IcecreamLtDan
09-24-2007, 03:35 AM
Alright, as some of you may remember from my intro thread, my wife and I decided to get a tank and put a Betta in it. We bought the 5 gallon mini-rainbow from Wal-Mart as well as accessories. I bought a 50 watt visi-therm stealth heater and have it set to 84deg as I've read that will help with cycling. It has a mixture of sand and small pebbles for substrate, mostly sand, as my wife really likes the look of it. My Ph on this water is really high, 8.4 according to the test kit. I hope this will drop once the water conditioner kicks in and the tanks cycle. If not I'll have to figure something else out I guess. I've added ammonia although I got it a little high right now, about 6 ppm , which I will not mess with for right now.
Years ago, when my ex and I had a 10g tank with some neons and stuff in it , our filter died. Fortunately it was the middle of the day and I was able to run to the store and get a new one, two actually. Due to that I thought the idea of having a second filter around would be a good idea as I don't want it to die in the middle of the night and have no way to get one for it until the next day so I went out and bought an Aquaclear 20 power filter for the tank. This is the one I actually have in the tank right now as it takes up less space inside the tank and I have a question about it. It seems awfully noisy, now I know about the noise it'll make as it first starts up and the air bubbles need to come out, but it's been running for several hours now and has a rattling sound to it. Thinking maybe some sand had gotten into it when I put it in, even though the sand was thoroughly rinsed and had been settled for several hours, I pulled it out and took it apart and cleaned it. After putting it back in the noise was still there. Is this something that will go away after awhile, or do I need to return this thing and get another? I may just get another anyway and use this one as a spare, not sure.
Well, here's a picture of the tank, I'm not sure about the plants yet, not really sure if they're appropriate for a betta. The taller plant is there to help keep the current from the filter down and is silk, the other is one my wife picked out. Right now, the plan is a single Betta, and we're not sure if a few cory's or otto's might be appropriate or not as this is only a 5 gallon tank. Comments, criticisms, or pointers are always welcome.
Years ago, when my ex and I had a 10g tank with some neons and stuff in it , our filter died. Fortunately it was the middle of the day and I was able to run to the store and get a new one, two actually. Due to that I thought the idea of having a second filter around would be a good idea as I don't want it to die in the middle of the night and have no way to get one for it until the next day so I went out and bought an Aquaclear 20 power filter for the tank. This is the one I actually have in the tank right now as it takes up less space inside the tank and I have a question about it. It seems awfully noisy, now I know about the noise it'll make as it first starts up and the air bubbles need to come out, but it's been running for several hours now and has a rattling sound to it. Thinking maybe some sand had gotten into it when I put it in, even though the sand was thoroughly rinsed and had been settled for several hours, I pulled it out and took it apart and cleaned it. After putting it back in the noise was still there. Is this something that will go away after awhile, or do I need to return this thing and get another? I may just get another anyway and use this one as a spare, not sure.
Well, here's a picture of the tank, I'm not sure about the plants yet, not really sure if they're appropriate for a betta. The taller plant is there to help keep the current from the filter down and is silk, the other is one my wife picked out. Right now, the plan is a single Betta, and we're not sure if a few cory's or otto's might be appropriate or not as this is only a 5 gallon tank. Comments, criticisms, or pointers are always welcome.