AllFishNoBrakes

@cotasm if you want snails with 0% chance of reproduction get Nerite snails. The downside to them is females will lay eggs (they can’t hatch in freshwater as they require brackish water). The eggs look like sesame seeds and are super hard to remove. All snails have pros and cons, much like everything in like. Also, you could quarantine your plants. To me, that’s just extra hard on the plants as they’ll have to convert to the quarantine tank, and then they’ll have to convert to the display tank. In addition, you would have to find the sweet spot where any eggs that might have been there would’ve hatched, but no further eggs could be laid. Still, baby snails are tiiiiiiny and there’s every chance even if you quarantine that one hitches a ride on the plant to the display tank. I guess you could do Reverse Respiration or bleach dips or alum dips or whatever on the plants to hopefully eradicate everything on them, but it just seems wild to me. I welcome snails in and keep my tanks balanced and have no issues. In my opinion, they’re extremely beneficial. But to each their own. This hobby is all about making what YOU enjoy!

They will breed to the amount of food in the tank. Food being algae, detritus, leftover fish food, etc. If you overfeed you will have a population boom. If you keep your feeding and your maintenance in check they too will remain in check. That at least has been my experience over the past 4 years. My only tank that really gets wild with them is my 55 gallon grow out tank. As it’s a grow out tank, it gets a lot of food, which makes a lot of snails. And then those snails become Pea Puffer snacks so it’s all good. All my other tanks, the snails remain in balance with the food I put in and my maintenance schedule.

Sounds like just genetics to me if the fish are otherwise healthy.

Noticed some things growing around the house and wanted to share: The Pothos I chopped out has healed over and is starting a new vine. It took a couple of weeks, but she’s pushing forward. Jalapeños starting to grow out! I love picking these little guys, chopping em up, and putting on whatever I’m eating. So funny picking things out of a tray that used aquarium water and munching them up. Little Lavender starting to bloom. Anubius starting to flower! This Anubius was the second aquatic plant I ever bought. It outgrew the Betta tank, so I chopped it in half and put it in the 29 Blackwater tank. Noticed the other day it had this long shoot and I thought it might be a flower. What caused it to flower? No clue, but I love that it is! Until the next fun thing catches my eye…

I’m sure you could make 2 separate auto water change set ups. That being said, seems like a lot of work! Maybe you can set up different zones from one controller to be able to independently control the zones?

Look up Serpa Design on YouTube. They make all their own stuff, and use spray foam galore.

My thought is they’re designed to lay their eggs outside of water. Whether that’s above the water line if you keep it low, or on the underside of the lid it’s probably the same. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You’re going to learn something one way or the other.

Same. Take it off “the hat” and water flows as it should. Click it on, and it was glugging. Like, literally, full air, stop for half a second, full air, stop, full air, stop. I was so confused as there was no reason that should be happening. All my sponges are like 4 years old and were retro fitted with the Easy Flow kit. I’m excited to get the new one that comes with the kit and see if there’s any difference!

Well, folks, it has been a weird one around here since I last posted. I guess I’ll just go in chronological order. We got some new internet installed and that’s been nice. Things haven’t buffered or lagged since it got put in so that’s rad. Symmetrical gig speed is hard to mess with. I’ve been having SO MUCH fun with my retro handheld, but I also found out I made a mistake. There is a different version that would be way better long-term. I decided to send my model back, take the Amazon credit, and my plan was to use the 10% coupon on the new handheld, use that instant credit, and then use the cash back on my credit card and pay, in total, about $17-20 for the upgrade. The only problem is the credit wasn’t instant, and it made me me go through UPS pick up for the return. I initiated that return last Friday, and hoped that Monday it would be picked up. Monday, it didn’t get picked up… I worked all day, and my girl had a bunch of appointments. Oh well, no problem, they’ll be back on Tuesday. Tuesday it didn’t get picked up either! My girl was home all day, but didn’t hear the door. Bummer, one last chance on Wednesday, and I’ll be home all day doing maintenance. Fingers crossed it gets picked up! That leads us to the rest of Tuesday night. Isshin is no longer with us, unfortunately. He’s been acting strange for the past couple of weeks. I noticed he looked stressed. He didn’t have his normal coloration, and was hiding a lot more. I tested the temp on the tank as that was the only thing I could think of that may have changed. 74. Okay, a little low, so we’ll bump that up. A couple of days later he seemed better. He was more chipper and was eating better so I thought I had it figured out. Then, he kept hanging out in the grate in the false wall. The tank has internal filtration and a tiny pump on as low as it will go. Yes, the water moves, but I wouldn’t say there’s actually any “flow” in the tank. I have sponge filters that move more water, lol. I thought that was strange that he was “sucking” himself to that grate, but he would still come eat and everything. Then it got worse. He wouldn’t really come off the grate, and if he did he would just sit on the bottom. A couple of days ago I noticed he was missing a pectoral fin! What happened to it? Idk. Was it fin rot that I missed until it was all the way gone? Did he rip it off in the little grate on the false wall? We’ll never know. The past couple of days he wouldn’t eat and I knew he wasn’t going to last long. Unfortunately, I went to feed him (or, at least, try to feed him) yesterday when I got off work and that wasn’t a possibility. Tuesday was a bummer with a belly-up fish and my handheld not being picked up. That’s alright, that’s part of life. And tomorrow is a new day. That leads us to today. “The New Day”. We both woke up early, ran a quick errand, and then I got started on the tanks. I did everything as normal, with the exception of the QT tank with the Green Neons and Chili’s. Did a 50% water change on that bad boy to get the meds out. I absolutely slammed through the small tanks, and was excited for the big tanks. I started with the grow out tank, and cleaned ALL the filters. I noticed the HOB was only trickling water, so we needed to take care of that. I did both sponges, the pre filter sponge on the HOB, the sponge inside the HOB, and the HOB itself. I don’t think I’ve ever taken the U tube out and cleaned that or the impeller, so it was most definitely due, lol. Got everything done and voila, the HOB is moving water again. Moved on to the Pea Puffer tank and found drained the usual 10 gallons. On to the next. 29 blackwater tank. Time to clean the canister. Did that with ease, and then drained another 5 gallons. That brings us to the 55 gallon Angel tank. The sponge filter has been glugging a bit. No problem, we’ve been through this before! Still a little weird though as I just cleaned the sponge last week. I figured I kicked up a bunch of mulm and stuff with trimming back the plants last week. I cleaned the sponge, I cleaned the air collar, and now it was even WORSE! I spent probably 30 minutes doing everything I could try and STILL GLUGGING. New Easy Flow parts, different Easy Flow parts, different arrangements of the parts, more air, less air, just the cage of the sponge without the sponge and STILL GLUGGING! With just the air collar in the tank, totally fine. You hook it up to the sponge filter cage (with or without the sponge) and big glugs. Idk, man. Makes no sense. It’s either that part of the internal cage is broken (has been forever) or something with the Easy Flow parts. Currently, it’s hooked up like a sponge with just 1 small uplift piece and it’s cranking air. I actually had to put in a Ziss Valve and turn it down as it was blowing so hard, lol. Drained the 20 high, finished filling everything up, cleaned everything up, fertilized, and took a much needed shower. That brings us to this evening. I was being super impatient and itching to play my new retro handheld. Checked my Amazon return and it looks like they don’t expect to receive the return until 05/22, and don’t plan to release the “instant” credit until 06/07. So much for instant, huh?? I am hopeful they’re just throwing out random dates that line up with their “30 day from pick up to credit” statement, but we’ll see. I figured it would go one of two ways. One: If I got ahead and use real money to buy the new console today to get it delivered tomorrow, the credit will come in the next couple of days. But, then I’ll just have an Amazon credit floating out there. This will only happen because I spent real money. Or two: it’ll take the whole month for them to release the credit, and then I’ll be bummed. I decided to go ahead and make the purchase. Used a 10% off coupon, used my cash back on my credit card, and then made a payment to my credit card for the amount that I paid so it’s “like I didn’t even use my credit card, but got to use the cash back I’ve saved”. At least that’s what I convinced myself of lmaooooooo. New handheld will be here tomorrow (Anbernic RG556, if anyone is interested) and whenever I get my Amazon credit that just means I can get whatever we want or need and I prepaid for it. It’s fine. I planned to go to LFS #2 tomorrow to pick up a new sponge filter, and potentially a new Easy Flow kit. I have been wishing that tank had a medium sponge instead of a large for years. So, with me being unable to stop the glug no matter what I did, I figured it was time. Then I remembered; my girlfriend’s cousin got me an ACO gift card for my birthday a few months ago! Logged in, threw a medium sponge (with Easy Flow kit) and some shrimp food in the cart. Used the gift card, and paid a whopping $2.65 for the sponge, easy flow, and shrimp food. Also, BOTH pairs of Panda Angels spawned today after maintenance! I’ve never had that happen! What are the odds… I told you, it’s been weird around here. And now we wait. I’m going to wait at least 30 days before putting anything in the Betta tank in case there was some illness or disease that got to Isshin. I’m honestly kind of over Bettas, but that’s really what that tank is designed for as there’s no air. Sure, I could throw a nano usb with an air stone behind the wall, but it’s really a betta tank. Idk, we’ll see. The Nerite will keep it cycled and we’ll make that decision later. We wait for the ACO package to come. I’m super curious to see how long it takes from the new warehouse! Also, no plants or anything in the order, so that is even more curious as to how it’ll be shipped. I’m actually pretty stoked to have a medium sponge in that tank. The larges are just suuuuuch a pain to get in a gallon sized ziplock when it’s time to clean them. That’ll leave me with just one large sponge in use. Maybe at some point I’ll change that to a medium, as well. Who know. We wait for the handheld to come tomorrow, and then we wait for the Amazon credit to show up from there. I already have a couple of things I might want. Potentially a case for the handheld, and a 1TB sd card. I’m currently using a 128gb card and have about 50gb left on it. Depending on the console, that’s a lot of games. Or, 8-10 more. Just all depends. Could be worth the $30 to never even get close to filling that thing up lol. Long read, but like I said it’s been weird around here and I wanted to document it. The sponge glugging really has me scratching my head. I’ll be even more confused if it’s still doing it with a new, different sized sponge, with a brand new air collar and easy flow kit. We’ll see! Some pics I’ve taken recently: This absolute UNIT of a Ramshorn snails in my girlfriends shrimp tank. Easily the biggest Ramshorn I’ve ever seen. Still shocked that both pairs of Panda Angels spawned on the same day. Amano molt being photo bombed by the Blue Axelrodi Rasboras Cheers, homies. Keep it weird.

It will retain beneficial bacteria. Remember that beneficial bacteria is on all wet surfaces. The glass, decorations, substrate, hardscape, plants, filters… all surfaces that are wet will have beneficial bacteria in them. So, yes, the media will retain bacteria. When you take that and put it in a new tank, it definitely transfers bacteria. It all depends on the bioload you put against that colony of bacteria on that filter. When I hatch eggs and grow fry, I’ll take a nano sponge filter that’s been sitting in the final grow out tank (55 gallon, heaviest fed tank, lots of fish, lots of filtration) and I’ve never had a problem putting that in the 2.5 gallon hatchery. I’ll squeeze it out in the tank to get the mulm and microorganisms into the water. Then, when the fry are ready, I start feeding them. The bacteria on that sponge can handle the very small amount of food, and as I feed more the bacteria colony grows. All good in that scenario. Now, take that same sponge and put it in a 10 gallon or 20 gallon (4-8 times more water volume) and will it be effective? Idk. All depends on the bioload you throw at it. That being said, you retain both types of nitrifying bacteria and it’s a great place to start.

You’ll want media in both tanks. To keep my QT/grow out tanks going between getting new fish or spawns I’m growing out I leave snails in there and feed them a couple of times per week. If the QT ever gets taken down, take the sponge or media or whatever from there and put it in the main tank. If you need to set up the QT again, bring the sponge or media back over and you’ll have a nice jump start on a cycle.

I second that shrimp should wait a couple of months. They need algae and biofilm to thrive. A brand new tank simply doesn’t have that.

It’s probably the Stratum that’s stripping your kH and then causing the pH to go down once it no longer has any buffer left to fight against that.

I use gravel and then let the plants utilize the mulm. Outside of that, internal filtration, spraybars, canister filters, and Corydoras all help keep mulm suspended in the water column so the filter has a second/third/fourth/etc chance to pick it up.

It all depends on your kH. I have soft water, with lower pH, and little to no kH, and my blackwater tanks actually have the highest gH and kH. Why? Idk. I intentionally chuck in all kinds of botanicals and expected them to eat away at the kH and eventually drop the pH, yet that hasn’t been my personal experience. Yup, that’s the downside to sponge filters. Especially coarse sponge filters. The “haze” or “cloudiness” could also be a bacteria bloom which is what you want right now. Personally, I’d just leave it. Don't wanna mess with too many things at once and you can always clear up any actual cloudiness from particulate matters later once the tank stabilizes.

I assume you’re talking about the Pearl Weed? If so, that has been my experience. I started with one single pot of Pearl Weed and over time it has taken over that whole tank.

Precisely. Sorry I forgot that part. I always read through the entire post before I post anything. Must’ve forgotten. Still, that old media in the tank should’ve maintained all the beneficial bacteria, so you’re still way better off than new tank new filter. Two weeks at minimum. Four would probably be even better. For now, leave it in until AT LEAST you’re not registering any ammonia or nitrite. Personally, I would leave it in there until you’re ready to start your own tank that the sponge was originally intended for. Might as well keep that seeded media to jump start your new tank 🙂

Considering you took the media out of the HOB and put it in the tank it leads me to believe that the tank is just catching up to the new bioload of the baby snails. Entirely possible that the sponge wasn’t entirely seeded too, but putting the old media in the tank was a good move. Test daily and water change through it. Should be no problem doing 50% water changes. I do that quite often on certain tanks.

I have snails in every tank. Including my Pea Puffer tank as the Nerites aren’t snacks. Ramshorn in most, and Bladder snails on top of some of the Ramshorns. Now, I will say that most tanks the populations remain the same as I don’t overfeed. In my grow out tank though, a lot of food goes in there, so it makes a lot of snails. But it’s all good as those just become Pea Puffer snacks. I can’t imagine not having snails in my ecosystems lol.

I welcome snails into my tanks. I guess I’m the odd one out here that believes they’re beneficial lol.

I also use 10 gallons. Easy to dose meds, and easy to water change.

The thing you need is really time and patience. Get the tank on a good routine and get it stable and balanced. Then be patient. Before you know it you’ll be trimming those plants back because you never see your fish. Assuming that sword takes hold it could be like this in a couple years: Each time you trim the Pearl Weed it will start to push out instead of up and you’ll end up with a Pearl Weed jungle like this: Get the tank stable and give it time and you’ll be rewarded for it!

I’m assuming the deposits are coming from an air stone? If so, you can put a plastic lid of some sort (think fast food soda lid, plastic deli container lid, Tupperware lid, etc) at the top of the water with the airline running through it. This will act as a shield and should keep the air bubbles from popping up on the lid and leaving those deposits.

@Pepere That crypt though! Every time I see it

Not a bad idea! I’ve kept Cory’s out of the tank as the substrate is sand, and then like, a fat layer of mulm and botanicals. Cory’s would kick that up and I’d never have clear water again 😂 With CPO’s, snails, and shrimp on the bottom and the Chili’s and Green Neons up top I have been able to avoid that problem.