Piggypie
Aquarium Advice Activist
I'm trying to plan out a 10gal tank set-up, but I want to make sure it will work out before I go buy anything. I had a male betta for several years, but he died a few months ago from dropsy 
and currently have a female betta I got a few years ago as a "baby betta" (which I found out later probably wasn't a great idea, but she survived and is healthy).
In about a month I want to upgrade from a 5gal tank to a 10gal community tank with a filter/light/etc. which I don't have much experience with. I've been researching like crazy, but can't always find specifics, so any feedback would be really helpful.
Here's the plan so far:
Fish: My female betta, 1-2 albino corys, and a school of 5-6 tetras but I'm having some trouble choosing between neon, black neon, and glowlight tetras.
Plants: A medium Anubias for my betta to rest on; some java fern, anacharis, and a small brazillian pennywort to help suck up nitrates; a marimo ball or two; and possibly some java moss or guppy grass.
Decorations/Substrate: A small bridge which I've had a while and know won't peel, a smooth rock I hope to attach some moss to, and pebble sized dark colored substrate to make the tetras feel safer and show off their colors.
QT/Washing: I plan to dip the new plants in a 1 part bleach to 20 parts water mixture for 3-5 seconds, then rinse them off well with tap water to kill any bacteria/snails/etc., but not destroy the plants. I also want to wash the rock and bridge really well, so I'll probably treat them the same as the plants. I looked into QT tanks a lot for the fish, but because there won't be any other fish in the display tank when I start, and because lots of people believe QT tanks and medication often cause extra stress, I'm going to just treat the main tank as a QT tank unless a fish gets sick.
Cycling: 24 hours set up with filter/heater, then add plants/decorations and Tetra Safestart Plus (which I know is controversial, but I only saw positive reviews for this specific brand), then wait until it has cycled (using a water test) before getting fish.
Acclimation: I'm not sure weather to add the cory(s) or tetras first, but I'll probably stagger them by about a week. After a few more weeks if everything is going well I'll add my female betta. I heard that adding your betta after the other fish is a good idea anyways so the betta thinks of the other fish more like furniture than like food. When I add fish to the tank I plan to float the bags in the tank for about half an hour, adding a little tank water to the bag every 10min, then pour the bag water into a bucket through a net, then put the netted fish into the tank.
Filter: Probably the Tetra Whisper 10i because it's small and will cycle about 90gph which is a little high, but is the lowest rate I can find above 20gph.
Heater: Tetra HT10 which isn't adjustable, but keeps the water at 78* which works for me, and has a light indicating whether or not the water is at that temperature.
Light: TropicSun 50,000k Daylight because it's a well balanced spectrum. I might have to block some of the light though for the tetras and a few lower light plants.
Food: Tetra BettaMin flakes and Top Fin Betta Bits (not sure how I ended up with both), and Tetra Freeze Dried Bloodworms a few times a week.
Treatment: I use Tetra BettaSafe to help neutralize chlorine and heavy metals, and I have API Aquarium Salt but only use it sometimes in QT tanks with sick fish.
Water Changes: It seems like this depends a lot on the specific tank and everyone has a different answer for this. I'll probably watch the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels extra close for a while, and do partial water changes periodically based on that.
I know this is a pretty long post, but I really want to get this right. Again, any opinions on any of this would be super helpful.
and currently have a female betta I got a few years ago as a "baby betta" (which I found out later probably wasn't a great idea, but she survived and is healthy).In about a month I want to upgrade from a 5gal tank to a 10gal community tank with a filter/light/etc. which I don't have much experience with. I've been researching like crazy, but can't always find specifics, so any feedback would be really helpful.
Here's the plan so far:
Fish: My female betta, 1-2 albino corys, and a school of 5-6 tetras but I'm having some trouble choosing between neon, black neon, and glowlight tetras.
Plants: A medium Anubias for my betta to rest on; some java fern, anacharis, and a small brazillian pennywort to help suck up nitrates; a marimo ball or two; and possibly some java moss or guppy grass.
Decorations/Substrate: A small bridge which I've had a while and know won't peel, a smooth rock I hope to attach some moss to, and pebble sized dark colored substrate to make the tetras feel safer and show off their colors.
QT/Washing: I plan to dip the new plants in a 1 part bleach to 20 parts water mixture for 3-5 seconds, then rinse them off well with tap water to kill any bacteria/snails/etc., but not destroy the plants. I also want to wash the rock and bridge really well, so I'll probably treat them the same as the plants. I looked into QT tanks a lot for the fish, but because there won't be any other fish in the display tank when I start, and because lots of people believe QT tanks and medication often cause extra stress, I'm going to just treat the main tank as a QT tank unless a fish gets sick.
Cycling: 24 hours set up with filter/heater, then add plants/decorations and Tetra Safestart Plus (which I know is controversial, but I only saw positive reviews for this specific brand), then wait until it has cycled (using a water test) before getting fish.
Acclimation: I'm not sure weather to add the cory(s) or tetras first, but I'll probably stagger them by about a week. After a few more weeks if everything is going well I'll add my female betta. I heard that adding your betta after the other fish is a good idea anyways so the betta thinks of the other fish more like furniture than like food. When I add fish to the tank I plan to float the bags in the tank for about half an hour, adding a little tank water to the bag every 10min, then pour the bag water into a bucket through a net, then put the netted fish into the tank.
Filter: Probably the Tetra Whisper 10i because it's small and will cycle about 90gph which is a little high, but is the lowest rate I can find above 20gph.
Heater: Tetra HT10 which isn't adjustable, but keeps the water at 78* which works for me, and has a light indicating whether or not the water is at that temperature.
Light: TropicSun 50,000k Daylight because it's a well balanced spectrum. I might have to block some of the light though for the tetras and a few lower light plants.
Food: Tetra BettaMin flakes and Top Fin Betta Bits (not sure how I ended up with both), and Tetra Freeze Dried Bloodworms a few times a week.
Treatment: I use Tetra BettaSafe to help neutralize chlorine and heavy metals, and I have API Aquarium Salt but only use it sometimes in QT tanks with sick fish.
Water Changes: It seems like this depends a lot on the specific tank and everyone has a different answer for this. I'll probably watch the ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels extra close for a while, and do partial water changes periodically based on that.
I know this is a pretty long post, but I really want to get this right. Again, any opinions on any of this would be super helpful.
