Man that was tough@ Never knew cleaning tank could be so hard!

[FerretFreak141]

Ive noticed that my tank was getting pretty dirty, and I had to clean the tank so I thought I might as well clean the whole thing. The filter had so much gunk in it, no wonder it wasnt working properly. There was algy everywhere, and everything was all slimy. All from a 5 gallon fish tank with a heater, filter, little decorations, a real plant.... and a betta! But mind this, I just cleaned the water last week, and scrubed all the algae off, and this time there was even more! Hopefully I wont get too much now. LOL Do you think a ten gallon would be better. Just curious.

[Pippin]

Not necessarily. It might pro-long the time it takes to get that bad but if you keep up with the 5 gallon work it shold be fine. Keep your filter in decent shape and vacuum the gravel weekly. As for the algea, is the tank in direct sunlight? You could get a couple snails to eat the algea.

[FerretFreak141]

yah its right beside a window. But I dont want to get any snails or plekos... unless, to snalis eat anything? or just the algea?

[Loachlvr]

Snails eat algae and other gunk in the bottom of your tank such as food the betta may have missed. They help keep the tank clean and if you control the amount of food they get by keeping your tank relatively clean they won't populate fast.

PS you probably messed up your cycle by cleaning everything in the tank so I would keep an eye on things.

[FerretFreak141]

snails populate??? :O

[Tweezle]

Yeah snails mate like there is no tomorrow. Personally, I hate snails, but the little suckers I had weren't the kind that people buy to clean their tanks. Mine were the plant-killing kind. So I got off on the wrong foot with snails, but I still can't help but loathe them.

Filters should be changed once every month, or 3 weeks if you feel it needs to be. I'm fascinated with my gravel vacuum: just get it going, stick it in the gravel, and watch all the grossness that was there get sucked up the tube. It's very satisfying.

The betta would probably dig the bigger tank, but I keep mine in a 5-gal and he's fine. If you get a 10-gal, you might even consider putting a small school of tetras or minnows in with the betta. Just an idea. There are billions of threads about that topic alone, so I'm sure you could get some ideas from those if that interests you. :)

[FerretFreak141]

hmmm thats interesting. So snails reproduce with themselves? So what would be better, pleko or snail?

[Pippin]

Plecko's grow over foot long, destroy plants, poop alot, and may turn cannibalistic and kill your betta once it gets a taste of the bettas slime coat. Snails are about a half an inch big, only eat algea (if you get the right kind), I've never seen a piece of snail poop, and I've never heard of a snail attack. Its your call. ;)

[Tweezle]

Yeah plecos are good for very big tanks with very big fish. Since I don't like snails :p I would have to reccomend an otocinclus catfish for a smaller tank. They stay small, they're not aggressive, and they're some of the only suckerfish that will eat algae off of plants and not kill the plant in the process. All in all a very cool fish. I have 3 :D.

[Loachlvr]

Yes otos are good. And it depends on the snail if a single one can reproduce by itself. I have one mystery snail and a bazillion Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I prefer my otos for algae cleaning but snails for waste cleaning so I have both.