Betta & Planted tank

[PrettyFishies]

Hey guys,

anyone have a betta in a planted tank? I setup teh tank and am cycling now...The only fish I think I can get is a betta - My office temp is normally 80-84 degrees M-F and S&Su they shut the air off - I'm assuming 90 degrees.

Will a betta be ok in that environment? Also, since I will have plants, are there any things I should look out for or anticpate?

 

[czcz]

I had a female in a 2.5gal hex and then a 10gal, and currently have a male CT in a 10gal. They do great in planted tanks and no worries: your Betta will love it. 90F is a little high but many of us are battling high temps right now, and tropical fish seem resilient. Could you run a bubble wand in the tank during the weekends, to increase surface agitation and cool the tank?

Also, you could make it a low light/no dosing/no CO2 tank with Crypts, making for a nice low-maintenence Asia themed tank.

Or you could steal An t-iasg's Betta bed idea:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=8529&ppuser=2132

 

[JustOneMore20]

I have my betta in a 10g planted. He loves the plants. When he sleeps, he leans against some of the plants. Very cute!

I'm not sure about the temp. I'd definitely run an airstone though if you can.

 

[PrettyFishies]

i have E tennellus, java ferns and anubias nana. I've already started dosing and planned on continuing. I guess using an airstone won't hurt because I'm not adding co2?

 

[Purrbox]

Using an airstone will actually help since you aren't injecting CO2. The surface agitation will help keep CO2 levels up at ambient levels.

 

[PrettyFishies]

I'm doing a fishless cycle right now and I have a question...

My nitrites are about 2 PPM right now - I'm using the TetraTest kit and its darker than 1.6 ppm. Anyways, my Ammonia is zero. Should I keep adding ammonia or wait till the nitrites come down to 0 before I add some more?

 

[Purrbox]

You need to keep adding Ammonia. If you don't your first set of bacteria will die off and you'll have to start from scratch again. You can drop the amount that you're dosing to about 2ppm Ammonia if you were dosing a larger amoun initially.

 

[PrettyFishies]

For a 3 gallon - how do I measure 2 PPm? I have my ammonia in a small poland spring bottle and add like 1/4 of that cap... probably .5 mL if I were to guess.

 

[Purrbox]

How much Ammonia did you add initially? What level of Ammonia did that give you? From there you can calculate how much to add.

 

[PrettyFishies]

What I added gave me 2ppm....so I guess it's all good.

 

[PrettyFishies]

How long should I expect my nitrite levels to stay so high? Any liquid bacteria supplements I can add to speed the process?

 

[mr funktastic]

if u can get it there is biosphera. that is an instant cycler. put that in and u are done but it is hard to find and has to be refrigerated and is often mishandled by the store casue it to not be affective. besides that u just gotta wait!!

 

[czcz]

Also could add more plants, especially fastgrowers. If they drop nitrites quickly you should feel comfortable stocking.

 

[PrettyFishies]

OK. So I added BioSpira yesterday, the ammonia crashed and I added some more today. It seems as if the Nitrite increased overnight... any thoughts?

 

[JRagg]

Biospira still takes a few days to process everything. If the ammonia went down then you know it's working.

 

[PrettyFishies]

I should keep adding ammonia and when I see nitrites crash I know I'm almost done, right?

 

[rich311k]

That is correct.

 

[PrettyFishies]

Should I be worried that the Nitrite level is not going down at all? Ammonia is cleared up daily, but Nitrite is sky high

 

[CaysE]

It could take a week or two. What are your Nitrate stats?

czcz: cute pic!

 

[PrettyFishies]

I haven't tested Nitrate, only Nitrite.

I also added an airstone, think that will speed the process up?