How Long Should I Keep The Filter On/off?

My betta fish used to hide most of the times behind the aquarium plants before I turned the filter off (as suggested in a previous forum where I asked why my betta fish keeps hiding behind the plant). Well guess what? I turned it off and after a few hours my betta fish is swimming around the aquarium. Now I'm curious or rather I need to know how long should I run the filter in a day just to keep the water clean and free of bacteria or should I just leave it off.

 

Leave it on. It seems that your filter is too strong. This can be helped by adding extra water to the tank (if not already filled to near the top), covering the intake tube with a piece of sponge, or simply just buying a weaker filter. Like a sponge filter. What size is the tank? Can you post a picture of the filter?

 

Running aquarium filters is pretty vital. If the flow is too strong for your Betta, I would suggest using a sponge filter instead. They’re very gentle on Bettas and can be customized to have as low or strong of flow as needed.

The filter is where the beneficial bacteria lives and you want water to flow through it to have a healthy nitrogen cycle, which is vital to aquarium health. If you don’t know about the cycle, there should be some highlighted blue words in what I just typed about the cycle. You can click on them to read about it

 

Leave it on. It seems that your filter is too strong. This can be helped by adding extra water to the tank (if not already filled to near the top), covering the intake tube with a piece of sponge, or simply just buying a weaker filter. Like a sponge filter. What size is the tank? Can you post a picture of the filter?

I have a 2 gallon tank that comes with a 20 GPH filter when I bought it.

Running aquarium filters is pretty vital. If the flow is too strong for your Betta, I would suggest using a sponge filter instead. There are very gentle on Bettas and can be customized to have as low or strong of flow as needed.

The filter is where the beneficial bacteria lives and you want water to flow through it to have a healthy nitrogen cycle, which is vital to aquarium health. If you don’t know about the cycle, there should be some highlighted blue words in what I just typed about the cycle. You can click on them to read about it

Thanks for the advice and suggestions. I will read it to get to know more about it.

Leave it on. It seems that your filter is too strong. This can be helped by adding extra water to the tank (if not already filled to near the top), covering the intake tube with a piece of sponge, or simply just buying a weaker filter. Like a sponge filter. What size is the tank? Can you post a picture of the filter?

The reason why I turned it off is to see if it's the cause of why my betta is always hiding and it seems to be the case. so I will go ahead and try a sponge filter. Thank you for the advise!

 

The reason why I turned it off is to see if it's the cause of why my betta is always hiding and it seems to be the case. so I will go ahead and try a sponge filter. Thank you for the advise!

It sounds like they gave you a pretty strong filter for your little tank. There are ways to baffle the flow in meantime so that you can leave it on without stressing your Betta out. Like RainBetta said you can use an aquarium sponge for this but there’s other ways too. If you just look up how to baffle filter flow on YouTube you should come with all sorts of how-tos

I think that might be where RainBetta was going when they asked for the photo of the filter. Correct me if I’m wrong RainBetta.

You could even move a decoration in front of it to help break up the flow.

I use sponge filters in my tank. They’re so gentle some of my Bettas actually rest on them lol.

 

It sounds like they gave you a pretty strong filter for your little tank. There are ways to baffle the flow in meantime so that you can leave it on without stressing your Betta out. Like RainBetta said you can use an aquarium sponge for this but there’s other ways too. If you just look up how to baffle filter flow on YouTube you should come with all sorts of how-tos

I think that might be where RainBetta was going when they asked for the photo of the filter. Correct me if I’m wrong RainBetta.

You could even move a decoration in front of it to help break up the flow.

I use sponge filters in my tank. They’re so gentle some of my Bettas actually rest on them lol.

I just put a sponge on my filter right now where the water is running just to baffle the flow as you said. That's what I'll do in the meantime while searching for a good sponge filter. Any advise for a good brand?

 

I just put a sponge on my filter right now where the water is running just to baffle the flow as you said. That's what I'll do in the meantime while searching for a good sponge filter. Any advise for a good brand?

They’re all pretty simple devices. I use this one because it doesn’t have any crevices my fish can wriggle into.

But you could even make your own. This video is helpful for that.

Even if you don’t make your own. This video is help for learning how to set one up.

 

They’re all pretty simple devices. I use this one because it doesn’t have any crevices my fish can wriggle into.

But you could even make your own. This video is helpful for that.

Even if you don’t make your own. This video is help for learning how to set one up.

Cool. Thanks a lot!

 

Cool. Thanks a lot!

Fish owner just to chime in, Rylan makes a great suggestion. I am suing two of this type of DIY sponge filter and they work. I would suggest that you keep your current filter running with the sponge baffle and then introduce your own DIY sponge filter in addition to the current filter. That way you get extra filtration, and a back up filter in case you need to move your Betta to a larger home etc. Here is my DIY:

DIY-Filter

• BettagoSplenda
• Sep 2, 2018

Decanter filter using ceramic rings, filter floss and purple glass beads