New 10 gallon tank

Originally posted by MrGoodbytes
When I used to keep bettas, they never bothered my other fish. They just did their own thing. The only thing is that, like Aquarius said, males can't be kept together.

Ditto, my male betta never bothered any of my other fish or vice versa...

They just don't get along with other males in my experience....
 
Well, things just keep getting more interesting with this aquarium and not in a terribly good way.

We noticed that the inside hood and lights in the aquarium were getting splashed with water. We put in a bubble wall in the back of the tank for aeration and this is what's doing it. However, the lights are exposed to the water; there isn't an additional glass cover or anything.

When we looked in the (crappy) instructions about the light hood it told us that the hood must be used with a glass aquarium cover (which was not included in the kit) and that air stones should not be used as it will wreck the lights. So what on earth are you supposed to do for aeration?

Now what to do? Should we just get a glass cover that goes between the lights and water or what? I'm in a quandary. Sigh......it's not been a great day and this hasn't helped a lot. :mad:
 
Well, if you have a Hang-on-Back filter, the mere gentle cascade of water will provide aeration. So would a powerhead that agitates the surface of the water.

As a final measure, live plants help add to the dissolved oxygen in a tank. If you have the proper lights (full spectrum fluorescent are best) then there a lot of species that you could try. I like my aponogetons. They came from Wal-Mart, 7 ugly brown bulbs for $2 or $3. You pretty much just drop them in, and the ones that don't float will eventually sprout.

However if it's not too late to take this tank back and it really is quite crappy, I would suggest getting an Eclipse. I have heard only good things about them. Search for Eclipse on www.Epinions.com. They are supposedly very intuitive, low maintenance, attractive and effective. I will be getting an Eclipse-1 hood shortly.
 
Aquarius0015, I called the store where we bought the aquarium kit (Petcetera - probably not the best place but not much choice here) and explained the problem with the hood and lights. I talked to the store manager and also mentioned that the hood doesn't fit well and that the air pump is quite noisy.

He told us to bring the hood with lights and the air pump down to the store and he would replace it with better quality equipment from another kit that he has.

So we'll see what happens. I didn't get any grief or attitude from him at all, so if they follow through, I'll be a little more inclined to go back than I have been in the last few days.
 
Aquarius, good news! My husband brought the new hood and air pump home last night, and it is of pretty decent quality. The hood is a Hagen brand, not sure of the air pump. The air pump is much quieter than the other, and the hood with lights fits much better and has the proper cover to protect the lights from moisture.

I've posted in my other thread about filters that we are going to go with fishless cycling as it sounds much more healthy for the fish, so wish us luck in our new adventure.

Edited to add that the manager at our Petcetera store was nothing but helpful with the tank problem. It's good to see that some people are still customer-focused in this day and age, especially in a chain store. I fully expected to be told that we should suck it up because we bought a sale kit.
 
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