Dani's Second Aquarium Adventure: to the Betta domain!

[DaniV]

Back when I was first thinking of getting into this hobby, I originally wanted to get a small tank for a betta fish, but after checking out some fish at a LFS I was like, "I want a bigger tank!"  And thus, I settled on the 20 gallon hex tank and started building my little fish community.  With what I have in there, I believe I've reached the maximum of what I can put in there without causing it to completely crash.

So I've finally succumbed to the dreaded MTS and bought a 10 gallon Topfin Starter Tank.  Bought my decor last Saturday, and the plants I ordered from ACO came in today, so it was time to get this bad boy set up!  I bought some Java Fern, Water Sprite, Aponogeton Crispus, Anubias Coffeefolia, and a Tiger Lotus Bulb, along with a smoother piece of driftwood and smooth rocks, and it looks like I've still got some room for maybe another plant or 2!  I also bought some Root Tabs and I'm gonna try them out on this tank, see if they really make a difference.

I assure you, the gravel is red, not pink!

Got 2 bits of Fern in the 1 pot.  Whoo!

My god, this bulb is so tiny!  Hopefully this one will go somewhere, cause I have had no luck whatsoever with the Dwarf Aquarium Lily in my hex tank.

The stems on the Water Sprite were practically snapping apart in the package, so I tried standing them up with the gravel.  Hopefully they'll grow!

And lastly, the Crispus.  Hopefully this will grow nice and healthy too!  My Amazon Swords in the hex tank were looking really ratty for the first month, but now they look like they're improving.  So I've got hopes for this one!

Edited January 7, 2023 by DaniV

[TheSwissAquarist]

Water sprite grows as a floater too, so you shouldn’t have any trouble with it.

Cant wait to watch this tank evolve!

[Ogpulchra2]

Love neon gravel when everything else is natural. Can't wait to see it fill in!

[DaniV]

So with my first tank I did the fish-in method for cycling.  For this tank, I'm gonna try the fishless method, ordered aquarium ammonia and it should arrive in a couple of days.  I'm real curious to see how this process goes, as my parents have never done the fishless method. 

In the meantime, I found this little cutie at Petsmart!

He's a simple blue Veiltail with a black head and some red trimming on the tail.  I've got him in quarantine while the tank cycles, and rather than attack with all 3 meds at once I'm gonna follow this blog post's advice and spread it out throughout the weeks.  I wanna be extra careful just in case and make it as stress free as possible for him.  As far as what to name him, I haven't settled on one quite yet.  I've got plenty of time to figure out a good one

[DaniV]

Quarantined Betta is doing good so far!  After wracking my brain, I think I settled on naming him Marth.

My order of Dr. Tim's Ammonia came in today, so now I can finally begin cycling this puppy!  I'll test the water after I come back from my aerial classes, give it some time to really soak up.  Wish me luck on the fishless cycle!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Glad your QT Betta is doing well! Looking forward to seeing him in his fabulous new home!

[DaniV]

Looks like the tank is moving along nicely.  Been following this guide on the fishless cycle, on day 8 right now.  Ammonia and Nitrites are going down, whoo!  So hopefully soon it will be fully cycled!  I added an air stone to get some good ol' oxygen involved, placed it behind the driftwood piece so it's by the heater.  I also added a mini Sword for an empty corner and placed some dwarf hair grass in front of the driftwood (and it doesn't like staying in place, of course!).

Marth is doing good!  He survived the week of Maracyn, so he's now on day 4 of the Ich-X and ParaCleanse treatment.  No problems swimming around, I don't see reactions to the meds, so he's looking good!  I went and bought one of those mirrors for him, and he just swam right past it, not even bothering to look at it.

I pushed the grass back down, hopefully it will stay down!

The lily is slowly growing after pausing for like a week.  Didn't even notice the speckles on the leaves until I took the picture!

Crispus is looking sad, which I assume is melting?  One of the big leaves just rotted off, and the other two just lay near the gravel, but there is a sprig coming through.  Promising!

Water parameters so far.  I forgot to note that I added 2 Catappa Leaves today to try and bring down the pH.  I wanna try to shoot for 6-7 range.

[Schuyler]

Did you take the grass out of the gel medium?

Maybe it's a confusing perspective but it looks like it's floating

[DaniV]

On 1/19/2023 at 5:30 PM, Schuyler said:

Did you take the grass out of the gel medium?

Maybe it's a confusing perspective but it looks like it's floating

Yeah, I rinsed it off really well to get all the gel out.  The end that's up in the pic was indeed floating.  It's weird cause I had it in the gravel for a week and saw today that it was starting to pop out.  Since it's just a clump of grass, there's really nothing to weigh it down other than just pushing it more into the gravel and pray it doesn't somehow float out of it again.

[Schuyler]

On 1/19/2023 at 3:01 PM, DaniV said:

Yeah, I rinsed it off really well to get all the gel out.  The end that's up in the pic was indeed floating.  It's weird cause I had it in the gravel for a week and saw today that it was starting to pop out.  Since it's just a clump of grass, there's really nothing to weigh it down other than just pushing it more into the gravel and pray it doesn't somehow float out of it again.

Yeah that dwarf hair grass is tricky to get to stay in place especially at first. You could try breaking it up into smaller chunks.

[Jurrian Hering]

On 1/19/2023 at 2:21 PM, DaniV said:

 

Crispus is looking sad, which I assume is melting?  One of the big leaves just rotted off, and the other two just lay near the gravel, but there is a sprig coming through.  

I love the apontogetons but they never seem to handle shipping well. Always seem to completely die off for me then regrow. But when regrown they are awesome!!

[DaniV]

Welp, looks like Crispus wasn't the only plant suffering.  The Water Sprite snapping didn't work out.  The leaves were turning brown and the stems were practically hanging by a thread.  So I decided to remove it, but then I saw that the Anubias leaves were yellow and the rhizome itself literally dissolved to the touch when I tried to remove the leaves.  I just decided to scrape it off the wood itself.

Thankfully I had ordered some more plants to initially fill the tank a little more, but it looks like they're gonna be replacements now.

[Schuyler]

That's weird... What's your water like?

Anubias is supposed to be basically bulletproof 

[DaniV]

On 1/22/2023 at 9:19 PM, Schuyler said:

That's weird... What's your water like?

Anubias is supposed to be basically bulletproof 

The specs are:

• 7.5 pH
• 0 Ammonia
• 0.25 Nitrite
• 5 Nitrate
• 214 GH
• 107 KH
• 79 Degrees

I did a quick Google search, and found an ACO Blog post about Anubias Rot.  Sounds like that was what happened, and because I had glued the Anubias in a little notch in the back of the driftwood, there was no way I could have noticed the state of the rhizome until I touched it.

[DaniV]

Plants came in!!

Got a Banana Plant, a Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, and 2 Scarlet Temples (one for each tank).  I've honestly had my eye on the Scarlet Temple for a while now, and they are GORGEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUS!!  By far my favorite plant I own so far!!

This is technically the 20 gallon hex tank, but you can see it very clearly here.  Swordy says hello!

So here's the newly updated tank!  Ended up moving a piece of the dwarf grass to the corner cause it floated to the top.  Placed the other Scarlet Temple in an empty corner, with the Banana Plant close by, so I'll have lillies on each end.  The Octopus I put behind the driftwood to make up for the loss of the Anubias and Water Sprite.  Here's hoping these guys hang on!

Edited January 23, 2023 by DaniV

[DaniV]

The tank had finished cycling this weekend!  HUZZAHS!  Now comes the day to bring Marth into his permanent home!  I'm not gonna break down the quarantine tank yet, cause I plan on getting some Tetras this coming Tuesday and their butts are going straight into the quarantine box!

Clearest photo I could get of him in the tank.

Edited January 29, 2023 by DaniV
Forgot to add the Water Specs log!

[Schuyler]

Oooh that scarlet temple looks really nice! Definitely not a color you see all the time.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 1/29/2023 at 3:10 PM, DaniV said:

Clearest photo I could get of him in the tank.

I'm with you. Takes FOREVER  to get a decent, non-action shot of my Bettas!

[DaniV]

After leaving the quarantine tank running for a couple of weeks, time to get Marth some buddies.  Went and picked up 5 Neon Tetras from a LFS.  Gonna take the cautious med trio route on them since Neons are apparently really damn fragile from what I've been researching.  Gonna feed and gauge them for a few days before I start with a dose of Meracyn.

Added some new root tabs to refresh, and I also picked up another light for the tank.  The lights that came with the tank are really low and I don't think the plants are growing at the rate they could be.  Got a Top Fin Color-Changing LED light, small enough to fix it to one of the sides of the tank.  Liking it so far, so here's hoping the plants will grow a little better!

Edited February 12, 2023 by DaniV
New light!

[DaniV]

Last week I bought 5 Neon Tetras and they're chilling in quarantine!  Gave them a week to adjust, fed them, and yesterday I started the Med Trio dosing.  Since they're small, I don't wanna risk hitting them with everything, so I just started them with the Maracyn.  Next week is Ich-X, and the week after that is the ParaCleanse.  If all looks good, Marth will have a group of buddies!

[DaniV]

Got a new batch of plants primarily for the 20 gallon, but I picked up some Anubias Barteri and a Marimo Moss Ball.  Picked up a small piece of Mopani Wood and glued the Anubias on it to give Marth a new tunnel to swim around in.  Here's hoping this Anubias doesn't rot like the last one!

[DaniV]

Quarantine time is up for the Neon Tetras and I've just added them to the tank!  They're all sticking close to each other, and Marth seems to be scoping them out.  He'd give a little chase, then swim around to another area of the tank.  I'm not seeing any nipping or flaring going on, so I hope it's just everyone adjusting.  Marth has had this tank to himself for a while and I hope he's OK with having some friends.  If not, I'll have to fish the Tetras out and put them in the 20 gallon where I know they'll be fine case everyone there is pretty chill.  The Tetras were a pain to chase down in the tub, so I hope I don't have to chase them down in a planted tank.

I also decided to just get rid of the dwarf hair grass cause it was not staying in the gravel, and replaced it with some Dwarf Chain Swords.  One of the plants completely melted, and the other isn't looking too good.  I am just not having any luck with any kind of carpeting plants.  So I just bought a few more Marimo Moss Balls and plopped them across the gravel.

Edited March 15, 2023 by DaniV

[DaniV]

Been a few months, but update time!  Some of the plants ultimately crapped out on me: Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, Tiger Lotus Bulb, and the Rosette Sword.  Planted a Brazilian Pennywort for the back and ordered 2 new Tiger bulbs.  I'm not sure if it's because of the dark water from the tannins, but I have lost more plants in this tank than in my 20 gallon.  For comparison, I've started another 10 gallon tank (that will soon be a shrimp tank) with no almond leaves in it, had some of those plants melt, but they seem to be on the road to recovery now.

In the meantime, I've got 10 more Neon Tetras in quarantine, and I added 3 Otocinclus in the display tank.  There's tons of diatoms in there, so hopefully they'll be happy.  Once the Neons are done with QT, then I should be good on fish stocking in this tank for some time.  Here's hoping!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Make sure you supplement feed the Otos too! 

[DaniV]

Been a while since I posted to this journal, and I wish it was under better circumstances.  I came home from work today and saw that every one of my Neon Tetras died.  The Betta and the Otos are fine right now.  Just did a 25% water change, tested, all the parameters were normal before and after the water change.  The only change I did to the tank was that I added more gravel yesterday, it was low to begin with and it wasn't covering the bases of some of my decor.  I washed the gravel really well before sprinkling it in, but wouldn't that affect the Betta and Otos too?  I'm stumped on this one, and this is the second time I've tried keeping Neons with little long-term success.  I'm thinking I'm just not gonna bother with Neons anymore.