G'day from Sydney!

[sdlTBfanUK]

Here is a picture of my Betta, not very interesting in terms of colour but easy to see in the tank as it is quite dark! He is with some high grade red cherry shrimp and it is fairly densely planted (sounds better than the truth - overgrown) but I am sure he wwill be eating some of the baby shrimp when he sees them. If you get to the stage of having a cull tank for poor grade shrimp then putting a betta in that would be ideal, otherwise it is a risk keeping shrimp with a betta so only try it with your least favourite shrimps in a well planted tank. Betta are fairly easy to keep (as other tropical fish) and interesting as they will interact with people who go near the tank and at feeding and tank maintenance time.

For creating carpets of moss, I used to use pads/squares of stainless steel mesh, on which I put the moss then wound fishing line to hold the moss in place. For attaching plants/moss to wood or rock though the superglue is much easier, it may need to be a certain type/make though??? I always buy it from my shrimp supplies supplier.

I saw my friend earlier and the apistos seem to be doing well so most likely I will try those in the 35L aquarium, so won't have many. Not got any further than that at this point. I wouldn't even consider putting shrimp in with apistos.

What you have been reading about 'ageing' water I suspect is to get chlorine from the (tap) water?

The friend I saw today (with the apistos) bought a 360L aquarium about 10 years ago so we had to modify/strengthen his sideboard to take the weight. His floor is concrete so that wasn't an issue. Even with just the 3 tanks before I moved the wiring was crazy with each tanh having, heater, light, filter - looked  a real mess, but it didn't actually use much extra power as only the heater(s) were >10W.

 

Edited June 4 by sdlTBfanUK

[Aussie.Shrimp.Girl]

Awwww he is stunning!! I love his colour and his fins are beautiful! Does he have a name? I'm in love with him! How long have you had him for? 🤍🤍🤍

Yes I would only put them in with low grade, cheap shrimp and I would ensure the shrimp have loads of hiding places and caves etc. Lots of Subwassertang or Java moss, lots of guppy grass, then loads of other plants. Also would make sure the betta is well fed. 

Thats a great idea for carpeting with moss. I'll definitely do that with my next tank, but it would be a bit hard with my 60L as its already scaped in the foreground. i would love to add moss in some spots that are bare. I think bending lead weights and pinning it in the substrate may work. Right now I have scattered rocks over the sand, but I could use them for weighing the Subwassertang down too. Maybe a combination will work best. 

Superglue- I had the right stuff however if either is damp it just won't stick well I found. I have had much better success with fishing line. I'll be able to just wind fishing line around the cave. 

They'll do really well in a 35L. I cannot wait to see what you do aquascaping wise. Yes I understand not wanting to go further and set up more tanks. It's honestly very costly, and very time consuming. It's hard work! With the fertiliser I use it says you need to do a weekly 50% water change. Which I hate! I changed today to api leaf zone and I'll see how that goes. I'm getting a fair bit of algae growth and I think there is just too many nutrients in the water and substrate. So I'm dialling down the lights and using less ferts. We'll see what happens. I actually think I want to re scape the tank already. I'm not loving it but it's so hard to do with a small tank. I'm going to look at some designs and consider what to do. I would love to buy a similar sized tank, but opticlear and no frame and make this tank my hospital/quarantine tank. Do you quarantine? Is it just too much of a hassle? My friend who has tanks, just added fish without quarantining and every fish got ich. He lost about 20 fish, some he had had for years. He is still treating them and more could be lost yet. It's really sad. I don't want it happening to my guys, so I think im going to set up a quarantine tank. 

Ahh yes, def need to reinforce a sideboard to take 360+kgs! Lucky he is on concrete. Im looking at the moment at some different buffets/sideboards and even came across someone selling steel frames, that you could then put a bench top on and if you wanted, doors and pannelling. My 235L tank has a stand, but I honestly think im going to build something stronger for it to sit on. I have a friend who is a fabulous welder, so I may ask him if he would weld me some frames up and then I'll add a bench top, panels and doors. I'll go pay him a visit and see if he'll do it for me. 

Yeah electrical cords...I have a heater, filter, air pump, and light but my heater plugs into my inkbird which is plugged in to the power board 😑 I decided I'm going to label all of the cords with different coloured labels and write on it what it is, but I'll continue to use those colours for each device throughout my fish room so it's all coordinated and I can easily tell what's what. Plus have the cords plugged into the power board in the same order for each one. 

Geez I think I will be paying to upgrade our electricity. We are already at the point of plugging in just 1 thing in too many and the power board trips and we lose everything. $7k it costs to upgrade. The aquarium stuff doesn't take a whole lot of energy, but living on old, 1 phase power, you easily lose it all if you overload the system. Last night we had a mini blackout but it came back on after a couple minutes. Im seriously thinking of buying the ecoflow power bank that people use when camping. As long as it's charged, I could plug in heaters, filters and airpumps and continue like normal. I think I'll consider buying 1 when I get a 2nd tank, and def make sure I have it when I set up the 235L. I think it'll make me feel more relaxed if we get a blackout, cause we get them often in our little region. 

Sorry, my messages are getting so long. Sorry about that. 

Oh and ageing the water...yes Jason clarified I don't have to given im on tank/rain water. Yay!! 

[sdlTBfanUK]

I have probasbly had Bertie the betta about 3 months now. I didn't want a white one initially but it works well as I can see him swimming about from a distance as the tank is fairly dark! Betta are fiddly to feed as they have tiny stomachs (about the size of their eye) so get constipated when overfed and even if you feed them well they will still eat food (or baby shrimp I expect) when they come across it even if they aren't 'hungry'. I think feedind balance is probably the trickiest aspect of keeping a betta, from my experience anyway.

 My tanks weren't all together before so were in different wall sockets. Where I lived before we got power cuts occasionally, really annoying, especially having to reset all the timers......... lights on the tanks, but many others to do as well not tank related. I guess it sounds like a house rewire would be a good idea for safety and useability, though these things do cost a lot and will be messy whilst being carried out. Had that done a couple of times and great peace of mind once done.

The superglue may need to be a special one (as per the link I sent) because it will be used on wet/damp serfaces. I have used it on wet driftwood etc with wet plants and moss and it works very well and easily. If you buy it from an aquarium or aquascaper I assume that would work on wet/damp surfaces?

The mesh mats can be cut to fit any area, though you may need a special tool to do that. It can also be bent/folfed etc to whatever shape you want.

I have never used any fertilizers in any of my tanks and am always giving away plants that grow too big. I don't think ferts are needed if you are using soil/plant substrate, especially if keeping fish/shrimps in the aquarium, they produce their own plant ferts. 

I haven't ever used a quarantine tank but I tend to do one tank at a time so the creatures are going to an empty tank anyway and they are small tanks anyway so not many fish go into them anyway. I have been ultra luck but it is better if you can have a simple and basic quarantine/hospital tank available ad once everything else is running well you could stick a betta and cull shrimps in it?.