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tolstoy21

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tolstoy21 last won the day on February 17

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  1. I had a single kuhli loach in my aquarium and it was snail free -- no pond snails, no ramshorn -- while my other tasks were over run with them. It wouldn't touch the adult snails, but it definitely kept any babies from growing into adulthood. I can't think what fish would have been eating them, other than the loach, because I've kept all other species in that specific aquarium in other tanks that had lots of pest snails.
  2. I'm currently really getting into tetra species.
  3. Yeah. Totally level. I'd only worry if the bubble is edging closer to, or crosses the line. However, to get an accurate reading you'd want to use a level that spans the length of the cabinet top. Using a small level can give you a false sense of level-ness as it's only measuring the surface directly underneath it. This is especially true on surfaces that are warped over a longer span. But honestly, I'm being pedantic. I'm pretty sure you're as level as can be. Personally I only worry about being out of level on larger aquariums. Additionally, being level side-to-side is not as stressful on an aquarium as being on a surface that is torqued on the diagonal.
  4. I hatch corys in a 2 gallon tank with a moderately running airstone and a few alder cones for antifungal (meth blue can also be used). I've had more luck with that than using an egg tumbler, not to mention it's much easier.
  5. Im not sure for neocaridina. I know with my caridina, I shoot for 1 scoop per 5 gallons of water. Where does this get me in terms of water params, I'm really not sure. I forgot a long time ago. For caridina shrimp, I measure more by TDS than Gh/Kh. TDS doesn't tell me that's in the water, but gives me an idea of if I mixed the proportions correctly. My neocaridina just get my tap/well water (dKh 0 / dGh 9 / TDS 300+). The Salty Shrimp Gh/Kh+ instructions indicate using one level scoop with the provided scooper per approx 2.5g of water (10 liters).
  6. I find that this is somewhat true. At times, you can expect to lose a small percentage of the new shrimp you add, especially if they are adults. But the deaths should not be excessive. I find that shrimp from US breeders acclimate much better than imported/aquarium-store shrimp. I usually don't lose many shrimp when I buy them from good breeders online. Shrimp is the one aquatic species I highly recommend getting through your aquarium club or online, over purchasing them from a local fish store (unless it's a really good one that sources from US breeders). Looking at your params, you water does seem a tad on the hard and alkaline side. Unfortunately I don't have experience keeping neocaridina shrimp in a Gh/Kh that high to offer advice. If you do switch to RO water I would recommend using Salty Shrimp Kh/Gh+, and not mixing in your tap water (but this is just because I find it's easier to get the same results with each bucket of RO you create/mix). A 5 gallon bucket typically takes a single scoop of the product. Mixing in your tap water would also work perfectly fine. Salty Shrimp is just my preference. As for water changes, just perform a 25% change every few days over the course of a week or so. That should be sufficient in my experience. If anything shocks shrimp, it's typically sudden, large changes in temperature more than changes in hardness (avoiding extremes of course). Shrimp can handle a large jump or dip in temperatures if it happens over the course of a day -- going from like 78F to 55F. Sudden changes however can force them into premature molt.
  7. @cmo1922 Believe it or not my caridina shrimp are pretty hardy in a wide range of water params (I've had them in tanks with a 9dGH and 300+ TDS). Likewise, I've had my neocaridina in my caridina tanks. The common factor for all these tanks is the Ph, which sits around 6.4 out of my tap, and also when I make RO and use a buffering substrate. My neocaridina are rock solid in that environment. The only problem with the above is that my CRS never ever breed in my tap water, even though that are as content as can be living in it. In general, all shrimp (caridina and neos) need a dGH between 6 - 9. That's another commonality amongst the types. Of course, my shrimp have been in my water params for many many generations, so it's highly probable they have grown very tolerant of it over time. More unsolicited shrimpy pics! (I know, I've posted these to the forum before. I need to take more/newer pics!)
  8. Nope. I've been keeping a line of crystal reds for a bunch of years now and have spawned literally thousands of them. I feed them the following -- Canned green beans (their main food) Stuff my plecos don't finish (zucchini, sweet potato, cucumber, etc) Left over spirulina flake (food my fish don't like) Decomposing oak leaves from some of my blackwater tanks (I get these from my yard during autumn raking) Dirty plants from other tanks covered in algae and gunk (best cleaning service there is) BacterAE (the only commercial food I use because I wanted a powdered food) All of this is to say that you don't really need to go out of your way with special foods or supplements if you don't want to. There is nothing wrong with commercial products, but a lot of vegetables contain enough calcium to keep your shrimp healthy if you don't want to pay for that. Link to list of veggies high in calcium Shrimp are scavengers and opportunists are heart. They would eat pizza crust if I dropped it in the tank (not recommended!) Unsolicited picture of one of my little garbage eaters below. 🙂
  9. Sometimes mine do, sometimes they don't. I find my larger AC's will self prime, but my smaller ones won't. Not sure why.
  10. Yeah, a cannister filter will outperform a HOB any day of the week. But that comes at cost and complexity, not that I have anything against canister filters. But it's like comparing a bulldozer to a bunch of guys with shovels. Totally agree. This is why product reviews are good, evening knowing that every reviewer experiences and interacts with thew product differently.
  11. My way of approaching the Tidal is to do away with the sponge and just put a bag of ceramic media in the bottom 50%, then fill the top 50% with Polyfill. The action of the media chamber filling with water and emptying out does seem to pull water through that media, even if it does not routew to go directly through it. If you look at how the AquaClear basket fits into an AquaClear, and where the openings/grate sit, the flow principal seems the same. The water gets directed inot the media chamber closer to the top and does not go directly through the sponge in the filter either (see pic). However, the AC's work great and all evidence suggests a good deal of water still circulates through the media in the bottom. In fact, I have found in both filters that when the bottom sponge gunks up completely, it has a tendency to then push the top most media up out of the water. The ACs are worse at this as they sometimes push their whole basket upward, whereas the Tidals have that blue button to indicate, Hey man you might want to take a look at this and do some cleaning! Experience and opinions vary from person to person, but this has been mine with both filters which I recommend equally, but for different reasons.
  12. Totally agree on cories being great at getting mulm into the water column. In my experience with HOBs, they won't get all the mulm and detritus up, even with a supplemental powerhead in the aquarium, but they do tend to push it all to one or two places where it can be easily removed with a siphon. I tend to rely on this in my messier tanks, and arrange things so it all ends up in the easiest corner of the aquarium to remove it. As for cories, if you have a bunch, their movements are so randomized (cause they have minds of their own!) they do a great job at kicking everything up in a way that it doesn't find an eddy or calm spot to settle in as easily. Plus they are super fun to watch! No matter how hard you try, pumps and filters tend to create that one slack zone where everything collects, but this isn't such a bad thing as it makes maint easier.
  13. Same here, except once, when I added Flourite sand to my tank without pre-rinsing, and the pump forever forward sounded like a dying goose (even after an impeller replacement). But this an outlier. I have a few other AquaClears that run nice and silent and are workhorses. In general, I love the AQ's but wished they were self priming. I also love the Tidal, but wished it didn't have the skimmer. This is specifically in regards to tanks that have shrimp and smaller fish. Even if I turn down the skimmer flow, shrimp still go in their out of curiosity!) Honestly, those are the two considerations that I would think about when choosing one over the other. Do you have small fish or shrimp? No. Then I'd favor The tidal. Yes. I'd favor the AquaClear. Both are great choices. --- Oh, have to add the following . . . AquaClears are waaaay easier to fully disassemble and clean, if you need to. The Tidal parts are fit together pretty tight and I'm always scared I'll break them when taking them apart to get at the pump, etc. They are obviously meant to be snapped apart for maintenance, but I find you have to put some muscle into it.
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