmartAlec13]

The tank today after a water change. I cleaned up the pipes and trimmed some of the stems. The betta seems to be enjoying the tank so far, exploring or resting in the cave.

 

[SmartAlec13]

Unfortunately, our betta fish has passed. I think I may have jumped the gun adding him, we had small ammonia readings (0.25 or less even, hard to tell with the test color) and I had thought daily water changes would be enough to off-set it, or that it was false reading (which has happened to me before). He didn't show any signs of stress, was the same as he was in the store; calm, chill, etc. There's a chance it wasn't the ammonia, he didn't seem eager to eat ever so maybe there was something else going on. But I do think I rushed things and should have waited. Sorry, Samson.

I know I am not the first to make mistakes, but it sucks, he was a good fish.

 

[BranchScape]

Not eating is usually a sign of something wrong with the fish, it can be water quality but often they werent eating at the store either. Did you test that?

If your ph is low and sits in the 6s or 5s, 0.25ppm of ammonia will not kill a fish as it's mainly ammonium.

Sadly it could have been a number of issues that killed Samson and its very hard to diagnose them and treat. I don't buy bettas for this reason as I lack the skill in properly treating them upon acquisition.

 

[SmartAlec13]

Not eating is usually a sign of something wrong with the fish, it can be water quality but often they werent eating at the store either. Did you test that?

If your ph is low and sits in the 6s or 5s, 0.25ppm of ammonia will not kill a fish as it's mainly ammonium.

Sadly it could have been a number of issues that killed Samson and its very hard to diagnose them and treat. I don't buy bettas for this reason as I lack the skill in properly treating them upon acquisition.

I am not sure if he wasn't eating at the store, but he was definitely the most chill there. I wouldn't call him lethargic, though maybe he was, but he definitely was slower than the other bettas there.

My PH is lower, as I am running CO2, though I haven't tested it. That does make me feel a bit better though, that maybe there was another issue. I had thought that if the ammonia was an issue, we would have seen him reacting in some way.

But yeah he barely would eat. I would drop in like 6 or so of those tiny betta pellets and most of the time he ignored them. There were only a few times I saw him eat one, though we didn't have him long so its not a lot to go off of.