TimmG

We are on well water. Very high in GH+KH, 8.2PH from tap. But no Ammonia or Chlorine. The wife and I specifically chose a house with well water so we wouldn't have the added chemicals the gov't puts in our drinking water.

Yea. Once pay day hits I'll by some live bacteria to dump in. And I'll put my neons back in the top tank. They luckily are staying within the cover provided in my 15 gallon glo tank. So the only time they get chased around is feeding time. The tetras stay in the middle water column, and the neons stay towards the bottom. I wanted my 10 gallon to be strictly a shrimp tank. And I had bought the pygmy corys, emerald rasboras, and green koboutai to put in my glo tank because they would look awesome in the blue led light. But that was before I saw the animalistic behavior of the new glo tetras. So it looks like I'll be housing my shrimp with the previously named fish and the neons. And the glo fish will be kept by themselves with some snails.

Oh. There are fish in there. I can't move the new fish to the larger tank. The glo tetras will try to eat them. If not that they will bully them enough to kill them. I lost 2 glo tetras from one glo tetra bully. He ate their eyeballs. Mean fish.

Idk why I can't get rid of the emojis my phone won't let me, but I had my wife pop into petco since she was in the area and pick up some live bacteria to try and help. She came home with their only option with were these weird orbeez balls that dissolve in the water and releases the bacteria into the tank. Each ball is rated for 10 gallons. I put two in the first day, then the last two in the second. So I have "40 gallons" worth of live bacteria supposedly in my tank. I'll be getting home from work in 4 hours. And I plan on doing another 25% water change before bed.

It could have been it, but I assumed my filtration in the 10 gallon with a green medium sponge filter from an "unspecified" company and a HOB filter with a pre filter from same "unspecified" company would be plenty for the bio load of the little tank. I'm pretty sure it's the melting of the leaves from the new plants, and the 2 scoops of AE that upset everything.

Thank you for your input.

Tank was moved within an hour. Took half the water out of tank, moved whole tank. Readings still all clear that evening after getting plugged in. Just didn't feel like recording at the time. Tank was emptied of inert substrate with crushed coral additive because old house water was too soft, now new house water too hard. Added eco complete with plants and snails. Moved neons to other tank. Water parameters fine. Got new plants, added them. Parameters fine. Added almond leaf and 2 scoops of Bacter AE. PH dipped a little but otherwise fine. Then the crash. Previous Ammonia was from snails, and neons.

Fish and snails are fine. API master test kit I belive. PH changed within the day due to the 25% water changes to lower Ammonia. Tank was completely cycled before move. Had neons happily in tank with snails. 1+yo sponge and HOB filter. I added new substrate, plants, leaf, Bacter AE within the past week. I am also strict on myself when I record water parameters. If it doesn't look exactly like a PH of 8, but not exactly like an 8.2 I will put the range. The Ammonia wasn't yellow enough for me to say it was 0ppm but it wasn't green enough for me to say is was .25ppm. So I put the range. Any other person would probably say 0ppm or maybe even .1ppm. So assuming my previous readings before the crash were PH of 8, AMM 0, Nitrite 0, and Nitrate 5. My tank is therfore cycled.

The fact that the readings I've had before I moved was 0 Ammonia and 0 Nitrite. Also the 0-.25 Ammonia is fine because you can clearly see the Nitrite is also 0. That means that the previous reading of 0-.25ppm Ammonia us properly converted to Nitrite and then to Nitrate. And when I read my test tube I am strict with myself. Anyone else would probably say that the reading was 0. But it wasn't yellow enough for me to be 0ppm, and at the same time not green enough to be .25ppm.

I'm going to be honest and up front with my situation. My tank has been fully cycled. In the image I started taking new parameter readings after I got my tank set up after the move. I have newer Eco Complete black substrate, with new plants. I added an almond leaf to help put some tannins in, and lower the ph a tad (homes ph is 8.2ish) I also added 2 helpings of Bacter AE to prep the bio film. I ordered fish (pygmy corydoras, emerald rasboras, green koboutai) currently have some ramshorn and trumpet snails in the tank. The day I get the delivery,11/17 I decided it would be smart to test the water before I add fish. As you can see in the image my Ammonia and Nitrite spiked. So between newer plants possibly melting away a bit, the leaf, and the Bacter AE what do you think crashed my tank? The filters have been going for a long while. As you can see I have been doing partial water changes each day to keep the Ammonia levels low. Any insight is appreciated thank you.

Yes I am sure. My heater has a line on it that says "water level" and my water fluctuates right below or above that line. Thanks for the concern though.

Sorry for the late response. I tried to respond in my works break room but without service it logged me off. I will happily ask for advice. I don't pretend to know anything about this hobby. I have learned things. But I'm no where near educated enough. I actually remember you helping me out when I first started on here. I was chasing parameters, and losing mollies along the way to do so. I came here frustrated and discouraged and this group really helped me to trudge on. And the one thing I can say I picked up and it's how I operate my tank(s) is to just leave it. Until the move, my 10 gallon never got water changes. Just top offs. Everything ran great, and I'm pretty sure if I didn't have the coral in the tank it would still be great with the new water I'm using. I only asked about the substrate because I don't know what/how much it's going to do to my water. And I didn't want to use it and ruin my tank.

Thank you. I went back and checked and saw I missed most of your last post. I apologize. Thank you for all the great info. I am planning on the 10 gallon only being for shrimp and snails, no fish. The neons are going to migrate down to my 15 gallon tank which is cycling now. No coral just black and neon gravel (glo tank for the kids.) It just passed the bacteria bloom stage. The tank came all green and nasty with 4 poor glo tetras in it. They look a lot better now with clean water even if the parameters aren't perfect and haven't leveled out yet. I plan on purchasing plants and adding a few hardy ones to the 15 gallon to help with the nitrates. The white gravel mixed with coral will also migrate down into the 15 gallon to help the snails with their minerals.

Thank you for the great info. I've been thinking of doing a black substrate which will make the plants pop. That's why I'm interested in the Ultum Nature System substrate because it has 3 sizes of black beads. But that cuts out certain colors of shrimp like the blue, and black Neos. Cherries are the cheapest on the wallet, and I'm not the biggest fan of the colors orange and yellow. The other shrimps like caridinas they are more expensive so I'd have less of them, and I pretty sure I would have to chase parameters more. What do you think my tank parameters would hover around if I used the Ultum Nature System substrate?

Thank you. I will look into it.

Ok thank you. I however do like the rounded ball look of the Ultum Nature Systems and the like. I'm not interested in any of the other active substrates except the ones that look like rounded clay balls. Simply for aesthetic reasons. If I can keep Neos (which are cheaper) within my homes water parameters with inert substrate I will. The plants I have seem to be doing well even without any extra fertilizer within this white gravel/coral mix. I will be switching over to black substrate either just black seachem, or black seachem/ seachem sand mix to allow roots to have stuff to grab onto. I think without the coral the GH will buffer down naturally overtime.

Sorry for the possibly long post. I live on the east coast and use well water. I have relatively low tech tanks. In the process of starting a new 15 gallon. The tank in question today is my fully cycled, 2yo 10 gallon pictured below. I have some neons and snails in this one along with some plants as you can see. I used to have neocaridinas but they have since passed. I would like to get back into shrimp. My well water parameters are GH 20, KH 11, PH 6.8-7. My tank parameters are GH 18, KH 6, PH 7.8-8.2, Ammonia 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm, Nitrate 40ppm. I currently have crushed coral mixed in with my intert white gravel due to the old house I was living in having super soft water. Now I have the opposite issue. Anyways I want to get back into shrimp. And I was wondering, to do a low tech set up what shrimp would you recommend with my parameters? For shrimp and snails what substrate do yall suggest? If I got a substrate that buffers like Ultum Nature Systems would that help with Neos? Or would it buffer my PH so much that it would be better for caridinas? I want to use my waters parameters as much as I can.

I believe planaria is a type of worm. And they move around the tank. Not stay rooted in one place growing like a plant. Thanks for the idea though. They look like singular strands. Its gotta be a plant of some kind. I just don't know what kind, and why it would be growing now over a year later.

Thanks for the response. I looked up images of hair algae in aquariums and it looks to be much thinner and finer than what I am experiencing. What I seem to have is multiple singular growing strands of something.

Hello All. I have posted here before about a year or so ago when I was new to having an aquarium and I had a lot of questions. After I got my tank cycled correctly everything was fine. I was even following the no water changes philosophy just topping off. Any who everything was great, until I saw these long thin white lines in my tank coming out of the gravel. I don't believe they are worms or any creature. I think its a plant of some kind. I just know I didn't plant them, and they didn't show up until recently. Does anyone have any ideas as to what they are? And if it should be removed from the tank? I know they are hard to see in the picture, but there is a group if 4-5 in the back corner, and you can see more in the foreground. You can clearly see one going in front of the shark head, and others in front of the green plant. Thanks for your time.

Thank for the heads up. I'm located in North Eastern MD by the Susquehanna River.

Just wanted to check and see if anyone knew of any community events happening in Maryland?

Ill look into it on youtube.

I have used baking soda in the past. And while yes it does chemically alter the PH of the water to the more alkaline side of the spectrum, it also shocks my shrimp. EVERY time I have used baking soda I have lost shrimp. Not all of them mind you, but 1-3 die within a minute or two of adding baking soda. And with a colony of less than 30 now I cant be losing two or three every time I need to buffer the water. I woke up this morning and my shrimp were going crazy. As in swimming all around the tank. I tested the PH and it was BRIGHT yellow. So low the test couldn't even read it. For my master test kit that is well below a PH of 6. So I hurried up and dosed 1/4tsp of baking soda knowing full well what was about to happen. After I did that they all calmed down except for 1 that I can see is belly up. I did a water change (2 gallons out, 2 gallons in, 2 gallons out, 2 gallons in, and once more 2 gallons out, and 2 gallons in. Also per your suggestion I added the rest of the crushed coral to the baggie in the HOB the AC20 is so small that it barely fits the sponge, bacteria blocks, and the crushed coral. Had to remove the fine filter mesh from the top of the stack. I know I can just add it to substrate, but I needed quicker results. If everything keeps going well I will remove it from HOB filter and put into substrate. Right now due to the combination of water changes, baking soda, extra crushed coral in the filter I have a GH of 9 (down from 14 last night), KH of 3 (up from 1 last night), PH of 6.4-6.6 (about the same as last night). the other three are 0's after the water change. Still lost a little shrimp though. Always sad.

Again hello all. Hope you are having a decent day/night wherever you're located. I will try to keep this short, so I'm sorry if I leave out any information you deem pertinent. Just ask me and I'll try to respond the best I can. I have a 10 gallon tank. It has 8 Mollys, about 30 Cherry shrimp (recently added), 10-12 Ramshorn snails, and 10-12 Malaysian Trumpet snails. I have had plants in it since the tank started, but I just got another order of plants to add which I did. My house is on well water with low PH before off gassing (6.0-6.4), and it is super soft <1 drop for KH. So I ordered the 1lb bag of crushed coral from Aquarium Co-Op. To prep for the shrimp arriving I added about half the bag of crushed coral to the substrate to raise said PH. And it worked for a day or two. It was sitting pretty at 7.2-7.4. So I thought to myself "Self I have this Indian Almond leaf hear that I had to remove from the tank before because it lowered the tanks PH so much that it killed my other shrimp, and it was so low that the test couldn't read it. If I add it now maybe the PH will level out at 7.0 and the world will be perfect. The shrimp will have the almond leaf to eat off of, and the coral will keep the PH in the upper range, and the shrimp will have calcium from the coral to molt correctly everything will be perfect" Well I was WRONG. Even with about half a pound of coral in the tank the PH kept steadily decreasing. Added some more coral to a baggy and put in aquaclear 20 hob to raise PH higher quicker. Nope still didn't do anything. Removed almond leaf and now have all this coral in the tank. I tested the water within the past hour. Here are the numbers. GH-14, KH-1, PH-6.4, Ammonia-0, Nitrite-0-.25ppm, Nitrate- 0-5ppm. The GH is through the roof. I also thought coral helps make the KH, AKA the preverbal "trash can" bigger so it can handle more of a swing. I am hoping that the tank levels back off around 7.2-7.4. Pretty sure everything will die if it reaches in the 8's. Also with the high GH I'm pretty sure the shrimp will get the white circle of death after their next molt. If I left anything out let me know. I know people say I shouldnt be chasing the water parameters especially PH and to just leave the tank alone. The last time I did that I lost some fish, and mostly all of my shrimp from a PH crash. So I would appreciate some constructive criticism, instead of "C'est La Vie"