GKat250000

Hi guys, thanks for your replies to my first post (about getting my first tank)

What kind of gravel is best? (Eclipse Hex 5 coming from FosterandSmith in 4 days) and if I need a vacuum, what kind?

Thank you!

GKat250000

River rocks, plastic marbles,

COBettaCouple

We like to use the flat glass marbles that you find in the crafts dept. of stores like Dollar Tree or Walmart.

We actually don't have a vacuum yet. I just clean it up with a turkey baster weekly.

GKat250000

Thanks Dave and Stacey!
No fear of glass shards then?

Barbrella

I have the small 1" vacuum. It works very well with any kind of substrate.

If you've never had a betta, I have to warn you to be very careful when siphoning water out of his tank. Most fish flee, but nosey bettas will get right in there. They want to know if anything going up the hose is edible.

One of my females darted right to the siphon hose and got sucked up, causing injury and nearly giving me a heart attack. So keep a very close eye on where your fish is, and curve your fingers in over the intake part of the hose when you use it without the vacuum part!

P.S. If you choose gravel, make sure you rinse it many times before putting it in the tank, even if the bag says it's pre-rinsed.

GKat250000

SO would you guys say that a python system is too big for a 5 gallon tank?

COBettaCouple

Sometimes the marbles break, but not so much now that i'm not dropping them in. I watch for those and remove them when i clean the tanks.

I haven't tried a python system so i'm not sure if it would be good for a 5g or not.

Kevin

a python siphon would have a hard time manuvering in a hex5...
i just use a turkey baster...works to my satisfaction...and my 2 bettas seem happy...

chickadee

When I talked to Gunnie who uses a python system all the time she told me that the system is set up to be used mostly on large tanks and is hard to use on small ones. I personally would not even try it on my 12 or 25 gallon tanks as the bettas would be in the way constantly. The turkey baster works well and when it gets to the deep stuff I use a Liquid called Liquid Gravel Vac and it turns the stuff that is deep in the gravel to liquid and sends it up the filter. The only thing is you have to watch your ammonia levels closely as it can raise the ammonia if the gravel is allowed to become very dirty before you use it. I just use it weekly and never let the gravel build up a dirty sludge. It has to be refrigerated when you get it to preserve the effectiveness the best. You use about a teaspoon a week.

Rose

LuvaBetta

I personally like a mini gravel vac for my hex-5, the turkey baster isn't quite long enough!

The mini doesn't suck the water up as fast as a bigger model, giving me more time to vacuum in the gravel. I tried a bigger one, it sucked a gallon out of the tank so quickly I barely got TO the gravel! (I gave it away.)

adrienne

I have a 5 gallon Hex tank as well, with one Betta. Ive heard that cherry barbs or neon tetras would be good tankmates, but, as these are schooling fish, how many could I keep in a small aquarium?

chickadee

Neither Cherry barbs Nor any type of Tetras make good tankmates for Bettas and are not happy in tanks this small either. These fish would need to be in a community tank that is at least 20 gallons as they need to be kept in groups of 6 or more.

Rose

Ntruder1400

After seeing what gravel vacs look like, I made a small one for my 10g. The materials are commonly available for me, but most other people would have a tough time finding them. I used a length of medical suction tubing and attached a 30cc syringe (with the plunger removed) on the business end. The syringe acts as the gravel chamber, and the diameter of the suction tubing is small enough that the water doesn't flow out so fast that I don't have time to do any vacuuming. It works great and was made from recycled TRAINING materials (I would NEVER reuse anything that had been used on a real person!!!)

I definitely agree that with smaller tanks, you need to be cautious of the size of the hose. If it's too big, you will drain the tank way to fast!

Allie

Most definitely...it would empty it in 2 second lol.
I just use a regular tank siphon for the 10gs under here. Just the brand they have our LFS.

Mr. Peach was right in the siphon the last time I cleaned. He nearly went thru the hose to the bucket.

LuvaBetta

You know, I am missing an oto... I wonder if... nah.

finmama

Im not sure what size it is, but I have the second smallest gravel vac from big al's and it works great in my 5 gallon. By the time Im done vaccuming about 40% of the water is out, but Im slow

LuvaBetta

I used a medium sized one in my 20g, it did okay and i took out about 4g. Then I took my mini and got out so much more debris I'll probably be using that exclusively from now on.