Setting up an office aquarium

I just ordered an eclipe 3 sysstem from big al. My plan is to set this up
in my office with a betta, some java fern, and if needed one or two ottos.
The tank does no come with a heater; room temp is 75-77°F during the day in
summer and 70 -72°F winter. Air conditioners and heaters set back at night.
No sure of the temperature then.

The java fern will come from my planted tank at home. My planted tank has
snails, which I don't want to transfer to the small betta tank. To avoid
this I will remove the java fern from the driftwood and wash it with tap
water. I will then tie it to a rock and place it in a bucket outside. This
should give it time to attach to the rock as well as staving the remaining
snails.

I want to jump start the cycling process. But I don't want to transfer
snails; so using gravel from my home tank is not an option. If I put the
bio wheel or the filter cartridge form the eclipse in my canister filter
would I risk getting snails on it? The canister filter is an Eheim 2215
filled with the normal Eheim media. I would place the biowheel or filter
cartridge on top of the Canister filter media, and hope all snails would be
filtered out before the get to the new biowheel. Or I could put the grave
from the new tank in the canister but I would still have the snail issue.
(My home tank is not over run by snails, the loaches see to that. But they
are there)

The eclipse 3 system comes with a 6 watt fluorescent bulb. I know this
works out to 2 watts per gallon, but it is still only 6 watts. Is that
enough for plants? I regularly remove water wisteria from my tank, and
would use that in the betta tank if I could.


This it the system 3
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...=6&pCatId=3848


Thanks for any advice or feedback.
Scott

Scott Rogahn wrote:

I just ordered an eclipse 3 system from big al. My plan is to set
this up in my office with a betta, some java fern, and if needed one
or two ottos. The tank does no come with a heater; room temp is
75-77°F during the day in
summer and 70 -72°F winter. Air conditioners and heaters set back at
night. No sure of the temperature then.

The motor of the Eclipse 3 will heat the water about 4 deg F above
ambient. You might consider a 25 W Visi-therm heater. Keep the temp
stable.

I will then tie it to a rock and place it in a bucket outside.
This should give it time to attach to the rock as well as staving the
remaining snails.

Don't count on it. Might consider a potassium permanginate (sp?) dip.

I want to jump start the cycling process. But I don't want to
transfer
snails; so using gravel from my home tank is not an option.

They betta will cope with an uncycled tank much better than most fish.
While in most cases I'm a fan of fishless cycling, in this case I would
use the betta to cycle it, get it stable, then add the otos. (I
personally consider this too small of a tank for otos and it really
isn't good for the little guys to be in such small groups...)

-D
--
"When you've lost your ability to laugh, you've lost your ability to
think straight." -To Inherit the Wind

"Scott Rogahn" wrote:

I just ordered an eclipe 3 sysstem from big al. My plan is to set this up
in my office with a betta, some java fern, and if needed one or two ottos.

Just one caveat. Don't plan on putting it near a conventional (CRT)
monitor, as the Eclipse pump motor is unshielded, and will make your
screen image vibrate like mad. Not good for the monitor, and certainly
not good to look at! Two, maybe three feet away should be fine.

The tank does no come with a heater; room temp is 75-77°F during the day in
summer and 70 -72°F winter. Air conditioners and heaters set back at night.
No sure of the temperature then.

I agree with Donald both about the motor helping to heat the water,
and also the value of a 25W heater to keep the temp more stable. You
can get these heaters online for around $12 (US). I actually saw one
in PetSmart the other day for only $15 - I was amazed.

The eclipse 3 system comes with a 6 watt fluorescent bulb. I know this
works out to 2 watts per gallon, but it is still only 6 watts. Is that
enough for plants? I regularly remove water wisteria from my tank, and
would use that in the betta tank if I could.

Depends a lot on the plant. I have the same tank, and I never had any
luck with any plant, but I have not tried a low-light specific plants
like Java Fern or Anubias. Wisteria definitely didn't like the Eclipse
3 lighting.

--
www.ericschreiber.com