Setting up a Betta Tank

[An t-iasg]

Hi everyone,
I had a betta in a 5.5 gallon tank. I'm attaching pictures of the tank. They are not great pics, but you can see how I set up the tank.

The betta died last week. I took the tank down. I threw away the sponge filter and the gravel. It's easy enought to get more. I kept the silk plants and the heater. The sponge filter I'm thinking of getting is from DrsFosterSmith, and it looks like this:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...allany&Ntx=mode+matchallany&Np=1&N=2004&Nty=1

I would get the one for a 15 gallon tank. I like it because it attaches to the side of the tank, and doesn't take up as much room on the bottom of the tank. I will be running it thru a gang valve. Would it create too much current, because it says 15 gallons and I'm putting it in a 5.5 gallon?

So, I will set the tank back up, maybe with this filter, and the plants, arranged like they were before. Can you give me any suggestions for setting it up differently or better this time?

 

[Allivymar]

I don't know for sure, but have some ideas (hopefully someone will come in and correct me LOL).

I don't know if it will work. If you used a small air pump, it might not cause too much current. Flip side is, I'd guess you'd need an air pump rated for 15 gallons for the filter to work properly, and that may be more current then a betta would be happy with.

That all being said, I have a small filter with a bitty airpump on my 2.5g. I haven't found air pumps for 2.5g tanks LOL so I think its rated for 5 or 10. Poor guy cannot build a bubblenest with the surface agitation, but its not so bad that he can't grab a breathe of air.

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi Allivymar!
Sorry...forgot to say what kind of pump I have...

It's a Tetratec Deep Water 12. It isn't rated per gallons, but of tank depth. This pump will run 2 air devices in a tank of a depth of 12 inches, or 1 device in a tank of a depth of 18 or 24 inches. Sounds powerful! It's just a tiny little thing. My tank is 10 1/2 inches deep (height from bottom to top).

The smallest this particular filter comes is in a 15-gallon size. Heighth-wise, it will fit into my tank. Also, I wanted to get a different sponge filter than what I had, because the one I had (Jungle Jr. Dirt Magnet, rated for 10 gallons, I think) had about a 4 or 5-inch diameter, and this one will have a smaller "footprint". Remember that article about columnaris? It said that slow moving water allows the bacteria to better adhere to the gills. I will probably not get the water flowing fast enough in a betta tank to eliminate this risk factor (not without making the betta extremely unhappy!) but I thought that this filter may help some. The website says it gives off numerous minute air bubbles. So, I thought it was maybe worth a try.

 

[tkos]

As long as you use a vavle to reduce the flow of air coming from the pump into the filter then it will be fine.

I bought my stick on the side filter from WalMart for liek 9$ canadian and it came with a pump and a valve. Most LFS should have those valves.

 

[An t-iasg]

Thanks, tkos! I think I will try this filter.

I used a 3-way gang valve with my old sponge filter. Now I've seen those little conrol valves that you can put right on the air line. Where does the excess air come out? In the gang valve, it came out the other ports that weren't being used (I opened them a little). But with these little airline valves, does excess air come out, or does it just suppress the air coming out of the pump, and if that's the case, will it hurt the pump over time?