# extra aquairums



## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

Hi,

I have a used 20 gallon tall, a 10 gallon long which has my betta in it now, and another used 10 gallon. Any ideas or thoughts of what I can create?


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## Stone (Jan 6, 2013)

a 20 gal npt sorority and a split 10 gal for 2 more males, or oh wiat I could go on for hours...


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

o do lol...


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## Canis (Apr 15, 2013)

Stone said:


> a 20 gal npt sorority and a split 10 gal for 2 more males, or oh wiat I could go on for hours...


+1 on this XD


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

A smaller tank inside a bigger tank would be interesting


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## Krys (Jul 28, 2009)

I've divided a ten gal. tank into three parts for three bettas before. The 20 gal would make a nice sorority tank or even a community tank for a male with some acceptable tank mates.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

I just wish it wasn't a high one


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## Krys (Jul 28, 2009)

I like high... It adds more depth.
...
lol.

But seriously. I have a 20g tall in my room. Cap is in it. I'm planning a small community tank with him, a bunch of neon tetras, some ghost shrimps, maybe a few snails, and maybe a few platys.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

Just for the frogs i don't like high.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

In the 10 gallon you could also have a shrimp colony, not ghost shrimp but maybe some neocaridinia (totally spelled that wrong lol), or tiger shrimp depending on your water softness/hardness. 

But I agree, the 20 could certainly be used for a sorority, they'd be fine with the space there, you just needs tons of plants so they feel secure and can hide!


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

A sorority for the 20g...thats what I'd do. Maybe split one 10 gallon into 3 or 4 compartments and use the other for docile male with some tankmates.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

The water is very hard


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

I have put betta in the 20 gallon one. Should i put a bigger filter in or keep using the millenium 1000?


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

I removed the frog and shrimp from the 20 gallon one (betta was getting nasty and harassing them and not letting anyone eat) and he will go back to the 10 gallon one. Is 7 neon tetras, 1 adf, and 4 shrimp too much for a tall 20 gallon tank?? Can I put in more neon tetras and shrimp?


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

I bought 5 more tetras and 4 more shrimp yesterday. When i got home all the terras were dead and the shrimp were picking away at their bodies. The bag only had a a little more than a cup of water in it. Then after I added the shirmp to the tank last night 2 tetras were dead by morning.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Well the shrimp wouldn't have killed them, it was more likely that they were diseased from the store which is oh so common unfortunately and the ghosties could have carried diseases over to your tank. That's why QT periods are suggested but of course will more fish it can be a bit tedious and annoying to wait two weeks and all.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

Any thoughts on black skirted tetras with neons and adf?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

In the 20? they'll be fine as long as you have enough black skirts to make a nice group, I suggest like 10 if that's all your putting in there with the frog. Make sure the frog has some leafy surfaces at the top that it can hang out and breathe at, they too need to breathe air as well.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

6 with 9 neons?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Perhaps I missed something, how many fish do you have in there right now including the frog and any snails/shrimp?


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

15 tetras in all. Didn't ask for so many but girl in store cant count. One frog. A snail smaller than fingernail. N at least 4 shrimp.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

They're fine. If you want to check your stocking level put that into aqadvisor.com along with your filter type if you have one and see what it says


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

It says it's too much. But i only see half the shrimp n the frog will join the others in a few months. N I'm sure some of the neons won't make it as there is always some dwad in store.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

What kind of filter do you have? with that stock it shows 80% full, but depends on whether your filter is rated for 20 gallons or higher. If you get one that is rated for 30 gallons it will be just fine. Just do a 60-80% water change once a week for now and they'll be fine and don't over feed either!


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

Now my betta's fins are turning black edged around a clear trim


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

Think its a 10-20g filter. 

Now my betta is getting black edging around clear threads on some of his long fins. I do a water every day but the ammonia is still not dropping. He seems happy but I'm not.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Did you have ammonia in your tap?

Also are you using gravel vac's to clean the bottom and how much of a water change do you do everyday?


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

No it tested good. I do 10-20 percent


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Okay, try to up the water changes to at least 25% if you can. The more you take out, the more ammonia you take out. The idea is to test daily while it's cycling and when you see at or more than .25ppm then you do a water change, wait an hour and test again. If you still see ammonia, you have to do another change and another if it calls for it until the ammonia is down or gone. You're going to really stress out the fish if you don't and because the tank isn't cycled and you have a lot of fish in there, it's not going to help. I suggest you get another filter rated for 20 gallons at least, the 10-15 is not sufficient for the 20 unfortunately and it's not going to be able to let enough BB colonize there to let the cycle run properly.

Beneficial Bacteria (BB) will colonize on any surface but the more surface area you have, the more BB you can have to keep your fish safe.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

The betta is by himself in a 10 gallon. The tank had been perfect for months then one day it really spiked. I tested the 20 gallon n it came out 0. Will test n change more today. Not sure if prime is helping. It really burns if i touch it.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

If you remove a filter or anything, it will cause a mini-cycle; meaning you've lost so much of your BB that the cycle cannot hold itself up properly so it will take time for it to repopulate and during that time you'll see ammonia/nitrite spikes.

Also Prime shouldn't burn you, check the expiration date if you have one on there? I mean, it will burn an open wound or cut, but not just simply by touching it.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

I googled the filter for the bigger aquarium and it is: 
*AQUA-TECH 20-40 EZ-Change FILTER CARTRIDGE #3 *

So that should be good as it must be the right size. The tests matches the color of the tap water today. Should I baffle the water for the tetras and frog?


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

It is comes out as 2 waterfalls.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Nah, Tetra's don't mind the extra flow and some species actually enjoy it.

You don't need to get a filter rated just for 20 gallons if you have a 20 gallon tank. And actually it's recommended that you get something that's rated for more gallons, usually twice the size but a filter rated for 30 would do you great! I prefer the AquaClear 30 if you can get them, Aqua-Tech kind of sucks, I have one. But the AquaClear has different settings for flow adjustment as well which is nice and it it doesn't have cartridges, you can customize your own media. Usually you use the AquaClear foam, carbon and bio-max packages but I usually skip out on bio-max and use two foam's instead with the carbon between them ;-) More foam means more space for Beneficial Bacteria to come chill out in your tank which is good!


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Since you used the word "create", how about a riparium in the extra 10 gallon?


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## Beckylovesbettas (Jun 30, 2013)

My dream tank would be a very well planted 20 gallon with only neons in it, a big school of them (15 to 20 fish or so). Extra tanks are great!


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

Whats that?


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

A riparium? It's a heavily planted tank that is designed with both aquatic and semi-aquatic plants so that the semi-aquatic plants come out the top... You don't fill it all the way up, and you can put fish or frogs or snails or shrimp in the water. Here's a good website about them: http://ripariumsupply.com/about/
Google images also has a lot of pictures.
Someday when I have money, I'd love to create one.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

Sounds very fancy n beautiful. But wouldn't the frogs climb/jump out?


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## OrangeAugust (Jul 23, 2012)

Oh, I was thinking of aquatic frogs like african dwarf frogs. They stay in the water.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

They do climb or jump out of tank


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

jlllm said:


> They do climb or jump out of tank


not African Dwarf Frogs, they are purely aquatic and cannot and should not be out of the water for any given time or at all and ADF's can't climb like the African Clawed Frogs. But I don't have much experience with frogs other than that. I do know if they are fully aquatic though, they can't climb, they just swim and go up for air.


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## jlllm (May 11, 2013)

great now one of my black skirt tetras is wanting to lay on the gravel. he swims around a bit to go back and lay down


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