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Chick-In-Of-TheSea

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Everything posted by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

  1. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    @Dallasp what size tank do you have for the snails, and how many snails? For the snail growout tank I just have a sponge filter seeding in my main tank, but after reading this I might get a HOB too.
  2. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    This is going to be me shortly! I just hatched a bunch! (help) 😳 I looked at those but I couldn't figure out what size fit what filter.
  3. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Me too, Pepere. The syringe is GREAT. I did a side-by-side comparison one day and the test strips showed 0 nitrate while the liquid showed 5 nitrate. Knowing the liquid is more precise, I went by that. Also! TEST STRIP HACK (from a Cory video) - Cut the test strips in half and you get double the tests! It's like getting a BOGO on test strips!
  4. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Thanks @Flumpweesel Do you guys think I should add some bacteria? Fritz Zyme?
  5. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    If I keep using Prime, would the ammonia reading ever go back to zero? I feel like I'll be on daily water changes if I'm not sure.
  6. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    FACT.
  7. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    My gut was telling me to move away from Prime so I can rely on my readings again but a) I don't know how many water changes it will take to get Prime out of the tank or b) if changing away from Prime is a bad idea because if the ammonia is real, Prime has ammo-lock.
  8. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Wow, how things can get so complicated sometimes. Remember the days when we would just sit back and chill and watch fish? 😝 Now we are referees and tank janitors and everything else, lmao
  9. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Very true @Guppysnail. It took a training period to learn how much (or how little) to feed those babies. I ram some experiments in this yesterday. I did it in a bucket. Tap ammonia 0. The dechlorinated water “seemed” to have a small reading. I tested with 2.5 gallon bucket and 3 drops of prime. Did it again after adding another 3 drops of prime. Seemed like hint of ammonia. I’m not sure. I don’t know how to dose prime in such a small quantity to run a good, valuable experiment. (I didn’t wait 30 minutes either, but I did stir the water). I don’t know what I’m doing LOL 🤷‍♀️ Failed to mention I added a sponge filter to the tank 6/1. Just wanted to seed it before it goes into 10 gallon.
  10. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Tank refill process
  11. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Some snails were moved to observation today but all were returned to the breeder box. Turns out they were just lazy snails. The 2 snails that I posted about yesterday- status was unchanged all day. Sadly they had passed before I found them and before they were moved to observation. Here are some photos of the observation area. I feel like I’m a lab technician or something. I’m struggling with either a mini-cycle or a false ammonia reading from switching to Prime. I’m researching and panicking. Tank is 10 years old and I hadn’t had an ammonia reading in YEARS. Last 4 days had water changes every day. Today was 50% water change. I’m going nuts!
  12. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Also if this helps, for water changes I dose the tank w/ dechlorinator and then refill from tap, water @ same temp.
  13. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Hey guys. Have a bit of a problem going on with either a mini cycle or a false ammonia reading. Looking for some advice to see what you guys think. Tank has been up 10 years and tested regularly. I can't even tell you how long it's been since I had an ammonia reading. Years. The only things I usually get a reading on is nitrate and the ph/gh/kh etc. Here are the things that happened just before or during the issue. Switched dechlorinator from AquaSafe Plus to Prime. 34 mystery snail babies born about a week ago. In breeder box. Feeding fine, powdery foods. Breeder box cleaned daily; food replaced. Snails checked for well-being daily. Moved out of tank for observation if questionable. Returned to tank if living. 5 new tetra added to tank from a quarantine tank. I added them in the morning, and then the snails were born in the afternoon. I didn't intend for both events to occur same day! Filter (Penguin biowheel 200) died and was changed to a smaller filter (Fluval Aquaclear 30), but the media was not changed. Both are suitable for this 29 gallon tank. However, not all the media from the previous filter would fit in the smaller filter, so I had to cut some of the sponges down. Aquaclear was loaded with a coarse sponge, filter floss, and really old well seasoned bio rings. Also at this time I added a prefilter sponge, but it was the wrong size and I tore it while putting it on causing a big gap that didn't cover a section of the intake basket. It looked awful but I left it there. About a week passed and the Aquaclear had some problems. A power outage occurred and power was restored quickly. But the Aquaclear dumps all the water out when it loses power so while I was at work the filter was running dry for hours until I arrived home. I got it going again by adding water. During the week that passed I had been on the forums and received help with repairing my Penguin. Turns out the impeller just wasn't reseated properly after I cleaned it. Switched back to the Penguin because I cannot rely on a filter that dumps all water; I'm in FL and we are going into storm/hurricane season; I can't always be home to reprime filters. Put all the old gunky media back into the Penguin. Added some more coarse sponge back since it's a bigger filter. Removed prefilter sponge because of the tear. Wanted to replace w/ finer media (floss) around the intake basket due to snails. I suspect some snails got out through the slats of the breeder box on hatch day, so, just in case, I need to "childproof" the tank. Despite the short run on this prefilter sponge, it had collect quite a bunch of stuff. Left the prefilter sponge in the tank because I plan to squish it into a new 10 gallon I'm about to start up. Also the biowheel itself was not added back because it had a tear. It had dried up anyway. I guess that's it. I'm at 4 days of ammonia readings. Stats 29 gallon high Temp 78 6/11 - amm .2, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, pH 7.5. Water changed, 25%, used Prime. Found a dead tetra. It had a swollen belly, possibly was eggbound. This was its status for weeks and it was the only fish with any symptoms. While it was alive it ate well and schooled normally. 6/12 - amm .2, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, pH 7.5. Water changed, 25%, used Prime. 6/13 - same as above but used AquaSafe Plus because I had learned Prime can give a false ammonia reading. 6/14 - amm went up to .25, nitrite 0, nitrate 10, pH 7.5. Water changed, 50%, used AquaSafe Plus. Water tested immediately after water change. ammonia reading unchanged. (??) Water test from the tap - 0 ammonia Stocking level: 4 black neons, 5 pristella tetra, 1 mystery snail, 1 nerite snail, 1 bolivian ram, 34 mystery snail babies (sesame seed sized) in breeder box I used aqadvisor and I'm understocked, fish wise. Baby snail wise, I doubt there is much bioload there. These things cannot easily be seen without a magnifying glass. I'm not sure what's going on or what I should do. I'm thinking add FritzZyme?
  14. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Leave in as much as you can if you’ve started to cycle the tank. Or change out just part of it if you haven’t added fish yet @sweetpoison
  15. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
  16. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Excellent choice, @TeeJay!
  17. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Here’s a video honoring the little black neon. She had a good life. I took this video about a week ago.
  18. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I've seen people in videos put an airline tube in a bottle with water, sugar, & yeast. They cap the bottle (the cap has a hole in it). The airline tubing goes into the cap and the other end goes into the aquarium. So just the CO2 goes in but none of the fluids. Haven't tried it myself. SimplyBetta made the video I saw.
  19. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I think I got this goin on. 10 year old tank, 0 ammonia reading always. Can't remember last time I had ammonia. Within the last week switched from AquaSafe Plus to Prime. I now have .2 ammonia reading every day. So, I've been changing 25-30% water every day (and consequently, using Prime with the new water going back into the tank). Have not seen the .2 reading go down. Another variable is I added 5 fish from quarantine, but I honestly don't think that is the issue because my tank is quite a bit understocked. I have a dirty old HOB filter, a 2-week old sponge filter, plus sand is helping with filtration as well.
  20. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I thought he was suffering/dying? I was freaking out. But then afterwards it was business as usual. 😯
  21. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    You thought you were creating a decoration when you were actually creating an all-you-can eat buffet.
  22. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Guys I found a thread dedicated to parasnailing! You guys are going to have fun with this one. It is too good! 🤣
  23. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    Beautiful, @Guppysnail!
  24. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    sinking pellets for carnivores are good
  25. Chick-In-Of-TheSea
    I like their color. Kind of a chalky-looking finish on their shells.
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