Comment by Aqua Hound on March 11, 2012 at 8:14pm

awesome betta check out my betta http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyPDRPjFj9Y

Comment by GSP on March 12, 2012 at 8:06pm

Coming along man, i like!!

just needs one other plant at the front bottom. Or some pebbles or something.

Comment by Faith-Magdalene Austin on December 21, 2012 at 9:25am

So you can dirt a betta tank. I didn't know that. I'll have to go back and see your other photos. I noticed you photo documented it. I love it when people do that so I can see it step by step. 

Comment by Jeremy I on December 21, 2012 at 10:37am

wellll... the outcome of the experiment was no, you can't. After 2 trials (involving tearing the whole thing down and re-setting it up), the whole thing turned majorly anarobic on me. Initially I thought my substrate was just too deep, but it happened with the second trial as well. The whole thing stunk of rotting swamp muck and made the room it was in unlivable. This all was happening with regular more than 100% water changes- i'd remove the fish, drain all of the water, dump a gallon back in and it would be so dirty you couldn't see through it, even if you added it as gently as humanly (and mechanically) possible. So I ended up attempting to flush out all of this cloudy gunk with about five gallons of water, then add fresh water from an established tank and put the fish back in. If you so much as touched the sand cap, a flourry of bubbles would escape and it would release a pee-yellow toxic solution into the water, as well as throw up a separate array of dust-like particles that would take hours to settle down. Any fish except for a betta would have died in an instant...
Luckily, she's still alive and thriving in her new asian biotope in this same bowl, with a thin layer of shrimp stratum mixed with (the same) sand.
bottom line; don't dirt betta bowls, but dirted non-fish-containing vases and bowls work superbly.

Comment by Faith-Magdalene Austin on December 27, 2012 at 12:50pm

hmm. okay. I'm still looking to update my last Betta home. Everyone has their update except one girl. I figure after Christmas I'll be able to find a suitable update for her.

I did try a 5 gallon dirted tank with guppy fry and it seems to be just fine.....for now. Good Lord I hope it works out. The tank has been established for a month now with no deaths. The plants are growing and everything seems to be working out. I still fear disaster though. 

I put in 1/4th inch of dirt, small pebble rock, plants, larger stones then filled the tank with a hose from the sink at a near drip. That was nerve wrecking. It took about 5 water changes every other day to get the tannins out. Of course I still get some but the tank looks good and the fish are doing well. I hope.... boy do I hope....that this works out. I'd NEVER try it on my rainbow fish tank. Not gonna happen. I'll try new stuff with smaller tanks but I'm leaving the rainbows alone. 

I'm happy your baby survived. I have a special affinity for bettas, not sure why but I do. 

Faith

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