Gravel in the filter or gravel in the tank floor? Regardless, gravel for both.
Sand is very dusty and requires hours upon hours of rinsing to get clean. If you don't get it clean enough it will literally black out your tank water with dust.
Alright so as king of diy said they are only good for little amounts for food waste, will that still work also would it be like 5 500ml bottle or 5 2L bottles.
You don't need 5 two litre bottles. Regular sized bottled water bottles should work, or something roughly equivalent.
Also, what King of DIY meant is that the filters aren't great for mechanical filtration.
There are two kinds of aquarium filtration: mechanical, and biological.
Mechanical filtration is the act of removing particles and debris from the water.
Biological filtration is the act of cultivating bacteria that will consume the toxic elements of ammonia and nitrite. Mechanical removes physical dirt, biological removes invisible poisons.
Fish only really 'need' biological filtration to live (because living in ammonia and nitrite will kill them), but mechanical filtration is good for their general health also. Since the kind of filter you're building is for biological filtration, you'l have to remove debris yourself, either by skimming it up with a net, or using a gravel siphon.
Great now, should I buy a skimming filter or just do it manually, I will also start collecting some water bottles for it. Will I need one heater or two also which heaters would you recommend?
Whatever else you get don't forget to test the tank for leaks before setting it up. 3 hours is the minimum I'd do, but longer is better.
If you go with the sponge filter and air pump, read reviews on the pumps and check to see just how quite they are. Some are very loud and will drive you crazy when you are trying to sleep. I've used this one in the past, before I got the PFE-1 filter, https://www.chewy.com/tetra-whisper-non-ul-air-pump/dp/133138 It is quiet as far as air pumps go, but I still ended up padding underneath it to make it quieter. If you go with the PFE-1 filter I can tell you that it is incredibly quiet and I barely notice it even when the T.V. is off at night. Oh word of warning, do NOT get the PFE-1 off of Amazon.
You can just remove the gunk yourself as part of the tank maintenance. Get a fish net and scoop out the large debris a few times a week.
As for heaters, it really depends... you can try a single 100 watt heater placed in or near the middle of the tank and see if that keeps all of your sections heated the same. If it doesn't, then you'll need to get another heater and place both heaters at the far opposite ends of the tank. I'd say just start with one and monitor how well it works for you. I have multiple divided 10gs with only one heater in each and the heater has no problem heating the whole tank evenly even with the dividers in, but I also have a different filtration system that distributes water across the tank.
As for heaters, two I use are the Marina adjustable and the Hydor Theo.
Whatever else you get don't forget to test the tank for leaks before setting it up. 3 hours is the minimum I'd do, but longer is better.
If you go with the sponge filter and air pump, read reviews on the pumps and check to see just how quite they are. Some are very loud and will drive you crazy when you are trying to sleep. I've used this one in the past, before I got the PFE-1 filter, https://www.chewy.com/tetra-whisper-non-ul-air-pump/dp/133138 It is quiet as far as air pumps go, but I still ended up padding underneath it to make it quieter. If you go with the PFE-1 filter I can tell you that it is incredibly quiet and I barely notice it even when the T.V. is off at night. Oh word of warning, do NOT get the PFE-1 off of Amazon.
I live in Canada so unless I can find a Canadian site either PFE-1 Amazon would be one of the only options also I am doing at 20 gal long setup and it would work best for me.
Gravel in the filter or gravel in the tank floor? Regardless, gravel for both.
Sand is very dusty and requires hours upon hours of rinsing to get clean. If you don't get it clean enough it will literally black out your tank water with dust.
I live in Canada so unless I can find a Canadian site either PFE-1 Amazon would be one of the only options also I am doing at 20 gal long setup and it would work best for me.
I'd skip that filter then. Don't get it from Amazon. It's way over priced on there, Amazon is not an authorized dealer for the PFE-1 so Aquatop will not honor the warranty on it, Aquatop is the manufacturer. Also before I learned all of that I ordered one from there and when it arrived it was obviously used. So I returned it in exchange for another one, when it arrived it was another obviously used one that was in worse shape then the first.
Give me some time and I'll try to find a splitter that will work as well. All the 5-way splitters I've found are in China, and that will take upwards of a month to arrive in the US.
No idea, as I've never owned it. I've owned a few air pumps of a similar type that were silent though. You may need to wrap it in a sock or something if it's sitting on a hard surface because it will vibrate.
Dunno about you personally, but I actually don't mind aquarium sounds. They function basically like white noise to me. I have 4 tanks in my bedroom and the sounds never bother me at all.
Looks good so far. You can actually get a ton of those same items cheaper outside of Amazon though. Check eBay, and Walmart for better prices.
I've also been told Bug Bites isn't a good staple food (though it's good as an occasional variety food). You might want to switch it out for New Life Spectrum pellets.
Alright will change that one, Amazon is the best for me as shipping will be fast and have extra amazon credit. Just need to wait and check my local classified for tanks. Money isn't too big of a problem should I get a normal filter over the bottle ones?
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