new tank help please!

[angus]

I'm sorry to post again, but I'm lost at the moment.

Angus is in his new 10 gallon tank, but is having trouble with the filter current. Will he get used to it? I don't have any way to slow the current at the moment and I don't want to stress him out. Other than current he seems ok. He ate tonight.

Should I turn the filter off till I can do something to it? Should I leave it on and see if he gets used to it? He never had a filter before so this is totally new to him.

I feel like a bad betta parent watching him swim right now. It's not horrible, but he definitely doesn't look comfortable. I don't know. I feel like an idiot not knowing what to do!

[BettaQt89]

I'm fairly new to this as well, however I had the same issue with the filter current making my little Argos uncomfortable and pushing him all over the place. If your Betta is living in the 10 gallon by himself I wouldn't worry too much about having to turn it off for the time being. If it's going to be more than a week, just make sure you do the proper maintenance as if you had a bowl (25% water change I think?) But if possible either try to make one of those pop bottle filter baffles (which you can find instructions to on this site) and/or buy a little poly-fil(which is available at wal-mart) and put it in your filter to slow things down. Hope that makes sense and helps a little!!

[angus]

Thank you for answering me!! We turned it off for the night. I hope that wasn't the wrong thing to do, but tomorrow afternoon we should be able to get a bottle at least to fix up the filter.

I just feel like we're torturing the poor guy. First with the broken heater, then with the new tank, and now the filter. :(

[callistra]

What filter did you buy?

Just be aware that while you can't leave the filter on all the time you will not be able to cycle the tank. So in a 10g you need alternating 50% (week 1) and 100% (2nd week). You may need more and personally I would start testing for ammonia after day 7 and if you ever see any add a second 50% mid second week and a full 100% at week's end.

[BettaQt89]

I had to turn off my filter at first too, and I think it was the right thing to do because he was definitely much happier once he was able to explore his new home and have some fun by swimming around fast, which he hadn't been able to do in that cramped cup from the store. Waiting a couple days for his new filter didn't bother him at all. I'm sure yours feels the same way

[angus]

I believe the filter is this one...

http://www.petco.com/product/102601/...r-Filters.aspx

We got the Deluxe Aqueon 10 aquarium and the filter was included as well as the heater.


Thank you for the advice on cycling. While we've had Angus for almost a year we never had a big tank. We're still new to a lot of this stuff. I'll take any and all advice!! We're going to try the filter again tomorrow with the bottle probably.

[Hadoken Kitty]

If you want to baffle the filter, there are a couple of things that you can do.

You can use a sponge-like cover for the intake. This should slow things down a bit. It looks like this (pic taken from a split 5.5 gallon tank):



If that does not work, you can buy sponges for filters at your LPS and cut them to size. Slide it in an open section (preferably behind your original filter sponge thing) of your filter.

If you want a new filter all together, there is a whisper filter for smaller tanks, so I'm sure they make one for larger tanks as well.

This is the whisper in my 3 gallon:



It's a top current filter, so everything gets pushed at the top of the water. No issues as far as swimming, and my fish has fun swimming against the current. When he gets tired, he simply dips under it and goes on his merry way around the rest of the tank.

You can also to put plastic plants infront of the filter (or real ones, but pieces are likely to break off of the real ones) to help baffle it as well. I hope this helps! Out of all of my filters, I have to say that the whisper one is the best one I have.

[angus]

Thank for the picture examples! We're going to try the bottle tomorrow, but for tonight we're just going to leave the filter off. Would a sponge be better than the bottle? I've been trying to make my way through the huge threads that are sticky in this forum about it.

[Hadoken Kitty]

I prefer sponge, but I doubt it really matters.

[angus]

What sponge would you recommend? I was going to look at amazon and have it shipped 2 day or something.