-pinky-

Right, heres the thing....being a new tropical fish tank owner, i foolishly bought the dreaded BiOrb, and then later read reviews (silly me)...i have read that some people hate it, some people love it, and some people have even bred fish in them, but how do i come to improve my BiOrb....

1) Aparently, the surface of the water isn't big enough for gas exchange, how can i improve this?...

2) Aparently, theres no where near enough room for fish to swim around...is this true, and if so, is there anything i can do, without buying another tank?

3) Is there any more technical stuff i can do, such as changing the air pump, or filter or something.

4) If i got so fed up of the BiOrb, i wanted to get rid of it, and buy another....how would i do this, but still get most of themoney back from buying the BiOrb (none of my friends will buy it by the way!)

5) Any more improvements, or selections of fish that would be good?

Please answer all the questions like this....

1) answer

2) answer

etc, etc, etc....

TFA101

1) is it possible to lower the level of the water?
2) You could try buying small generally inactive fish. A dwarf puffer might work, but they can be testy about water parameters and they're picky eaters
3) I'm not sure
4) Not sure
5) Dwarf puffers or shrimp species are good in small tanks as far as i've read

-pinky-

I've already lowered the level of water quite a bit, so there is a bit more surface area. The problem is with buying small, inactive fish...is that most small fish are very small and fast! I have 3 neons and 3 glowlights right now.

pinkfloydpuffer

^^^^^

Dwarf puffers need 5gs a piece, and they need good oxygenation. Plus they need to be added only to well established aquariums.
I don't know how big the bio-orbs are.

-pinky-

Mine is only 30L, so thats another problem with it!

Red1313

1) add a air stone if possible, increased surface agitation will increase air exchange.
2) I'm not familiar enough with it to comment.
4)If it's got a good light it would make a cool tank just for growing plants.
5)It might make a good betta tank I think, other then a dwarf puffer there's not a lot of other fish that I know of that go well in that small a tank. Maybe a killi fish or a couple guppies...
Sorry I couldn't help more.

Alessa

The betta "could" be ok, though I wouldn't put anything in there... The biorb is an useless tank, for like half the price you can get a good tank.

Well, whats done its done.. I would add endlers and shrimp... A betta could be ok, but if there isnt enough air for it to breathe it will drown...

Shawnie

bettas have a hard time with some bio orbs as its so far up to the top with such a lil space to get air...I agree with alessa on a cute shrimp colony

pepetj

1) I offer two solutions:
a) use a DIY air difussor -bubble wand- that injects small sized bubbles and place it conveniently at least in a semicircle around half or your tank. Use a powerful enough airpump (rated for 5 gals might work well here), use a check valve to protect your airpump, and a plastic airvalve to control the adjustment of air flow.
b) you could inject O2 to your tank. A simple DIY O2 generator will suffice, it takes oxygen peroxide (H2O2) solution, a sealed glass container (any jar with good sealed lid would do), and lead.
drawbacks: temperature will play a role in the O2 reaction, you need either a room temperature close to 80F for this to work well, or to place the reactor inside a heated tank, which you can't due to our BiOrb space problem. You might get free Hidrogen gas molecules there, which is dangerously explosion prone element. Be extremely careful. I wouldn't go this way.

2) I don't see how you can add swimming space without adding another tank. We are stuck with 30 litres of water (8 US gallons), which is OK as far as volume for a very limited number of stocking options. Keep in mind that this tank is really a spheric bowl, there's no stable/constant footprint base area. A mid dweller species will have more room than either bottom or top dwellers.

3) You already have a heater. A submersible thermometer (there are cheap electronic thermometers that all you need to do is place the probe with suction cup attached inside your tank). I would downgrade the halogen lamp you have in order to save energy, avoid temperature problems, and keep it a low-light planted tank.

4) I don't think anyone would want it really, but you have it already and you can make the best out of the situation here. Let's find a way to make this useless design a good thing for your fishkeeping life! You will need to "resist the usual" (Young & Rubicam slogan) and "think outside the bun" (Taco Bell's).

5) Your actual stocking is not suitable for this "tank". I would consider the following:

Option a: Male Betta tank, with only six or seven gallons of water in it. Use a couple of floating plants (hope you can get real ones that thrive in low light) and at least one Anubias barteri. If you want tankmates you could try with a couple or trio of Ghost Shrimps and Nerite Snail.

Option b: Ghost Shrimp tank. Get five or seven of them, be creative as providing caves. Add two Nerite Snails. Keep your tank full.

Option c: Kuhli Loach tank. Get a good sand substrate, and add 3 beautiful Kuhlis in there! Of course you could add two Ghost Shrimps and a Nerite Snail. Keep your tank full.

Option d: Use as newborn fry tank. You know you're going to have more than one tank so face it from the start. This "bad purchase" could come in handy if your neons or glowlights breed.

I could give you at least another idea, but I guess you should focus on getting another tank for your actual fish or just trade them.

Don't be hard on yourself for your bad purchase, we all learn this way sometimes!

Pepe
Santo Domingo

JChacon

I actually saw this product at Petco today while shopping for a new aquarium. It was a full $70 USD. It seems it's European and really small for basically any fish :P

I wanted to get it, simply because I thought it was stylish and matched my furniture. It looks really nice and could be used for maybe just aquatic plants, but for fish.. I wouldn't suggest it. Now to answer your questions to the fullest of my novice knowledge...

1) Yeah, I don't think the creators of the BiOrb know much at all about fish and the technicalities of aquariums. Reducing it anymore would practically make a water bottle be more efficient. This was one major design flaw, I think.

2) There is a very small amount of space for water. Most (if not all) fish need much more space than what the BiOrb has. If you wanted to increase the level... I would suggest you take some glass blowing classes and add an interesting attachment to the aquarium.

3) The makers of the BiOrb had only themselves in mind and only their parts are the best for the aquarium, which is why it has those included.

4) Try and put the BiOrb into nearly perfect condition again. Wipe down the glass with Windex or something safe. Make sure everything is dry and looks good and put the product back into its original packing if possible. Try to sell it on Ebay for a tad bit lower price!

5) As mentioned above, since Bettas are so easily adaptable to their environments and need very little space, the BiOrb could be a nice home for them.

Lucy

This is a pretty old thread. I'm pretty sure the member has resolved this issue.

JChacon

Oh wow! I didn't notice the date of the last post. It was actually up in the recent posts... weird. Sorry!