Meet Claude Beastet! He is my first betta in 10 years, and I am so happy with him. This tank opened up as I was moving fish around, and I thought it would be perfect for a betta. He is a WYSIWYG Premium Koi Nemo Galaxy Male Plakat Betta Fish.
Some concerns I have are with my heater. It claims to be set to 80°F, but is only reaching a range of 74°F to 76°F. I’m not sure if this is a heater, thermometer, or just cold room problem? I also have an air stone in here that I kept on full blast in the past, but since adding Claude I turned it down to 1/3 or 1/2 flow speed. Thoughts on the heater and air stone flow?
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am here to get general feedback and any advice that y’all have found from keeping bettas!
(P.s. my red root floaters are doing horribly in this tank but thriving in my other one, not sure if it is a snail problem as you can see they’re eaten…. Advice?)
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1oheu3v
Posted by Weary_Contribution78
3 Comments
What thermometer are you using to measure the water temp?
https://preview.redd.it/3ajqeryfwnxf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90d45bc2c9b7c714ac619d6e25bbe0812b242dde
Omg lowkey twinning!!
As for the heater situation, what heater are you using? If it’s a preset heater I recommend changing it to one you can manipulate the temperature of since preset heaters rarely ever heat to the set temp.
I rarely use air stones on my tank because I find it agitates the water too much for bettas and it causes the water to evaporate even quicker. If you have a good filter and proper temperature I don’t think it’s necessary to include it for added oxygen in the water. If you want to have it for the aesthetics, I would keep it on a low setting.
Number one piece of advice is filtration, filtration, filtration. The worst mistake you can make with a planted tank like this is to skimp on biological filtration just because the plants are sucking up the one type of waste product (inorganic nitrogen, i.e. ammonia/nitrite/nitrate) that you can easily test for.
As for your heater, don’t panic. I keep my betta at 74F, and many others do as well. I strongly suspect that the traditional recommendation of 78-80F is a lot less healthy for bettas than everyone thinks. The fact that your heater is only getting the tank to around 74F is not in my opinion a problem in and if itself, BUT if the room is colder / drier at other times of year then your heater might not be adequate for those situations.
But let me emphasize, slightly under-heating your tank is not a big deal. The potential consequences of an over-powered heater are a lot worse.