# My new 20 gallon long Betta Condo :)(pic Spam)



## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

Hi everybody!!! I took advantage of Petco's $1 per gallon and got a 20 long to consolidate my Betta's! I made a Betta condo for 5 lucky guys of mine. They each have 4 gallons to themselves. I went the DIY way with homemade dividers made out of crafting mesh from Michaels Craft store for .59 cents a piece! Can't really beat that! Here are some pictures of my adventure over the weekend..








Here is the tank with the dividers and sand all in place. 








Here is a shot of the tank from the front.








These are the materials I used for my DIY dividers. I used crafting mesh from Michaels and then for the edged to make it sturdy I went to Walmart in the office supplies and I got a couple packs of folder dividers. I cut the mesh to size then slid the dividers along the edge. It made it very sturdy and the inch of sand was enough to hold them in place without aquarium sealant. 








Here are the 5 guy's I chose to live in the new diggs. They are floating to get acclimated 








Just a close up.








Here is a view from the top of my tank, I put the filter in the middle of the tank in hopes it will help with water movement to the edges of the tank.








All decorations in tank are temporary other than all my live plants. I just wanted them to have cover until I can go out and get permanent decorations. I love all my new plants which include water sprite, hornwort, anubias nana, duckweed, and others that I can't name off the top of my head.
Here are a couple of my guys all happy in their new home.








On the left is Murda my combtail and on the right is Ezio my cutie DTHMPK. 








Here is our white HM that we call White Boy as a nickname lol. 








This is Honey Bee my yellow HM  I couldn't get any of my 5th guy he is very shy. 

Thanks for checking out my weekend Betta Condo project! Hope you all had a great holiday weekend. Now it's bedtime for me!!!


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Looks like a really professional job. Your dividers are so straight. I don't have that lip on my tanks, so my DIY dividers look like they are drunk half the time. 

Good size sections for each betta too. Lucky little fish!


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## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

LittleBettaFish said:


> Looks like a really professional job. Your dividers are so straight. I don't have that lip on my tanks, so my DIY dividers look like they are drunk half the time.
> 
> Good size sections for each betta too. Lucky little fish!



Thanks LittleBettaFish  I was pretty anal when cutting my dividers and I wanted to make sure I found and edge so I wouldn't have loose dividers with the risk of one getting to the other side. I got the edges of it from Walmart, for 3 it cost under 2 bucks. I think it's well worth it. Maybe it's time to sober up your dividers lol!! Thanks for looking at my thread


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I thought about doing that with my 20G long but went with a soriety instead. Does the filter work with the ones on the end? 

looks good


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## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

Tikibirds said:


> I thought about doing that with my 20G long but went with a soriety instead. Does the filter work with the ones on the end?
> 
> looks good


Okay from what I noticed there is slight water movement on the edges. I have not seen the protein build up on the top of thank yet and it has been up and running for over a day. I'll keep you posted on that in the next few days to see how it is going. With the filter I baffled it a bit with sponge from the dollar store and added a ton of Hornwort under the output so for my two that share the filter section wont get blown around too much. Plus I chose two of my HMPK with shorter fins for those spots. They all seem very happy, I know I am extremely happy with the outcome! I may make one more in a couple of weeks for 5 more of my breeders.


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## katydidmischief (Aug 19, 2012)

I am completely in love with your set up an your little plaket boy. (I think I'm falling for Plakets!) And I think I need to hit Petco since I didn't know they were having their 1$ per gal sale! :-D


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## Friendlyfishies (Aug 16, 2012)

When did they have the sale????! Im guessing this weekend and its over now? Nice tank & beautiful fish!


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## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

katydidmischief said:


> I am completely in love with your set up an your little plaket boy. (I think I'm falling for Plakets!) And I think I need to hit Petco since I didn't know they were having their 1$ per gal sale! :-D


Thanks  Half Moon Plakats are my favorite and my weakness!!! Petco will be doing the sale until Sept 22nd so almost the whole month! I will be doing another 20 gallon for 5 more of my breeders and I can't wait!


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## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

Friendlyfishies said:


> When did they have the sale????! Im guessing this weekend and its over now? Nice tank & beautiful fish!


Thanks Friendlyfishies! They started the sale last Sunday and it goes until thee 22nd of Sept. They are doing 10 gallons to 55 gallons. Such a great idea!


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## MSG (May 8, 2012)

I was always wondering what your tanks looked like. 

I really like your version of the dividers. What did you use to stabilize the divider on the top to keep the whole thing from sliding side to side?

Don't you think making them hammocks encourages them to be lazy? My betta Akoya would use anything near the surface so he didn't have to swim. Because of this habit he's lazy, and only swims out for feeding time & then back to this driftwood sofa. Like a fish version of a couch potato. 

Akoya was the most active when he was busy eating all guppies and c shrimp. He loves to knock the snails off the walls of the tank but doesn't eat them. He stopped making bubble nests like 4-6 months ago. 

I prefer to use a tall plant for them to hang out on, because it forces them to still balance themselves. When they're laying inside the hammocks they can literally just do NOTHING.


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## Jupiter (Aug 30, 2009)

I was wondering what the mesh loops at the top were for...so they're hammocks? That's a really cute idea.

Nice tank! I'm getting a 20 gallon long soon myself and splitting it between four boys.


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

Looks great! I want to do a similar set-up eventually. Actually I want to do that with 2 Mr Aqua 12 gallon longs if I ever have enough $$$. 

1 question- where did you find white report covers? I could only find a rainbow package here at Office Max and I think a lot of the colors look tacky. I would prefer white with white mesh lke you did. . or maybe green with green or white mesh but covered with moss. The yellow and reds would look ugly with my decor.


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## tsukiowns (Sep 22, 2011)

Love the picture that is an amazing bunch of boys you have there


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## BettaQi (Jul 26, 2012)

Great job bettapro!


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

About that $1 gallon sale, something to think about if you're going to need lights and/or a hood for plant growing:

I got the $10 10 gallon tank during this sale. Then I got an Aquaclear 20 filter. Then I realized I wanted to keep live plants and I needed a hood plus light strip. 

My 10 gallon no longer seemed like such a bargain. I probably could have gotten a 10 gallon tank KIT with lights and filter included. Granted I tend to replace the filters now anyway, but still. Here is what I ended up buying:

$10 10 gallon tank from Petco
$26 Aquaclear 20 filter (I read great reviews) from Petco
$35. 10 gallon light hood from Petsmart
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11252590

plus this $15. bulb since Petco Girl didn't know a bulb was already included.  http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11248157

So not including the extra bulb I didn't really need, I spent about $71 for my 10 gallon set up. 

You can get a whole $10 gallon kit for the price of that light hood at Petsmart (tetra brand), sure it probably has a crappier filter but some betta owners don't want a strong filter like the ones I use anyway. 

Sorry to go off topic though.


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## buddhauser (Aug 6, 2012)

Looks awesome! I feel your pain mursey im at least $150 or more for my 10 gallon. Can get expensive real fast. I want to do another tank something similar to Candice's though. I have a 10 gallon divided 3 ways but I think you have inspired to go for a 20 gallon instead of another 10. so Thanks! Love this forum.


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## mursey (May 9, 2012)

Me too Buddhauser. I too have the 10 gallon 3 ways but I really like Candice's 20 gallon.

2 of my filters broke this month and I think consolidating bettas would be easier for control of the water. . . buying filters, ammonia sensors or testing water parameters, thermometers, heaters, lights, finding outlets to plug stuff in .. etc. (You could arguably buy better quality stuff but just once versus 6 times for my 6 tanks, for example)

I know some people say disease can spread but I think if you have control over your tank it's easier to keep them healthy. How much disease is happening after you have a cycled established tank (and no brand new fish, of course) ?


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## Bettanewbie60 (Jun 26, 2012)

Awesome tank! I just finished a similar divider for my 10g this weekend..only thing I did different was I used poster frame plastic slide for the top...it was a lot more rigid. I also cut mine to fit under the lip so that it is stable with no silicone..very nice job there!


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## buddhauser (Aug 6, 2012)

Surprisingly I have not had any disease with any of my fish. The worst thing thats happened was one of my boys started biting his tail fin. I QT for a week and switched him over to the other side of the tank and he has been really happy so far. I do frequent water changes and gravel vac every WC.

Candice is sand difficult to clean? or is it the same as gravel?


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## Friendlyfishies (Aug 16, 2012)

mursey said:


> About that $1 gallon sale, something to think about if you're going to need lights and/or a hood for plant growing:
> 
> I got the $10 10 gallon tank during this sale. Then I got an Aquaclear 20 filter. Then I realized I wanted to keep live plants and I needed a hood plus light strip.
> 
> ...


I thought of that too lol, but just the same it would be nice to have a couple extra tanks around for hospital tanks/qt tanks so it could still be worth it??


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## Destinystar (May 26, 2012)

Wow looks awesome great job and your guys are beautiful and I beginning to really love the PK`s also !


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## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

Hi everybody thanks for all the wonderful feedback!!! I love my new setup and I think it works great. As far a the disease worries I chose fish that I have had for a while, I keep a filter plus it's heated. I will keep up on water changes and minister them daily. I'm hoping they will all stay happy and healthy! 

For the sand I chose a heavier sand from a local pet shop. I did not do Petco gravel it's too fine and clumps at the surface. I found doing over an inch on the bottom help hold my dividers in place. I got the white project dividers from Walmart. Came in a pack of 3 for under 2 bucks. I bought a ton of them! 

I will be setting up one more of these in the next week or so and I can't wait! My guys all love the space and I love watching all of them in one tank versus all of my tanks scattered all over my room. Please post pics if you do one like mine


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## Asyr (Aug 9, 2012)

This is so cool! Gave me a great idea for how to set up a new, biigger tank for my betta boy and have a sorority too without having multiple tanks all over the living room (which my husband keeps griping at me about... but I just tell him to stuff it :lol: ) 
Will make a post about it as soon as I figure out the specifics.
Thanks for the awesome idea


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## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

Asyr said:


> This is so cool! Gave me a great idea for how to set up a new, biigger tank for my betta boy and have a sorority too without having multiple tanks all over the living room (which my husband keeps griping at me about... but I just tell him to stuff it :lol: )
> Will make a post about it as soon as I figure out the specifics.
> Thanks for the awesome idea



Hahahaha my boyfriend likes the idea of sounding like he wants to tell me what to do with all of my tanks but I know deep down he gets just as excited as me! He now wants a 15 gallon of his own for his Betta and frogs and tetras. I guess he got the bug too 

Good luck with your tank I bet it will turn out awesome!


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## socold57 (Aug 24, 2012)

is that sand easy to clean btw


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## CandiceMM (Jul 15, 2012)

socold57 said:


> is that sand easy to clean btw



YES!! I did an initial GOOD DEEP clean got all dust removed then put it in my tank. When I added the water I poured it over a big flat surface so it did not disrupt the sand and cause it to cloud. I think even if I had not done that it would not of clouded that much because I chose a heavy sand from a local shop and it's my new favorite!


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