# Betta barracks? Should I?



## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

I wish I could find someone to trade with would love to sell or tade my 100gal and get a betta barracks system. 

I have started looking at building a barrack system any one have some good plans to make one or can point me in the right direction. I think I am pretty much hooked on this betta thing and I am ready to devote all my fish time too it. 

I have 2 canister filters bother rateted for a 90gal tank. I would like to try and use them. If anyone has a betta barrack and would like to share with me how you did it I am all ears. Thanks


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## trilobite (May 18, 2011)

Do it! 
Ive seen a a few homemade ones that look really good and professional.

Heres a good tutorial on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxVy6kUM37I

Personally I think glass tanks look nicer, and if you cut up the glass yourself you could choose the size of each individual tank. I bought a small one that was already made and tbh I hate it since the jars are too small to house a male long term.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Basement Bettas has a decent amount of information and pictures on her Wordpress site. When I was contemplating building some barracks a while ago I thought it was quite helpful. 

http://basementbettas.wordpress.com/tag/betta-barracks/


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

Well I talked to my dad about it he is retiered and always looking for a project. He helped me come up with an idea for the system. So I think next week I will start playing about with welding acrylic (I know it's not real welding more like glue) I will make some stuff with scraps I have to get practice then put my plans together. This will be my biggest DIY fish project yet. 

I have a 20gal long I am going to redo and split up for my males. I had it split up before but I could not get the flow from the filters to work well and I had some water quality issues. I am going to use the old school under gravel filter for this 20 gal long and I think that will help or I might use sponge filters in each Betta compartment.


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## alunjai (Jul 29, 2012)

This DIY project of yours sounds fun. I wish I had to space in the house to build one. My adult males are seperated in a 15 gallon tank but the filtration system that I have designed doesn't work as well as I like it to. 

Anyway, good luck with whatever you do.


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## jadaBlu (Feb 14, 2013)

You may want to ask some questions about disease control. I am not breeding (I still read this section for education) but I have read several posts where breeders discuss the negatives of barracks as far as spreading disease because the water circulates between fish. Here is one discussion about it:

https://www.facebook.com/BasementBettas/posts/538230592916327


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

Quarantine you fish before you add them to your system and the illness should not spred. It's just like white another community tank you really should keep new fish quarantined before adding them. 

I think water quality can be an issue in these Betta barracks I have looked at what other have made and I m not sold on the drip system .filters need to do more then drip IME. I think getting the right water flow is key to filtering .


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

There is still the risk that fish that are not new acquisitions could still pick up something like ich and velvet (which are both highly contagious) and spread that through the entire system. 

I do think maintaining excellent water quality within each cell and also maintaining a stable temperature (my divided tank/barracks had problems with the latter) in each cell goes a long way towards keeping the system disease-free.


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## Aryia (Oct 10, 2013)

Water quality hasn't been an issue for my barracks, but since they are new barracks they were overrun by brown algae (and due to sun exposure since my barracks are near the sun). I test my water weekly and it always reads 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite and nitrate levels depend on how big of a water change I do. (I use the API test kit)

I was careful with adding the bettas, had them all quarantined prior, but depending on how many bettas you have in one system, one will eventually end up being sick and everyone else falls sick together. The worst thing is when some disease sets in that barely has any symptoms. I suddenly found myself with a variety of sick fish ranging from internal parasites to bacterial and fungal infections. Lost a couple fish to no symptoms at all too, just dropsied up over night and died. I honestly want to know how thai breeders keep such a large amount of fish all happy o.o it almost seems impossible to do alone.

Another thing with betta barracks, the bettas gunk and poop and leftovers all settle to the bottom of each cell since you can't make waterflow fast enough to suck it all out. The cells will have to be siphoned quite a bit.

Also, keep in mind that drilling holes in glass is really hard. It cracks easily and its really sharp when it does! It's also really hard to cut it into the dimensions you'll probably want for betta barracks, I was getting mine cut at a shop and the guy cracked it and didn't want to try again. That's why I like working with plexiglass more.

I'm not done giving up on barracks yet! Will be doing many more modifications to mine to try and fix everything, and would be happy to have someone to share experience and ideas with : )


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

Well I got my acrylic scraps and weld-on 3. I made 2 small boxes and the hard part is getting a straight line. The glueing is easy its the cutting that is killing me. 

I am still working on how to make make the best small tank. I bought some weld-on 16 to help with any little mistake gaps. I really like bending the acrylic so I don't have many joints to glue. it also looks nice too imo.


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## snowflake311 (Jun 19, 2013)

I have been working with acrylic a lot and I think I have got the hang of it. This might be my new hobbie building fish tanks haha. It's pretty cool and not that hard too do. I need a saw so I can start making bigger tanks haha. 

Anyways here is what I have made so far. 

This is a tank for my daughters betta I just need to reenforce the top to make it stronger and not bow. 









Then this is the start of my barracks I am going to use this tank for photographing bettas. It's not perfect but it works. 









Building a fish tank is the ultimate diy aquarium job. I have been thinking my 100gal is old maybe I should make a new one.


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