# Helping a new Betta keeping set up a 10 g planted



## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

***typo in that title, sorry! keeping = keeper... woohoo.

Hey all  I figured I'd start journaling this little adventure with Adam, because:

1) It's adorable and
2) It might help someone else set up their tank someday.

There will be "highlighting" in bold because it will help me skim-read later :lol: Apologies if it is annoying at all!

Week 1
After talking to Adam for a couple of weeks to make sure he was serious about taking care of his a Betta fish, I agreed to help him set up a basic tank with my spare parts.

We set up the Kritter Keeper and walked through basic Betta care. Mele moved in because he likes her attitude. Adam made a quick 180 about not understanding how anyone can have an emotional attachment to fish and was very concerned with keeping Mele happy and entertained.

Week 2
Adam decides Mele is bored and wants a larger community tank like I have. We got to Petco for the $1/Gallon sale, and walk out with a 10 gallonn Aqueon and a male marbled doubletail "Finley," also called "Dork-Fish."

We stop by Petsmart for a siphon and sand and I buy myself a female yellow dragon dt. :roll:

Finley goes into quarantine while we set up the tank and Mele comes back home with me.

*We set up the 10g tank for the first time:*


*10 gallon* Aqueon stock tank
*PFE-1 *from Aquatop with generic media sponge
*16" Finnex Stingray*
10 lb black inert *sand* (Nat Geo), washed
Adhesive *black vinyl background* from Joann Fabric
5 *Bacopa* cuttings
1 small *crypt wendtii*, bronze
1 small *amazon sword*
1 length (5 leaves) small *java fern*
1 large Petsmart *anubias nana*
5 *root tabs *(API, I think)
2 *Ferrochel *iron caps
Water is conditioned with *Prime* and dosed with *Excel* and *Stability*. I dropped in 5 food pellets since Adam decided he wanted to fish-out cycle.
















The next day, we had *bacteria bloom*! :shock::lol: We decided to give the Stability one more day to work before attempting something else.

On day 3 of the cloudy water and bacteria bloom, Adam decided enough was enough (the water was terrifying him). The plants were doing well, at least!

He completed a water change and cleaned out the food particles from the filter, rinsing the filter media in tank water. We discuss and agree a new approach is necessary since the Stability seems to be a waste (it does not appear to work for everyone! It did work for me when I was cycling). *Only ammonia has appeared *so far, with 0 nitrite/nitrates.

Yesterday (7/16/15)
*Seeding with cycled media*: we cut some filter media from my cycled tank and placed it into the filter. *Additional bacopa* stems are planted from the local aquatics store, and *we go fish-in* with my handy-dandy, eat-and-poop everything platy named Piggy.
























She was being picked on in the community tank at my house (new male Betta isn't as kind as the previous residents) so this seemed a fairly safe place for her. And this little black hole of a fish was in heaven...

Adam dropped the 16" LED in the water :-? fortunately it was powered off and nothing bad happened. The light still works, but the legs are just a little too short for this tank. Maybe I can convince him to get and acrylic lid after this...

Today
Seeding with cycled media seems to be doing the trick! While the ammonia level is still about 1.5 ppm, *we have 0 nitrites and newly-appeared nitrates*! Making progress!









Piggy is doing her job very well, practically licking every surface and eating non-stop... Adam did do a water change after seeing all the poop this morning :lol:

The plants are all settling in well and look a lot better now that they are facing the light! Some of them had to be re-planted after today's water change when they became uprooted.























Finley, in the meantime, is enjoying his quarantine tank. He argues about the food selection (flares at his pellets before eating them) and has started building his third massive bubble nest. He is a busy, active, healthy boy!























We will probably go back to the aquatics store and pick up more plants, for my tank at least :lol:

Also placing an order for Osmocote root tabs from a facebook seller. $6.50 for 50 tabs is not a bad deal, that should cover at least 8 months of root tabs between our two tanks, and the contents will be better than the API root tabs.


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## Tealight03 (Nov 15, 2014)

Finley is lovely! How did you like having Platys? I was thinking about getting three or so for a 10 gallon.


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

Tealight03 said:


> Finley is lovely! How did you like having Platys? I was thinking about getting three or so for a 10 gallon.


Thank you :0) Adam really likes him, he is gorgeous and the photos don't show it well enough.

I love platies, but not when they are reproducing. If you get platies, I recommend getting females only, unless you actually want fry. I had a male that was really quite mean to my female. So now I am just keeping two females!

Most Betta seem to be okay with platy, but I have one smaller plakat in my community tank now who just doesn't like the red platy. The blue platy is smaller and less brightly colored, and the Betta leaves her alone. He nips at Piggy :-(

I'm about to break down my 15 gallon and start a 5 gallon planted, so might be putting that plakat in there and put one of my female bettas in the community so I can put my red platy back in there...


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

Subbing! This is a fun thread already!


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## Tealight03 (Nov 15, 2014)

Thanks for the info. I read elsewhere that they can be nippy towards each other. I think I want one female and if she has fry, which she probably will, I van try to pick a couple female fry to keep. Hopefully everyone will get along.


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

@elleth ready for this ride? :lol:

@tealight03

Yeah it's kind of like Muscovy ducks... if the male does not have enough female options, he will harass the one he has to death.

I only kept one of my fry (raised in a breeder net until she was too big to be eaten) and lucked out that she was female (all fry look female in the beginning, male organ is not visible for a while). The rest I allowed to stay in the tank, and they were presumably eaten by the other fish. Platies make insane amounts of babies and poops... but they're very pretty and Piggy is very personable. She begs for food and has a unique platy personality (I prefer her over all my other platies I've had).

Notes for Today...
I bought myself some more stems, an absurdly large bottle of stress coat, and some floating NLS pellets. I've noticed it's tough for my bettas to chase the sinking ones, so I'm giving the floating ones a try and letting the sinking pellets stick around for the other fish.

Adam came with me to the aquatics store and has joined me in the boat of wanting a larger aquarium for cichlids. I figured 
*
The water is, for the first time, crystal clear!*

Water readings are great. 0.75-ish ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites. And without a water change I'm going to say the 0 nitrites is due to the heavier planting. The tank is covered in poop, but the ammonia is going down, so I think things are going well and thanks to Piggy's endless supply of poop-noodles, Adam will soon have a very sturdy bacterial colony.

Hopefully we hit 0 ammonia soon so we can get his tetras in the tank!


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## Elleth (Feb 23, 2015)

*buckles seatbelt* Ready!


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

Shiny new tank!
Don't mind me being all stalkerish and stuff...


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

haha 

Adam has asked to swap out the mama platy for the juvenile platy for slightly less poop strands to stare at.

Plants are starting to take root! They are beautiful. I'm hoping the aquatics shop can order some decently-priced anubias nana petite for me. If not I'll just get some more regular anubias nana as a surprise for Adam a little later  The petite variation is so expensive. I'd rather spend a little more and get bucephalandra .

Ammonia is still low, but not 0 yet.


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

*Osmocote root tabs* are in both his and my tank.... his last night, mine just now.

Adam has decided that he wants to *reverse his light cycle* (off during the day, on at night) so he can watch his fish while he falls asleep or something like that. oh man.

He came home today after having the light off all day and thought his plants were dying... turn out the root-feeders are just really perky-looking and the stems might be odd colors but I cannot tell from his photos. I'll have to go look in person.

I went ahead and stuck osmocote in my tank despite his concerns, haha.

Oh,* the fish are in the tank*, but not the original plan. 7 neons, 1 Glowlight (all tetras already in one school), 1 juvenile platy, 2 rapidly growing platy fry (man those things can eat) and Beck the OHM (my gorgeous yellow copper dragon that failed to spawn with Mele).

Finley the DT did not seem to like the 10 gallon very much, and is now happily back in his Kritter Keeper.

Adam's current plan is to re-do my 14.5 Gallon bowfront. He is purchasing vinyl to cover the rims, and plans on lighting with a Finnex Planted 24/7. It is already cycled so it should be a pretty simple transition, I hope. Currently has a massive sponge filter, will swap to a Marina S20 most likely, if it fits.

He also wants a CPO/Dwarf Orange Mexican Crayfish.... I do too haha. Thanks to a certain somebody's recent thread on them...


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

*The ten gallon has maintained its cycle* after a crash.

Adjustments made after seeding with media:

*Daily dosing with Nite-Out* bottled nitrifying bacteria from Petco. Absolutely fantastic product. I think I like this the most out of all the bacteria products I've tried.

*Increased temperature* to 80 encourage bacteria's growth.

Adam bought *whatever massive HOB filter is at Walmart* for $10, against my advice, and it seemed to work. It increased water flow in the tank drastically, and probably offered a better place for the bacteria to grow.

There was a butt-ton of algae (brown and hair) initially, but the growth has finally slowed down.

The plants are growing insanely fast. All of the stems are about to breach the surface of the water, if they haven't already. Everything else is putting out new growth as well - both leaves and roots.

Adam is enjoying this so much, he has moved on to:

*Tank #2: 15 gallon bowfront*

Which used to be mine, but I gave up on it.

We removed the old 3D background to increase swimming/planting area, in exchange for having visible equipment. Lots of silicone to scrape 

*Printed cotton background* was Mod-Podged on the back.

*Hydor Theo 100 watt heater* - such a gorgeous heater. He managed to buy it $17 shipped on Amazon. Lucky...

The filter he chose is the *Fluval Aqua Clear* (30 gal) HOB. It is simply lovely. The only issue so far is that the lid rattles, so it had to be taped down. The carbon has been removed and replaced with a second sponge. Adam did keep the bag of ceramic rings in, but it is not completely submersed inside the filter. The filter runs so silently, I'm very impressed, and will consider this HOB for myself the next time I need a HOB.

20 lb *inert white sand* from Petco for substrate.

The *driftwood* is from a LFS, which was closing, unfortunately. It is drilled and screwed to slate using a coated screw to prevent any issues with rust. I absolutely love these two pieces. There is a third, much larger piece that ended up being too tall for the tank to be used. It will be saved for the future :-D

Of course, a couple of Petco plants - he wanted some large *swords*! And some of the *cultured Scarlet Temples*. They're beautiful.

*Ferts* include Ferrochel capsules, Osmocote capsules, and liquid iron.

Topping off his hard work is the *Finnex Planted+ 24/7 (20")*. And wow, what a light. It will definitely be growing the plants  I do prefer the thunderstorm program by Current USA, but I just couldn't grow anything very well under the Freshwater Plus. Not sure if the Pro version is worth it, though it does have much higher PAR. I just reeeeeeally disliked having all my plants die when the Freshwater Plus's red LED's failed.

Super jealous of how this tank is turning out, it's going to be stunning.









No inhabitants, currently. We are fighting a battle against ick  It is in the ten gallon, so we are in quarantine mode...


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## InStitches (May 26, 2014)

late update... Adam now has 3 tanks. Low light planted Spec V (stock: Mojojojo the giant betta and one CPO), 30 Long planted low/medium (cory cats, barbs, java loaches, and a couple small cichlids to grow out), and 20 planted high tech (asst. shrimp, celebes rainbows, red chili raspboras, emerald green rasboras, and otos).

He's addicted.


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