# My Evolve 8 community and sorority tanks



## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

I have them both in my bedroom, I just ordered some new night stands and instead of lamps I'm using the tanks. I purchased my first Evolve 8(top pic) in February, I added one halfmoon male betta, two neon tetras, two guppies, two balloon mollies, two African dwarf frogs, two ghost shrimp and an otto catfish. All the fish get a long great and are fun to watch. 
I liked it so much I just bought another one(bottom pic) last week for the other side of my bed and have 6 halfmoon female Bettas, a ghost shrimp and African Dwarf frog in it. I decorated both with a planted driftwood and some betta bulbs.
I really like the easy setup and design, the filter and cords being concealed behind the back overflow wall, the whisper quiet pump, LED daylight and moonlight, and I paid about $90 including tax which isn't bad for what you get!


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

With moonlights on...my favorite feature of the tank.


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## MistersMom (Aug 9, 2011)

how many gallons is that? wouldnt you need more for a sorority?  but i dunno... 
im just curious...


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

and the "star" of my community tank...my boy Norris. He loves the tank.:-D


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

MistersMom said:


> how many gallons is that? wouldnt you need more for a sorority?  but i dunno...
> im just curious...


it's 8 gallons..and my sorority is a small and private school one. ;-)


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## MistersMom (Aug 9, 2011)

oh dang 8 gallons?wow... i thought it was 5 lol, those are really nice thanks though.. very happy fish!
but whats a 'private school' ?


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## freemike (Feb 3, 2012)

Nice looking tanks. Just a word of caution on the sorority from my past reading on this site. Sororities need to be heavily planted preferably with tall plants that break up the line of sight. It's not good to have that much open water space in a sorority tank. It would also be beneficial to have more caves and deco's for them to hide in and around. Also I would keep a close eye on the water parameters on the sorority being that stocked on a 8 gallon tank will take a lot of maintenance. You may be looking at water changes more than once a week with a set up like that to keep nitrates in check. Good luck with your fish.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

I plan in changeing about 50% of the water weekly and vaccuum the gravel like I do in my community tank and the plants should be decent size within 2 weeks. The driftwood has a nice size cave underneath.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

more pics


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## Anitax3x (Aug 26, 2011)

The tanks look great, a word of caution on the sorority, you need alot more plants! Fake/live whatever you would like, The girls will get along but take it from me, I had a sorority going for about 8 months, tons of plants, in a 40 gal tank, tons of places to hide and they STILL decided to randomly start killing each other. Mind you thats after a 8 months of everything going just fine. So even though they seem fine now, they are stressed by seeing the other girls and that can lead to acts of agression. Just throw in some fake or my personal favorite live tall medium and floating plants, and you will make life better for your girlies 


Side note: your male is gorgeous 

I don't really know about the other species enough to make any comments but the tanks themselves look awesome! I have been looking at those Evolve tanks.


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

i also highly recommend more plants for your girls. other than that their gorgeous tanks


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

I took some plants from my community tank and a 2 gallon I have, I leave the LED light on about 16 hours a day right now so they will grow quick.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

Anitax3x said:


> Side note: your male is gorgeous


Thank you..he is a very handsome boy! He's such a good guy also he's pretty peaceful with his tank mates, I even have a male guppy in with him and he's nice to him. When I bought him in March he was just black and blue..the red appeared later.


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## ZergyMonster (Feb 20, 2012)

bettaluvr said:


> I took some plants from my community tank and a 2 gallon I have, I leave the LED light on about 16 hours a day right now so they will grow quick.


As a side note, plants benefit from having dark/night periods much like any other living creature. I've read that having 10-14hours of light is optimum. I've had my lights on for too long at times and my plants started to "burn" the edges of the leaves started to brown and decay. 

The best way to get your plants to grow is just for good spread out light so that everything gets it and very little is shaded. And, having a good quality fertilizer will promote growth.

You fish look lovely. I saw what looked like neon tetras, mine go well with my betta and they seem best of friends but be careful they can nip at his tail if they are stressed out.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

ZergyMonster said:


> I've read that having 10-14hours of light is optimum.
> You fish look lovely. I saw what looked like neon tetras, mine go well with my betta and they seem best of friends but be careful they can nip at his tail if they are stressed out.


Actually I have the LED light on about 10 hours and the moon light on about 4, so that shouldn't be too much, the tetras are very peaceful in the tank and keep to themselves, they wouldn't dare nip at my boys fins he truly is the boss of the tank. 
The two guppies and the two balloon mollies are always hanging out together...the balloon mollies are my favorites aside from my betta..they were given to me free to adopt at my local petco a few weeks ago when I went in and bought another betta and they are very cute and always "pecking" at the plants and indian almond leaf I have in there.


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## Scienceluvr8 (May 17, 2009)

Very nice community tank! The plants in there look great!


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

Thanks but actually it's _plant_. The plant inside the driftwood overwhelmed the other plants I had and they wouldn't grow, I even tried trimming it. I think what I'm going to do in both tanks is corner it and not center it and put some more plants around it. I'm going to petco today and going to get some more plants and decorations for both tanks.


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## teeneythebetta (Apr 29, 2012)

What beautiful tanks and beautiful fish.

Has your sorority tank always been decorated that way? I'm starting a sorority soon and I've been told to heavily plant it to prevent too much agression... ?


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

I just set the sorority tank and got the girls last week. I bought them off ebay. Yes lots of plants and hiding places they like to harass each other! I was going to just wait for the Aponogeton to grow like I did in my community tank but I'm going to get some more plants at petco tomorrow.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

Went to petco today and got a package of those aquatic bulbs with the lilly, onion and aponogeton for both my tanks...hopefully most of them sprout soon. I also got a nice _sunken_ head with moss on it and the girls love it as there seems to be always one inside it, also made a nice cave where the _bully_ of the tank and african dwarf frog are usually hanging out.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

next to my bed


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## teeneythebetta (Apr 29, 2012)

Bettaluvr-

:O

:O

:O

I'm so jealous of you! xD


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## squidward89 (Jun 26, 2012)

wow awesome!! i love it!


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

plants are coming along in sorority tank.


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## tanseattle (Jun 28, 2012)

Very beautiful


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

So the the sorority tank I bought has been somewhat louder than my other one as the little black piece that pumps the water in wasn't a tight fit and was "buzzing" and I decided to exchange it. Well in the process of draining the water miss curious George got sucked up in the hose. I thought it might have severely damage her but it looks like she only got a little scuffed up and shaken and seems ok. :-(
Her name's Valentina and she's the grumpy faced bully of the tank with the most personality and my favorite one.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

I bought them a Betta log when I was at Petsmart yesterday and they like it.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

plants are still growing.


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## Sundancex (Feb 24, 2012)

I'm sorry but am I the only one who thinks both of these tanks are WAY overstocked? They are VERY beautiful tanks but geez, I would put a betta and some shrimp or maybe 2 dwarf frogs in an 8 gal. Maybe a small school of neons if the betta was very calm. No way would I try a sorority in an 8 gal.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

Well I do weekly 50% water changes in both tanks with a gravel vac..and there is zero fighting in the community tank and minimal in the sorority.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

Well I had a terrible mishap 2 weeks ago with my sorority tank and lost _all_ my girls from ammonia poisoning from using a new filter and clean gravel when I exchanged the tanks. 

I was heartbroken by it(especially when my favorite one took her last breath in my hand) but the show must go on and I've since got some new girls only 5 this time even though I only purchased 3 but was given 2 "gifts." They all seem to be doing well and enjoying their new home.


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

...


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## teeneythebetta (Apr 29, 2012)

Very pretty! Good luck with your new girls


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## bettaluvr (Jan 6, 2012)

teeneythebetta said:


> Very pretty! Good luck with your new girls


Thank you..the tank seems to be cycling fine, my water test kit says ammonia , nitrates and nitrite are very low. There is no leftover uneaten food and I'm doing weekly 25% water changes with a gravel vac right now and adding "special blend" beneficial bacteria to the filter.


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