10 Gallon Tank Midna's Money Drain Betta Tank

I just buy glass at the hardware store and ask them to cut it for me in the store. $5 lid !

I thought about this but then by the time you find a way to drill it and add a handle and devise a way to hinge it.... frankly I got better things to do with my time and probably wouldn't be satisfied with the end result. That's just me. I like to problem solve but this one? Nope.

 

midna
How did the almond tea taste?

it smells almost like regular tea!!! almost. a little earthy. how much you gonna pay me to take a sip? can I drink it with coconut milk and stevia?

 

it smells almost like regular tea!!! almost. a little earthy. how much you gonna pay me to take a sip? can I drink it with coconut milk and stevia?

I actually can make my own tea right here at my home!
Although, it may taste good, who knows?
Did you add it to the tank yet? I always loved adding almond tea to my tanks.

 

I actually can make my own tea right here at my home!
Although, it may taste good, who knows?
Did you add it to the tank yet? I always loved adding almond tea to my tanks.

it turned cloudy! i'm not sure if it's safe or aesthetically pleasing to use

 

it turned cloudy! i'm not sure if it's safe or aesthetically pleasing to use

Hmm, it never clouded my tanks.
If you want to use the leaf quickly, put it inside the filter, it'll stain the water in a few hours, instead of a day or two.

 

Hmm, it never clouded my tanks.
If you want to use the leaf quickly, put it inside the filter, it'll stain the water in a few hours, instead of a day or two.

i'm hoping it's just temporary. it looks a bit better than it did last night. I already have maybe 15 leaves at the bottom of my tank and I have a sponge filter, so unfortunately that's not gonna work. i'm going to try adding some of the solution today and see what it does.

 

I thought about this but then by the time you find a way to drill it and add a handle and devise a way to hinge it.... frankly I got better things to do with my time and probably wouldn't be satisfied with the end result. That's just me. I like to problem solve but this one? Nope.

I just cut it a little narrower than the tank. Then you can just lift it off when you need no handle required or holes. And there is room in the back for the HO B’s and emergent plants and bubblers.

 

Really like your tank midna

 

Lovely tank and an even lovelier betta. Lucky you that you still got him even after the third visit. I would have bought him in a heartbeat.

 

I added more leaves to the tank and some blackwater extract. i'm not sure if I really like it, it kind of made the tank murky. I edited the photos so they aren't true to life lol but it really washes out the colours and makes it harder to see my fish!




can you spot sidon?




betta butt!




here's a quick tank tour video:

sheryl / ellie on Instagram: “feeding time / tank tour video! sidon's tank will be a month old in about a week. yesterday I tried adding some indian almond leaf…”

Really like your tank midna

thank you!!! it's still a baby maybe I'll try my hand at aquascaping like you someday!

Lovely tank and an even lovelier betta. Lucky you that you still got him even after the third visit. I would have bought him in a heartbeat.

thank you!! haha, he was a cute tiny little thing.

 

Is that a tire swing at the top of his tank? It should be.

Lookin' good, midna!

 

it's been a while since I posted any updates. i've been lazy lol.

wednesday, august 8, was sidon's one month anniversary!! I bought him some buddies to celebrate. pictures below...









the voodoo doll was for ~enrichment~ and also to distract him from his new tankmates, which he was picking on.








here they are!! a tiger and a zebra nerite snail. I refer to the tiger as female and named her shancai. the zebra is referred to as male and named daoming si. kudos to whoever knows the reference the tiger has lots of white chips on her shell plus a healed black hairline crack, but I hope she heals up as she grows. I put a bit of cuttlebone in the tank to help. I fell in love with her and wanted to give her a chance. I bought one of the prettiest zebras to make up for it lol. they're not fully grown yet and they poop A LOT. like jeez.

sidon wasn't too nice to his new residents though. he was always picking at them and nipping at their antennae at first, so I had to sit in front of his tank for a while to distract him. he seems to be ignoring them now. I noticed that shancaI is missing an antenna and the other one is messed up :/ bad little fish. I haven't looked at daoming sI close enough to see if my betta got to him yet. I feel bad.

 

I bought some nasty-looking anacharis from petco over a week ago, not expecting much. I cut off the buds and tossed them rest when it died. I replaced it with creeping charlie, but my bulldozer snails and betta have uprooted most of it.

i'm going back to the lfs tomorrow since they got a new shipment of plants in today. i'm hoping it get some vals, water sprite, water wisteria, and maybe buce. they haven't updated the plant list online so idk what all they have tho.






sidon must inspect every new plant lol. it was hard to plant them because he kept zooming around my fingers. it's a tight corner.

oh yeah, someone plugged in my heater and I didn't know about it. :[ I did 2 water changes until I figured out it was on because it was making whistling noises. gah. sidon could've been fried. I took it out of the tank and will put it back when it starts getting colder.

 

Really, REALLY nice pictures! The Zebra reminds me of my Bruce. He disappeared in my 55. I found his tank mate Sarah (the Tiger Eye) and moved her back to Eddie's tank (one of the Bettas) but Bruce.... I don't know where he went. I took out my driftwood and he wasn't under it and I moved a bunch of other stuff but he just vanished into thin water.

 

Hey, you, midna! I'm slowly working on a couple of 10G's for my 2 Bettas and I'm trying still to use the BDBS that I had originally bought for my 55. I've been washing the heck out of it and even though it gets cloudy pretty easily I THINK it is probably as clean as it is going to get. All of this to ask you: Does yours stir up very much when you have to mess with the bottom of the tank? Settle back down pretty quickly if it does get kicked up? Doesn't get stirred up?

 

Hey, you, midna! I'm slowly working on a couple of 10G's for my 2 Bettas and I'm trying still to use the BDBS that I had originally bought for my 55. I've been washing the heck out of it and even though it gets cloudy pretty easily I THINK it is probably as clean as it is going to get. All of this to ask you: Does yours stir up very much when you have to mess with the bottom of the tank? Settle back down pretty quickly if it does get kicked up? Doesn't get stirred up?

did you have a lid on the tank with the snail? and check around the tank? poor bruce

I used a big bucket (and I think maybe a strainer??) for my sand. used the garden hose on jet spray. I rinsed it and stirred it around in batches, probably like 4 cups at a time? maybe rinsed and drained each batch 5-8 times?? until the water was finally clear. it's a pain. I have to do some more for my 5.5g i'm working on. Ugh...... i've been waiting til it's cooler outside, and it is now, but it's also rainy and humid lol. Texas.

my sand doesn't get cloudy and settles right back down. in fact, hardly any gets kicked up when I vacuum or plant stuff.

 

did you have a lid on the tank with the snail? and check around the tank? poor bruce

I used a big bucket (and I think maybe a strainer??) for my sand. used the garden hose on jet spray. I rinsed it and stirred it around in batches, probably like 4 cups at a time? maybe rinsed and drained each batch 5-8 times?? until the water was finally clear. it's a pain. I have to do some more for my 5.5g i'm working on. Ugh...... i've been waiting til it's cooler outside, and it is now, but it's also rainy and humid lol. Texas.

my sand doesn't get cloudy and settles right back down. in fact, hardly any gets kicked up when I vacuum or plant stuff.

I washed and washed this stuff earlier today. And that's not counting the washing I gave it back when I tried it in my 55. I went ahead and put an inch+ in the tank and I've filled it with water. I'll give it some time to settle before I turn the filter on. It was settling just fine when it was in the white 5 gallon bucket so I'm assuming it's going to be okay, I just don't know if the agitation from the filter will be an issue or not. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Thanks for the reply, mucho appreciado!

 

so I think i'm done with this tank for now. i've spent too much money on it lol. time to put my funds elsewhere (a 5.5g i'm putting together for either another betta or a pea puffer looooool). there are still quite a few plants i'd love to have but I need to Calm Down and try to fit them into my smaller tank.

I bought some corkscrew vals and water sprite. moved the anubias frazerI out of the back right corner and put the water sprite in its place. moved the anubias to the front left corner since it's a low light plant and will hopefully get less green algae up there where there's less light. the vals were a pain in the butt to plant and I had to replant all of the creeping charlie because my snails and fish uprooted almost all of it. I laid down some gravel to hopefully help keep them in place.




top view during a water change before adding and rearranging plants:




this snail loves to clean my betta's floating log but sidon is an ugly photobomber







noticed some sort of growth on my water sprite nub and cuttlebone today I tossed it





I need to start uploading my videos to youtube so I can share them more easily here... I wish we could just upload them directly.

 

so I think i'm done with this tank for now. i've spent too much money on it lol. time to put my funds elsewhere

Ha Ha Ha

I took the leaf litter out. it was driving me a little crazy because my nerite snails are poop machines and will poop all over the leaves and sand. I can't gravel vacuum with the leaves in there because it sucks them up. plus the leaves were getting this slimy stuff on them as they decomposed. i'm gonna leave the leaves out, I think. my fish liked them but like..... sorry, man.

the tank looks much less cluttered now, but also much more empty. I trimmed back a lot of dead growth too on the vals and water sprite. time to fill all that empty space with MORE PLANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




the front of my tank gets low light, so I have to stick to plants that can survive in low lighting.




i'm mostly focusing on this area. i'd maybe like to get another plant for the driftwood around where the snail is; I was thinking maybe anubias coffeefolia, hygro angustifolia, needle leaf or trident java fern. I was hoping my crypt lutea would branch out more, but so far it hasn't. maybe put some hygro pinnatifida on the driftwood in the back right, behind the narrow leaf java fern. I might try some s repens scattered about in the sand, but i'm not sure how they'll fair. I don't want them to carpet, so i'm thinking it could work.

any ideas for other short, compact, kinda bushy plants?? I like hydrocotyle tripartita japan too but idk if it'll work. if I get some of that I'll probably put it in the left corner with the anubias frazeri. I don't want dwarf sag. oh yeah, i'd like to get some tiny marimos too.

here are some more pics of my baby. I saw him yawn for the first time last night. so adorable. he also went wild flaring at the mirror a day or two ago. finally got some semi-decent flaring shots!!! ♡

 

Nice, I think it looks a lot cleaner without the leaves. And yeah, more plants, lol. Your Sidon has some serious finnage there. My Carlos has really long fins but they're just ... can't even describe it. I'll just say they're long, lol.

 

how do you take such nice betta photos? All my attempts at capturing my dude turn out terrible.

 

Nice, I think it looks a lot cleaner without the leaves. And yeah, more plants, lol. Your Sidon has some serious finnage there. My Carlos has really long fins but they're just ... can't even describe it. I'll just say they're long, lol.

sidon says thank you! they are pretty long for a plakat. his dorsal fin is super long on his body too.

how do you take such nice betta photos? All my attempts at capturing my dude turn out terrible.

it's really hard!!!!! I take a lot of photos and delete 95% of them. my boy moves really fast and hardly ever stays still. it takes patience, good lighting, and luck. I turn off the kitchen light because it makes a huge glare on the glass. I move the led light to the front of the tank, otherwise there's not enough light. I make sure the glass is clean and my phone camera lens is also clean. then I just... snap a ton of pictures lol. I tried doing burst shots but there was no difference. I use my phone's tracking auto focus to try to track the fish, but there's some lag because he's moving everywhere.

finally, I edit all of my photos in instagram, my phone camera's default photo editor, or the line camera app to sharpen the s, increase contrast, saturation, adjust lighting, etc. there's a noticeable difference between my raw photos and edited photos.

 

He has such an adorable grumpy face. What a gorgeous boy.

 

oooh, I actually have a really good photo of him that I missed!

 

He has such an adorable grumpy face. What a gorgeous boy.

I just noticed today that he has white lipstick on, lol. He's a pretty boy, NTTIAWWT!

 

I just noticed today that he has white lipstick on, lol. He's a pretty boy, NTTIAWWT!

it's actually kind of blue!! at least in the light. it's very very faint, but it's the same iridescence of his blue scales. there are just a few flecks on his lips. I just noticed it when I was bothering him yesterday (making kissy faces at the glass).

 

It probably wasn't noticeable until you jacked with the colors. Lol, I like it. There was one at Space City Fish and Coral, lavender with white lipstick that I wanted just because it was so hilarious.

 

It probably wasn't noticeable until you jacked with the colors. Lol, I like it. There was one at Space City Fish and Coral, lavender with white lipstick that I wanted just because it was so hilarious.

I saw that one!!!! ugh. one day I'll get a koi plakat from there or some of the usa-based instagram users I follow that import bettas. in reality I'll probably just be cheap and get another betta from petco

 

They're no more expensive than what people often pay for a single salt water fish or a lot of freshwater fish. I'm putting together another 10 gallon and I WILL have one of their Bettas!

I tried taking some pics of my 2 Bettas the other night and like you I had to move the light around to get the light right. I couldn't get a good picture of Eddie but I got a halfway decent one of Carlos but his face is blurry. It's the one I have as my avatar now.

EDIT: Wrong pic - here's the full size one I used.

 

They're no more expensive than what people often pay for a single salt water fish or a lot of freshwater fish. I'm putting together another 10 gallon and I WILL have one of their Bettas!

I tried taking some pics of my 2 Bettas the other night and like you I had to move the light around to get the light right. I couldn't get a good picture of Eddie but I got a halfway decent one of Carlos but his face is blurry. It's the one I have as my avatar now.

EDIT: Wrong pic - here's the full size one I used.

View attachment 473781

true....... i'm also just scared of something happening during shipment. and it's too hot right now for me to even get plants shipped.

very pretty!!! I love your plants. I wonder what my tank would look like with some pennywort. I want wisteria but i'm afraid it's gonna choke out all my other plants.

 

Plants seem to ship okay, I just started this hobby a few months back and everything I have came in the mail. The Betta's only had plastic before recently. I put just a single squirt of the Thrive in each of their tanks and don't know when I'll add more, I figure they'll just maintain and not go crazy that way.

Speaking of plants... I ordered an Amazon Sword online. I wanted a large one. Oh, they sent me a large one, lol. I'll post a pic later once I get it placed but it's EL OH EL huge.

EDIT:
here's a link to my tank after adding the little sword plant.

A Beginners 55 - Aka My 2nd Big Mistake

 

Water Sprite might be a good alternative to Wisteria. I've had them both, and while I'm not a plant expert, I can say that the sprite grows a bit slower and definitely neater than wisteria for me. Some say that wisteria should be planted sideways, and that makes sense given that roots grow all the way up the stem. It makes for a messy look sometimes, and planting it sideways would help with that, but would also probably give me a forest in the tank before long. Water sprite, on the other hand, is prettier in my opinion. The leaf shape is more delicate and it keeps its roots down low where roots belong, lol.

 

so i've decided to try adding a single solitary ghost shrimp to sidon's tank! i'm really hoping the stupid fish doesn't try to eat him. he really likes shrimp lol. it'd be just my dumb luck if he ends up choking and dying on a 25 cent shrimp if the shrimp doesn't work in sidon's tank then I'll probably put him back into the quarantine tank and try moving him into the 5.5 gallon once I have it set up later this year. if I don't get a pea puffer. still debating between a red koi betta or a puffer. (we all know the betta's gonna win in the end.)

here's the super cruddy 3.5 gallon quarantine tank!




I HATE this topfin tank lol. it's so ugly. I don't like the bowfront style in the first place (I thought it was a different shape when I bought it) and I also didn't know it was plastic. distortion is awful, plastic is awful and scratches like no tomorrow, and you can't see anything. oh well. I bought it for my adfs that I was quarantining but they both died.

I dumped in all of the indian almond leaves that used to be in sidon's tank for leaf litter, used the old terra cotta pots for hides, and used an old cut branch from one of the crepe myrtles in our backyard. also put a bit of stinky cuttlebone in there for extra calcium. the tank turned yellow and cloudy overnight so I had to do a 75% water change today. too much tannins. oh well.

i'll probably get the shrimp sometime this week and quarantine him for 2+ weeks to make sure he's not carrying anything nasty. idk if 2 weeks is good enough, buuuuut. I figure it's better than not quarantining at all.

Plants seem to ship okay, I just started this hobby a few months back and everything I have came in the mail. The Betta's only had plastic before recently. I put just a single squirt of the Thrive in each of their tanks and don't know when I'll add more, I figure they'll just maintain and not go crazy that way.

Speaking of plants... I ordered an Amazon Sword online. I wanted a large one. Oh, they sent me a large one, lol. I'll post a pic later once I get it placed but it's EL OH EL huge.

EDIT:
here's a link to my tank after adding the little sword plant.

A Beginners 55 - Aka My 2nd Big Mistake

I think it's lovely!!! I also definitely recommend using one squirt of thrive a week. it's not gonna hang around for long, the plants are gonna use up all the nutrients. if you bought it, might as well use it! it'll last a while dosing just once a week and I promise your plants won't go crazy.

Water Sprite might be a good alternative to Wisteria. I've had them both, and while I'm not a plant expert, I can say that the sprite grows a bit slower and definitely neater than wisteria for me. Some say that wisteria should be planted sideways, and that makes sense given that roots grow all the way up the stem. It makes for a messy look sometimes, and planting it sideways would help with that, but would also probably give me a forest in the tank before long. Water sprite, on the other hand, is prettier in my opinion. The leaf shape is more delicate and it keeps its roots down low where roots belong, lol.

I actually have water sprite in there! it's in the back right corner. it was either that or wisteria, and my lfs had water sprite but no wisteria, so that's what I got.

 

Aww, qt's don't have to look pretty, they just have to be ready and comfy for the critters that go inside, because nothing's more important in my opinion. I dare not post pics of my salty qt, which is covered in diatom algae due to some neglect, but still gets light due to the wisteria in the freshwater qt sitting right next to it. The reef light above is growing the wisteria nicely, but there's no coral in the salty qt the light was hung for. Seems kinda silly but we're ready to qt anything and everything.

I think a 2-week at for inverts sounds pretty good, as they're not generally infected, but could be carriers of nasties. If we go too far down that rabbit hole, we might have to qt inverts forever.

 

meet poe, the newest family member!

he's named after the little ghosts in the legend of zelda. he's very tiny, only about half an inch long. one of his whiskers is damaged but i'm hoping it'll grow back.

he seems to have settled into the quarantine tank okay. he isn't super active and I haven't seen him swim around yet, just walk. if he does well with my betta, I might get a couple more of these guys. they had several fully grown ones at the store though so idk if they're gonna be too big or not.

i'm hoping he's actually a ghost shrimp and not something predatory, lol. also, all of petsmart's tanks were infected with ich!!! they said their thing flooded and city water got into the sump or whatever system they use?? so their tanks got ich. it was their last day of treatment and they said everything healed up and they had no casualties. zoinks. I might keep him in quarantine for a little longer than 2 weeks, idk.

here's poe triumphantly eating a tubifex worm that he finally found.

 

Reminds me of Leo DiCaprio in "Titanic".

Spoiler

 

Gurl. You need to stop with these Zelda names lol I love it!
I understand the struggle with plastic and bowfront, hate them too.

 

Reminds me of Leo DiCaprio in "Titanic".

Spoiler

View attachment 474652

ahhhhh I love it!!!


poe turned out to be a real ****!!!!!!!!! I thought he might be a little lonely and would be more active with a couple of friends! plus I really enjoy watching shrimp, and just one tiny transparent shrimp in a 3.5g wasn't doing it for me. so I went and got him two more ghosts a few days later. I named them edgar and allan (edgar allan poe haha thanks I'll be here all day). they were the same size as poe. they were all fine and dandy but when I woke up a couple days later, poe was EATING ALLAN!!!!!!!!




rip allan.

I knew ghosts would eat dead shrimp, but I don't know if allan was alive and poe killed him or if he had a failed molt or what. he was fine the day before :/ I did learn after the fact that they can attack each other. now I just have poe and edgar and they seem to be doing okay. no more casualties.... Yet. I noticed one of them molted today, yay.





in other news, I got more plants for sidon's tank and no one is surprised. plus I FINALLY found a pumpkin at petsmart (they were always sold out)!!!!! it looks ridiculous lol but it's gonna stay til halloween is over! sidon refuses to go inside of it.






I saw a pot of pennywort at petco so I decided Why Not. a few days later I went to petsmart and they had a lot of plants marked down. I got two small tubes of the plant with the highest discount, hygrophila corymbosa. I know it's gonna grow huge if things go well. all the roots were rotting and I had to clip off a lot of leaves buuuuuut I figured i'd try it as an experiment. I couldn't pass up some plants that cost a dollar twenty-five.




I also got a vial of flightless fruit flies to try. i'd been eyeing them for a while but I figured since I only have one betta it'd be a waste to pay like 9 bucks for a vial. well it was only $1.80 so NYA! I dumped everything into a little mason jar, put a damp coffee filter in there, and put some cheesecloth on top. there were only about 4 flies when I bought it. it's been a few days and now there are like 50 flies haha hellllllllp. there's no way sidon can eat all of these in just 15 days lol. he seems to like them though! he also likes the larva. anyway now I have a bunch of pet flies I guess

 

OH my gosh, I love the pumpkin! I want one!

I have been trying to find wingless fruit flies for ages. I'll have to check petsmart.

 

OH my gosh, I love the pumpkin! I want one!

I have been trying to find wingless fruit flies for ages. I'll have to check petsmart.

right!! it was the only one in stock haha.

if you have a petco near you, i'd try them instead. they have a much larger culture for the same price. it'll be near the reptiles. they aren't actually wingless; they still have wings, they just don't fly for some reason. o_o