Those are artaficial plants??? Wow! They look real to me. I can see why it may be hard to clean around them now.
I'm sending betta good thoughts. Hope it makes it.
I bought 16 Cardinal Tetras yesterday and there's only 10 or 11 left. I believe the shrimp are eating them. Boo hoo! I hope the rest wise up soon as they were supposed to be the showcase fish for this tank.
zambize, the first time i cleaned my tank as thoroughly as these guys suggested, it took me awhile... but it was well worth it. Every time it gets easier, and i have an undergravel filter, so believe me it seemed like a daunting task, but now i have it under ten minutes... its too the point where when i vacuum i really dont see any gunk move up the siphon... but my numbers prove otherwise, cuz after a cleaning my numbers are at zero again. So don't be fooled by what you can't see... its there.
It depends on the kind of gravel you have, but personally I don't get as much crap out with the siphon unless I get in there with my hand and stir up the gravel as much as possible. The water may get so filthy when you do this that you can't even see the fish anymore, but if you do that, and have the pumps off so the crap can settle on the surface, within 10 minutes or so you can then vacuum up what's settled on the surface of the gravel.
I also have a couple Dojos and I like the way they can stir up what's on the bottom so the main filters can grab it.
I do enjoy cleaning the tank, oddly enough, and I get great satisfaction out of seeing my incredibly clean tank so I'll be doing my new cleaning routine right away. My fish are cleaner than my dogs already.
I was contemplating replacing the Betta pic anyway because my focus here is my tank. I kept him up because he made it to #2 in the freshwater fish pic ratings. But still, girlyish, ick! Ok, I guess it was, but really, you'd just have to know the fish. LOL
Holy cow...I did a water change and cleaned beneath my plants and driftwood. It was foul. My squeaky clean tank was disgusting. The filters are churning away on the rest of it now...
Peter, yes, those are artificial plants and several people have commented on how real they look. I'm a newbie, I don't know these things, but I do know what looks good. I really think it's mostly in color/height selection and placement. It seems like most artificial tanks have too few plants and they are too spread out.
I bought 90% of the plants at PetsMart and PetCo, and if I'm choosy I can find nice ones there. Sometimes they are hiding on the end cap, and I found several ground cover type plants on an end cap under "Betta Plants". They look real and even move with the current. I'm really focused on having a natural look, but I'm way too new to try real plants. Maybe some day. When I posted my tank I didn't realize that the category said "mostly" planted (or something like that). I have no real plants.
I'm just a nut for real plants as I like to see them evolve over time. I recently added a co2 system and a better light, but you can easily grow many plants with cheap lights and no added co2.
