Small Tank Heater?

[Scott_B]

Hi all, first post here. Great forum, lots of helpful info!

anyhoo, the GF bought me a small 1/2 gallon Betta tank. I have it set up at my office. I have a single Betta, an African dwarf frog, a minnow and an apple snail in there right now. Everyone seems quite content. My question is regarding heating the tank. It has a small 7.5w light bulb for the heat. this is what they sell to go with this tank. With the light on the water gets up to about 77deg. But when its off it dips down to high 60s.

So is it a bad idea to leave the light on 24/7? I thought they needed a normal cycle of light and darkness. But obviously, if i shut it off at night then the water goes cold again, which I understand is stressful on the fish to be changing often. So what to do?

I found a small heater. Its 7.5w. Says its good for small tanks up to 2 gallons. But I'm worried it may be too much for my 1/2 gallon tank. I cant really upsize my tank as its on my desk at work, so space is at a premium.

Heres a link to the heater

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/catalog/p...d1=3231;pcid2=

Also has anyone ever ordered from BigAls? I'm fairly new to this fish stuff.

Thanks again guys!

[Lucky Rescue]

HI and welcome!

Yes, the extreme temperature fluctuations are not good, nor is leaving the light on 24/7.

But the main thing is that you have too many creatures in 1/2 gallon of water. The apple snail alone can grow to 6 inches in diameter and the pollution from all these animals in such a small and unfiltered container will probably cause their demise.

Minnows - what kind, by the way? - are schooling fish and a single one should not be kept. Small schooling fish get very stressed when kept alone.

I suggest you keep the betta in the 1/2 gallon, and set up a new home aquarium for the others. That way you can get more of the minnows.

[Sneaky]

The heater should be ok, but I also agree
with Lucky. You have significantly more animals in that tank
than that tank allows for. A 1/2 g is a little small for betta
alone in my opinion, but the betta will be fine.
With the other critters you have, the minnow, which I assume
is a White Cloud Mountain Minnnow, an ADF, a snail (probably an apple snail, which grows to the size of a golf ball or larger), and a betta,
these fish together are much more suited for a 10g tank.
White Cloud Minnows are indeed schooling fish, and will become
severely stressed and not live very long if kept alone.

I would remove all but the betta or the snail, either one of those is
even overstocking a 1/2g tank. You would be best to upgrade to a 10g tank.
If you cant (10g tanks only cost about 10.00 with nothing, or 30.00 with everything),
then you could easily sell these other fish/critters back to the pet store.

BigAls is a great company, they have excellent policies including on returns, and I have been ordering from them for 2 years now. They have great fish food.

Remember in such a small tank you will need to do 100% water changes every 3rd or 4th day espescially with the huge bioload you have in there. Otherwise the ammonia levels will rise too high and start killing or sickening your fish.

[Scott_B]

Yeah, i do a water change ever 4-5 days. usually 3/4 change. I actually had two minnows but one died, so thats why i have the single. Of course the pet store sells this as a complete package, fish, snail, frog and all. I'll look into the larger tank. Thanks guys. I suppose with the larger tank a larger heater will be needed as well. Thanks againgor the warm welcome!

[Scott_B]

hmm, i think a 10 Gallon is gonna be too big. Ya think a 5 would do? I mean thats alot better then the 1/2 lol

[gottahavepets]

5g would definitely be better than the 1.5g. A ten would be better even but if all you have room for is a five then just be sure to not get anymore fish, change the water often, if not 100% every few days, 10-15% every day may help to keep the tank balanced. If the light is an incandescent light you can switch to a power compact or a screw in flourescent, make sure the wattage is not too high or you'll have algae like crazy! Some plants would do well in that tank, stick to java fern, anubias (nana petite), java moss, some crypts do well in low-light and stay small. Plants will help with excess nitrates a bit, you still need to do water changes though. Hope it all goes well with the small tank. There are lots of people keeping what is called nano tanks out there. They are small planted tanks with either very few small fish or no fish. They look really neat.