The Perfect Betta Tank For Men! The Manly Betta Tank!

Alright, how do I talk about this without sounding like a complete pig? If you search for betas on YouTube right now, you'll discover something very quickly and that is that this is a niche that is now dominated by women, of course. This isn't a bad thing because these women are doing a phenomenal job creating content on everything there is to know about betas and they are certainly easier on the eyes than this, but what about the man? What about the

manly

man? man who's afraid to put together a cutesy little

tank

on his desk that people might make fun of him for or force him to hand over his man card.

What's up with that guy? What about the guy who wants a

manly

tank

? Well that's what I'm going to try to create in this video so here's the deal Lisa bought an aquarium that she was going to use for a demo at the big fish store a couple of weeks ago but we didn't end up going to That's because, well, you know. So the tank was here. I had this idea: What if I made a manly tank? Lisa totally agreed. So now here we are, before we get too far into this. I want you to know that this video is actually, sponsored by API, it's an absolutely

perfect

situation because we were doing this anyway and they said, we have some

betta

products that we would love for you to talk about, so it's

perfect

, it's like already we were doing it so I could also talk about these products and the good thing is their products that we use anyway so it's a no brainer so stay tuned until the end of this video.

I'll also update you on what's going on with this tank here, very excited to finally have it. this tank down here to wear that you haven't seen in a long time so the idea here is to create a tank that is easy to maintain, looks really nice and is suitable for a man and of course it will all start with the tank. This is a 14-gallon Aqueon Cube Rimless Bucket that we got at Petco. I think it's like 80 bucks for this tank, it's nothing outrageous, but it's not super cheap either, but it's a high-end type of tank that you can put on your desk, it's not too big, too intrusive.

I have an 8 foot desk so it works perfectly well in my situation and it's nice it has a modern look and you know I don't know how manly it looks but it looks good so next up is the filter this is a filter internal power aqua on quiet flow 20e this video is not sponsored by aqueon it just turns out that all these products were at petco we bought them all at the same time and they are all aqueon but anyway This is a good filter because it is an internal filter very easy to maintain and is very quiet.

If you place it in your office and don't want to be distracted by noise, then it will be absolutely perfect. Completely internal, the pump is inside, so it is under water and makes absolutely no noise. Now I know that by watching this video you will see that I set the filter to minimum. I've never used them before and of course I don't read the instructions. So as soon as I filled the tank I realized it was too low and I went ahead and lifted it up and you'll see it's in the right place in the end.

This is a good filter for easy maintenance. What you have to do is change that cartridge from time to time, super easy and obvious, then we move on to the substrate. This is a gravel that I have used in tons of tanks. I mean, I've been using this for decades. it's just easy, it's very natural looking and, I don't know, it looks really good and it's also good for hiding things like fish waste and stuff like that, but wait John, this is a

betta

tank, you need plants in a betta tank . I know betas like plants, they like being able to swim through plants, they like to feel safe and be able to hide behind them and things like that if they feel scared for whatever reason, so plants are absolutely critical, but how do we get to that?

Put plants in this type of substrate. Well, I'll show you that they are fake plants. Yes, in fact, I am going to use fake plants in this tank and I am not ashamed of it. The thing is, we're going for the easy stuff, right? To make this super simple we want it to look good but also be very easy to maintain and let the live plants be too much so the fake plants, most of these are silk plants so they are nice and soft, they don't go away. damaging the beta or something, which is one of the things you have to worry about with plastic plants, they can be a little stiff so you want to make sure they are nice and soft and that the silk ones actually look more .

They are also real, so you can't lose them. The best thing about this is that we don't have to fertilize them when they don't need certain light requirements and they will never die. The only thing I will mention with these. is that you can see that some of them had bright colors like little neon things, which I thought looked ridiculous, so I actually just took them out. The nice thing about these plastic plants is that they are easy to modify so man, I just had to cut them with a utility knife and the other one just came off and removing those little neon sections made it look much more realistic and then there's the wood , this is the really cool part and this for On Me is where it goes from being a normal aquarium to a manly aquarium because we have this huge piece of driftwood in the center.

This has been a centerpiece for me in dozens of aquariums and to be honest with you I forgot I even had it, it was in a bag in our garage buried under a bunch of our stuff and we went looking and I found it and I said yes, this is perfect. I love it and this is the perfect size for this betta tank. It's going to provide a nice little cave down there at the bottom, which will be great for the betta to swim in. You can't miss it, it's absolutely perfect and looks tremendously manly and then I added some smaller pieces of driftwood, these have rough edges and have little things like claws on them and they look manly to me, it's better than using things like pirate ships and skulls and things like that, yes, those things would certainly be manly, but maybe not for me, so now let's take a second to talk about it. our sponsor for today's video API, you already know API, of course you do.

They are manufacturers of some of the most used products in the fish hobby. We were lucky to work with them on a previous video and even luckier that they wanted to do it. Work with us again, we'll talk about your products in the next two videos on Tuesday, this one and Lisa's video next week. Hear more about that at the end of this video, but the first thing to talk about is the beta water conditioner. They are products that are made specifically for betta tanks They are formulated specifically for betta tanks We have been using this product for a while and it seems to be working very well.

I mean, how do you really recognize yourself when you apply the product? the fish are doing well, they are thriving, they are doing fantastic with it, yes they certainly are, so it is specifically formulated with aloe and green tea extract to be specific for Vedas, so I am happy with this product, it is a small bottle which is kind of cute because almost everything that has to do with Vedas will always be small, so it is a small bottle, but the nice thing about this, since I almost dropped it on the floor, is that with these conditioners of water you are not using much.

When you do a water change in a tank that is very small, generally most people will have bettas in a tank that is 15 gallons or less, so you are doing small water changes and this little bottle will last you a long time. I am happy with this product so far, everything seems to be going well. We've been using this one for a while. This is the one we have the most experience with when it comes to chemicals. The second is the beta solution. And now that? This is, I'm a big believer in API's Mela Fix and Pima Fix, those are products that I've been using for I don't even know how long for simple problems, maybe not extreme fish illnesses, that's when you'd step up to an API. product like a general cure or a Meissen urethane or something like that, but with minor things like damage to the fins or sores on the outside or even some fungus and things like that that can develop on the outside of the fish, this will take the place of Pima fix and Melo fixed their beta fix, you'll love that we've used this product a couple of times in our fish room because I think we have like 43 betas, so we've used this and it's given us good success.

I've had these products for months, they sent them to us quite a while ago so we could get familiar with them and all that and it worked very, very well as I said in situations where we were using mellow fix or Pima. To fix it we put this in place and it works well now we maintain a lot of beta sororities and sometimes you will have some little battle scars because you know they will do what they do so this has been great we took them. We put them in a hospital tank, use this and most of the time we don't have to do anything other than use it.

I firmly believe in this product. I definitely like it along with the beta water conditioners. We've been using this one for quite some time. Now we've been using this for about two months, we've had a lot of success with them. I speak from experience, not because they are a sponsor, but they are a sponsor and thank you for that, and then let's talk about API beta food, this is a flake formulated specifically for betas and the fish love it. I'll put b-roll on me, some of our fish go to town on this food, they seem to love it. and you know what's most important when it comes to fish food, yes you can have the best ingredients and the best sources and all that, but if your fish don't eat it, it doesn't matter, it's worthless if they go after it and eat it.

They eat it and they enjoy it and they always chase it, that's the most important thing about any fish food and we haven't had any problems with any betta accepting this food, they love it so yeah three. API products built specifically for beta betas are very popular so it makes sense that they do this and all three work very well and are three of the five API products that I used in this, more on that. of that later, so now is the time to fill it up and get it going. You can see again that the filter is installed too low, don't pay attention to that, once it was full I lifted it up and set it to the correct level, so it is working efficiently.

I had never used this before and of course I didn't look at the instructions and it is what it is, but once I filled everything up and got it running I realized the filter needed to be lifted. everything is great. I used API QuickStart to cycle this tank and I also used the beta water conditioner here just to give it those little extra things, the green tea extract, all that kind of stuff. a beta version of stress code is absolutely perfect and why not put it there. It makes sense that we're starting with this. We need to get rid of the chlorine, the chloramine, everything that's in the city water, so it's important to have it once.

I got it running, we put all these chemicals in it and it was just a little bit of a wait before we could get the fish in there, so here it is in all its manly glory, so this tank has been running for about five or six. For days when we set it up we used quick start from API, which is a product I've been using for I don't even know how long. I don't know how many tanks I've used it on. Can't. Don't even count them at this point. I have used this many times to start the tanks and have done a couple of water changes in the process of cycling this tank and using it.

You see, it's right here next door. Yeah. I realized this is a sponsored API video, but it was here for a reason because I'm putting it through the loop process, so if you're not familiar with the loop process, you're going to want to be if you're going to get started. To set up a tank like this or any fish tank, I have a ton of videos on that topic. I'll put them on a card in the top left corner, which I think is the right corner. I don't think I have them yet. I figured it out, but I'll put them there if you need help understanding the cycling process.

I've done this enough times to the point that I'm completely comfortable with everything being brand new, setting it all up, putting a fish on it in just a minute. just a few days into setting it up and I feel very comfortable knowing that I'm going to be able to get through it, but if you're new to this and don't even know what I'm talking about right now, I would definitely recommend you. I suggest you watch those videos to familiarize yourself with how it all works. the system of a fish tank. If you still don't understand it, you'll probably have some problems.

Let's talk about what makes this a manly tank. I've been talking about it all the time this is the manly tank why is it a manly tank? It's very simple, in my opinion, men are generally lazy. I know there are probably men already, John, how dare you? How dare you call me late? Come on, you know. that we would all like to take the easy way out if we could if there is an easier way to do something that is what we want to do and this tank iseasy first is the substrate. I love this substrate.

I have used it so many times. As I mentioned before it is a small natural looking gravel that will hide things like fish food and fish poop and gnarly things that fall to the bottom of the aquarium very well if you have sand or something like that you will probably see it a lot and this will help because it does a great job by hiding things and at the same time it looks very natural and then we move on to the plants. I promise you the plants in this tank will never die and they will never need any fertilizer.

The only reason for using fake plants here was again to make this easier. This is a manly tank. We want it to be easy or maybe it's not that you are manly and lazy. and all that maybe you're going to put something like this on your desk at work and it has to be super easy because it's at work and you can't get so complicated with it again. Fake plants that will never die. They don't need any fertilizer and they're not going to grow out of your tank and go crazy and they're not going to come with 30,000 snails inside them.

No, these are perfect for ease of use and they look good. They may not look very real, but they look real enough and the last thing that makes this easy is the fact that the equipment I used on this is super simple. I mean, lights are almost always simple, but this one here is just a quick touch. I can reach in and turn it off - you have to tap it twice, once it turns blue the next time it turns off, but one tap on it turns it on again very simply, if this is on your desk at work, you walk in, Boop, it's on you're good to go so the light is what it is there is no such thing as a hard to use light but anyway on to the filter again this has a disposable cartridge it's very simple to replace and with them having no live plants in there, carbon is not a problem, everything is perfectly fine, so it will help keep the tank clip clean to prevent it from smelling bad and generally keep it fresh and everything else is very very easy and that's the general theme here we want it to look manly and we want it to be manly to the extent that it's easy to care for and I think we achieved that so now I want to introduce you to Scott.

Yes, I named this fish after Scott and I. I'd love to know in the comments section below why you think I named this fish Scott. If you know me and know who my friends are, it shouldn't be too hard for you to understand, but Scott is a betta king, I call him. king daddy is what I've always called them, others call them giant betas but these are betas that are basically twice the size of your normal beta and he's a king beta so that might give you a clue as to why he would name a king. beta Scott, but I love this fish.

I fell in love with it from the moment I saw it and this is what's interesting. I will tell you the true story of how all this happened. Lisa went and bought a king. data for this tank to be given away again in the big fish business, this is the original intention of this tank and I fell in love with that tank, no not the tank, I fell in love with the fish, the tank too, but I fell in love with that fish I had never had a king betta before I saw I said I love that's a male betta that's the first thing I thought and then she and I started talking and I made the decision. or not, let me rephrase that I didn't make the decision.

I asked for permission. Can I use this tank? Can I put it on my desk? Can I put that King Betta on it? She said, sure, why not, she then she went to the store. and I came home with this one with Scott and she said uh I found this one and I think you might like it a little more and I looked at it and I said oh yeah yeah we still have the other one and I'm I'll tell you where that one goes in just a minute, but I fell madly in love with this fish from the first second I saw it.

It's absolutely beautiful. Their brands are phenomenal. I love this fish and let me tell you the interesting thing. What they sold us in a cup because that's how they sell these betas. I had that cup, in fact it's here, this little cup had this male Halfmoon King and that fish is about two and a half inches long. on this little thing and he sat here for two days I felt horrible, I literally lost sleep with this fish sitting here and he was sitting here the whole time and I normally sit here, he stared at me the whole time like Come on dude, You really don't leave me here like this, look at that tank, it's right there, why can't I go in there?

Come on, what's wrong with you? So here and I joined for a while at the desk, but yeah, I fell in love. with this fish not only because of its appearance, but also because I don't know, we are connected, I know how strange it sounds, but it's true, sitting there on my desk, look at it, it's looking at me with those big eyes, I just fell in love. I love this little guy so he's my guy and it's weird that I love something named Scott so much. As you can see, this is an absolutely awesome beta.

I am absolutely excited. I have to thank Lisa for all of this because if she hadn't done it. If she hadn't done any of these things, she would never have had the idea of ​​doing the beta male tank. I would love to know what you have done to your aquariums to make your aquariums manly if you think you have the recipe for it. a manly aquarium, let me know in the comments section, but for this I think it's a perfect manly aquarium, although that means something completely different if you know what I'm saying, but I think it's a perfect manly aquarium for us men, who no We don't want frilly things, we like to look at frilly things, but we like them to look more manly.

I have a dark mahogany, it's not mahogany, but that was my Burgundy Rum imitation, but there's a cave of dark wood in there and this whole thing is just manly to me. I don't know how manly you can make an aquarium. I wasn't going to put skulls and stuff in there, I mean, come on, but anyway this has been a lot of fun. I enjoyed this and I hope there aren't too many people who are offended by me constantly saying manly in this video, but I hope you understand what I mean when I talk about making something manly, this basically means making it really easy to take care of so it can still be lazy. and don't look girly, so I promised you at the beginning of this video that we were going to talk a little bit about this tank.

This is the 75 gallon that I originally set up when I returned to YouTube in September. 2018, I was actually sitting between these two bookshelves here and I was in the office that is now Lisa. I'm going to show you this tank a little bit closer in just a minute, but I wanted to talk about that office. Right now, because Lisa is there as we speak doing a project like this, she is making her own betta tank and it will be a female betta tank, so I think it will be a lot of fun and it will be for the other King Betta. what we were talking about a minute ago and there's our set of 10 things in case you're wondering, it's not very fancy, it's a green screen on the wall, but anyway I also wanted to take you here and show you if you haven't yet I've seen it on live broadcasts.

I wanted to show you Lisa's tank. It has become Lisa's tank. Well, I think you said the angels are mine, but this tank is turning out to be an absolutely beautiful tank. She escaped. last week because what else does she have to do? I mean, you can't go outside and it's absolutely beautiful. This is actually the landscape that was going to be in the tank for the big fish deal, but since we didn't end up going, she used it for that tank, so it looks pretty cool, so let's take a closer look at this one. 75 and then we'll finish for today, so these four goldfish that are here, this one is actually called Stevie, this was a rescued feeder fish and we can actually say rescued because that fish will be eaten and Lisa saved it, she named this fish Stevie by Stevie Nicks, yeah the other three are, this one was actually bought for me by Lisa as a gift and the other one was bought for me.

Lisa as a gift, we picked this one up at House of Tropicals when we were there last week. 75 gallon tank. Nothing really inside. I feel like goldfish are decoration enough. It has the flooville 3.0 on top which is the marine @ 3.0. not the 3.0 planted and we are filtering it with the 407 flow vault. I made a video about that a while ago. Watch it if you haven't seen it yet. I'll put a card in the top corner, but yeah, there you go. It's finally down here, so today you can tour all the places. It was fun. I hope you enjoyed the manly tank.

If you let me know in the comments section below, you'll probably see a lot. that tank in the near future, particularly once everything clears up, it looks good now, but it's still a little cloudy and that bothers me because I'm looking at it all day, but anyway thank you very much for seeing this through Keep an eye out next week for Lisa's version of this tank, the women's version of this tank, it will be a lot of fun and that's it, thanks, see you next week.