Help! Don't understand instructions on new tank!

[SilkStalkings]

New on this thread. Have bought a Love Fish nano betta tank, as my betta has frightened all his lodgers to death. However, the instructions aren't very clear.

The back section has ceramic noodles, filter pads and a little electric pump too (with tube pumping bubbles into main tank. The bit containing the pump isn't at all water tight, just sliding plastic dividers, so the pump will be submerged. Can this be correct? It doesn't look like I'd expect a waterproof electrical object to look, it looks like the external pump I have with my Baby Biorb but with suction cups to hold it on the bottom.
Too scared to add water!

Sounds right to me. Most in built filters are submerged and will be sealed well inside their plastic casing.

Yep, sounds right to me too but I'm a bit worried about the volume of those tanks- is it really only 13 litres? If so then I'd return it and get something bigger.

For just one betta it should be ok, so long as the OP treats and water changes enough. It's much better than some things I've seen them kept in, once had to talk MIL out of keeping one in a vase because she'd seen it on some posh homes show!

I wouldn't even keep a betta in a tank twice that size! The water params could change way too quickly. I agree that bettas are treated much worse, but it's still going to be really tough to keep the water sweet in a tank that size.

I agree, you do have to keep a very close eye on the chemistry. I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to my fish and check almost every other day anyway, and that's a large 280l tank with only 15 small (dwarf puffers) to medium (bristlenose) fish in, so I often forget that others might not check as religiously.

Also I'm lazy and don't like doing more than one water change a week

Minimum tank size for a betta as recommended by Practical Fishkeeping is 25 litres. Seriously Fish says 40 litres and Fishkeeping.co.uk says 45 litres. That gives a bit more leeway for water params and also any changes would happen more slowly.

Actually it's only 7Litres! Ah the conflicting advice one gets!
I was told minimum 1L per 1cm of fish and that bettas are actually tough as old boots. It does have it's own tiny heater too but I was also told bettas can handle room temp if you don't live anywhere frantically cold.
Re the water changing, I thought you were supposed to leave it so it cycles its own way, that replacement filter kit instructions were just a marketing ploy to create returning sales?

Crikey, you were given some proper duff advice. The 1cm per litre thing is a guideline for working out stocking levels, but it doesn't mean that you can keep a 4cm fish in a tiny tank. Also bettas prefer warmer water than most tropical fish and room temperature would leave them susceptible to fin rot (especially since they have such long fins). They aren't very long-lived fish, they breed easily and they can survive pretty rotten conditions if they need to temporarily, and for these reasons there's a culture of treating them like crap.

Water changes need to take place at least once a week, you remove some of the water with a syphon tube and replace with fresh, dechlorinated water. You're right that the filter doesn't need replacing very often (I think I do mine about once a year, staggered so that the sponge isn't replaced all at once) but the filter sponges do need rinsing in water taken from the tank (NEVER use tap water!!!).

If you're doing a fishless cycle then you don't need to do a water change until the end. If you're doing a fish-in cycle- which I wouldn't recommend- then you need to be testing the water every day and doing water changes as needed. Hope that all makes sense!

Will you be able to return the tank? You could quote the 'not fit for purpose' bit of the sales of goods act, a 7 litre tank is no good for anything other than a bunch of flowers really.

I agree, tank is way too small, will be tricky to keep the water at a good standard. I don't understand why they sale such small tanks ( and for such huge amounts of money ). We started out in the world of fish by buying a sill nano cube, now I have a 220ltr tank.