# Another 5G low tech betta tank :)



## tlriot (May 10, 2014)

This looks amazing so far! That driftwood is super nice. Once that flame moss grows in it will have a lovely tree effect. I agree in more plants in the back left corner. It's going to grow in nicely.

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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

tlriot said:


> This looks amazing so far! That driftwood is super nice. Once that flame moss grows in it will have a lovely tree effect. I agree in more plants in the back left corner. It's going to grow in nicely.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


Thank you! :grin2: It's actually two different pieces pushed together. I ended up smashing some of my anubias as I was trying to fit them in.


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## tlriot (May 10, 2014)

wakka987 said:


> Thank you! :grin2: It's actually two different pieces pushed together. I ended up smashing some of my anubias as I was trying to fit them in.


I'm sure your anubias will recover. If the rhyzome is intact, it will grow new leaves. They are really tough little plants.


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## agfish12 (Dec 2, 2015)

Here is my low tech 5g Betta 










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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

agfish12 said:


> Here is my low tech 5g Betta
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Pretty betta!


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

Day 3
Ammonia was reading 4ppm, so I did a water change. Some leaves on my crypt parvas seem to be melting . An anubias got detached from the driftwood, was a pain to reattach it. Water is cloudy again since I was fiddling around with things, maybe a little too much.


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## tlriot (May 10, 2014)

wakka987 said:


> Day 3
> Ammonia was reading 4ppm, so I did a water change. Some leaves on my crypt parvas seem to be melting . An anubias got detached from the driftwood, was a pain to reattach it. Water is cloudy again since I was fiddling around with things, maybe a little too much.


Crypt melt is normal and nothing to worry about. They will recover.

Keep up doing daily water changes for a full week, then switch to every other day for a week.

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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

tlriot said:


> Crypt melt is normal and nothing to worry about. They will recover.
> 
> Keep up doing daily water changes for a full week, then switch to every other day for a week.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


Will do. I'm just afraid they'll all melt and I'll have a barren tank for a while:crying:. I noticed some of the roots were a little squishy when I did a bit of moving around, is that ok too?


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## tlriot (May 10, 2014)

wakka987 said:


> Will do. I'm just afraid they'll all melt and I'll have a barren tank for a while:crying:. I noticed some of the roots were a little squishy when I did a bit of moving around, is that ok too?


I mangled up crypts really bad while planting amd they are recovering. So long as there is some viable root system they seem to come back. I've had crypts in the past that dropped every single leaf and within a week were looking like plants again.

The trick is to try and enjoy a barren tank, because that means you get to keep filling it in and watching it grow!

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## ArchimedesTheDog (Apr 9, 2012)

Pretty tank, subscribed!


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

ArchimedesTheDog said:


> Pretty tank, subscribed!


Thanks 

Bump: Day 7

Good news: nitrites are reading between 0.25ppm and 0.5ppm! There's a cloudy film on the surface, I'm guessing that's from the bacteria bloom. Crypts seem to be melting a lot. Wasn't really feeling the crypt. wendtii so I moved it into a fish bowl that I started (journal for that coming soon!). Replaced it with some blyxa japonica that I got from a forum member . Really going to try to not mess with things anymore until the cycle finishes.


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

update: there are pond snails in the tank!! looks like a bunch of baby ones that hatched and one big one that somehow made it in. Should I leave them be or try to get rid of them?


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## tlriot (May 10, 2014)

wakka987 said:


> update: there are pond snails in the tank!! looks like a bunch of baby ones that hatched and one big one that somehow made it in. Should I leave them be or try to get rid of them?


Up to you. They are hard to eliminate entirely, basically that's just impossible without assassin snails or puffers. If you want to remove them as you find them you can, but you can use it as a gage if you are overfeeding. I have them in mine and they don't seem to be populating heavily. I sort of like them, personally.


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

tlriot said:


> Up to you. They are hard to eliminate entirely, basically that's just impossible without assassin snails or puffers. If you want to remove them as you find them you can, but you can use it as a gage if you are overfeeding. I have them in mine and they don't seem to be populating heavily. I sort of like them, personally.


They seem to be eating the melting crypt leaves, I'm wondering if that's enough food to start a population boom. It's funny that they can survive even though the tank is still cycling.


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## ArchimedesTheDog (Apr 9, 2012)

wakka987 said:


> They seem to be eating the melting crypt leaves, I'm wondering if that's enough food to start a population boom. It's funny that they can survive even though the tank is still cycling.


I found tiny pond snails in my tank despite dosing AlgaeFix which is supposed to be fatal to inverts!


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

ArchimedesTheDog said:


> I found tiny pond snails in my tank despite dosing AlgaeFix which is supposed to be fatal to inverts!


Dang, they're like water cockroaches!

Bump: Day 8
Nitrite has spiked and the water is already showing nitrates! The cloudy surface film has gone away and seems to have been replaced with bubbles. I'm seeing new leaves on the vallisneria, but some of the old ones are browning. Microsword also turning yellow. Have some hydrocolyte japan floating.


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

It seems like my tank is already cycled! Ammonia is reading 0.25ppm, but I'm using the API test kit which seems to sometimes have false positives. Nitries are 0ppm. The plan is to start with some shrimp and then a betta. I might go to the LFS tomorrow to find some a couple of amanos and cherries. Seems like my tank is already producing some of its own livestock :surprise:. There are a bunch of tiny little worms on the glass.


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

wakka987 said:


> It seems like my tank is already cycled! Ammonia is reading 0.25ppm, but I'm using the API test kit which seems to sometimes have false positives. Nitries are 0ppm. The plan is to start with some shrimp and then a betta. I might go to the LFS tomorrow to find some a couple of amanos and cherries. Seems like my tank is already producing some of its own livestock :surprise:. There are a bunch of tiny little worms on the glass.


Congrats! 

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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

Econde said:


> Congrats!
> 
> Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


Thank you! Can't wait to make some trips to Sailfin :grin2:


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

wakka987 said:


> Thank you! Can't wait to make some trips to Sailfin :grin2:


Test to make sure ammonia and nitrites zero out again and don't forget the water change. I hope my rank finishes cycling soon.

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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

Econde said:


> Test to make sure ammonia and nitrites zero out again and don't forget the water change. I hope my rank finishes cycling soon.
> 
> Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk


Will do!

So lately, I've been crushing close to a dozen baby pond snails each day. They just keep popping up! Should I get an assassin snail?


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

wakka987 said:


> Will do!
> 
> So lately, I've been crushing close to a dozen baby pond snails each day. They just keep popping up! Should I get an assassin snail?


I have hundreds in my 10 gallon. I bought two assassins on black Friday. Seems to be working. It's really up to you if you don't want them there or if you could live with it. I just have way too many. Snails everywhere.









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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

Things are going pretty well. Crypts seemed to have stopped melting and are showing new leaves. The vals seem to be growing a bunch of new leaves and sending off runners. Can't wait to have them fill in the back of the tank, that part is kind of lacking at the moment. I did add some baby vals of some other variety (maybe jungle?) and those seem to also be doing well. Maybe I added too many...

I moved the crypt parvas around a bit. Also replanted a bunch of the lilaeopsis mauritius. Some of them totally melted away during the cycle. I'm guessing because of the way they were positioned under the driftwood, they didn't get enough light. A lot of the dead plant material got caught in between the healthy leaves and were hard to remove, so I literally pulled them out and rinsed them a container of tank water. Figured this was providing the pond snails with a big source of food. This seems to have really helped, I no longer have to squish a dozen or so snails everyday. 

Really surprised at how quickly this tank cycled. I've been adding 2-3ppm every couple of days to keep the beneficial bacteria going since there's no livestock yet. Ammonia level basically reaches 0 the next day, nitrite seems to lag a tiny bit. 

Going to visit the LFS tomorrow. Was planning on stocking with some shrimp first and then a betta later, but I might not wait to add the betta. The LFS just has so many nice ones at the moment! Also, this has the potential of avoiding a mini cycle later on. The plan is to add the shrimp first and let the betta float in a cup or breeder container for a little bit. 

Bonus: attached is a picture of a couple of snails having fun together


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## tlriot (May 10, 2014)

This is looking really lovely!


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

tlriot said:


> This is looking really lovely!


Thank you!


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

Finally got a betta! Still haven't given him a name. Had a really tough time deciding on one at the LFS. I was probably standing there for at least 30 minutes or so. Ultimately, I picked this guy because he was a bit smaller in size and seemed like a real scaredy cat-- I'm hoping these things would mean he'll be less likely to eat the shrimp I ended up getting...

The plan was to start with a couple of big amanos, but the LFS didn't have any. They did, however, have a bunch of really nice red cherries, so I got 8 of them. I know, risky move. Also got a nerite snail, but I realized it was just an empty shell when I got home. Probably had something to do with the assassin snails that were kept in the same tank.

After acclimating, I first introduced the red cherries. After about 45 minutes, I introduced the betta. This was all done while the lights were off to reduce stress. He quickly got to exploring everything. So far so good! Everyone has been getting along nicely. There was a funny moment when the betta got quite hesitant while swimming by a shrimp, it was kinda like a dog too scared to walk by a cat. None of the shrimp seem to be the least bit afraid of the betta. He seems to really enjoy swimming through the vallisneria leaves.

Also added some awesome lace leaf java fern. Shout out to Econde for those! At the moment, they're just kind of floating behind the driftwood. Don't want to mess with things too much while the new inhabitants are getting settled in. I realized that some of the crypt parvas are growing pretty flat and this is because they're receiving a good amount of light. The hydrocotyle japan that's floating is getting kinda pale. I'm considering dosing fertilizers to keep the non root feeders nice and healthy.

I'm very pleased with things right now.

These pictures aren't the greatest quality, so I'll try to get better ones soon.


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## ArchimedesTheDog (Apr 9, 2012)

Pretty and unique looking Betta, congrats! I added red cherry shrimp to my tank yesterday and the Betta picked at them a little at first, but as of this morning he seemed to be ignoring them, so hopefully they will survive the experience.


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## Econde (Oct 13, 2015)

You two got your betta's at least. Still cycling my tank haha. Soon hopefully.

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## tlriot (May 10, 2014)

I am so late in the game, but oooohhhh new betta! He is beautiful, and his colors really shine in that tank. How is it coming along 5 weeks after having him settled?


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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

tlriot said:


> I am so late in the game, but oooohhhh new betta! He is beautiful, and his colors really shine in that tank. How is it coming along 5 weeks after having him settled?


Haha, thank you! His personality is interesting. He will hang around the shrimp when they're gathered around a piece of boiled veggie. He had a bit of fin rot when I got him so he went into a bucket for a week with salt and stress coat. His fins are still a bit frayed on the edges, but it hasn't gotten any worse.

Tank update is coming soon!


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## agfish12 (Dec 2, 2015)

update on my fiancés little tank







her silly little Betta, Dumbo










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## wakka987 (Nov 3, 2016)

I like the colors on that little guy!


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## tarrant (Apr 19, 2017)

wakka987 said:


> This is my first tank in several years. I used to have a 10 gallon low tech betta tank. The most I ever did was tie some java moss to drift wood, so I'm quite excited to delve a little more in the world of planted tanks.
> 
> Specs:
> -The tank is a Marineland portrait 5 gallon
> ...


Was wondering how this tank is doing. I just got one and am going to set it up this weekend for eventual CRS. Also what mods did you do for the filter, very interested in that


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