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