mineralNTL

I didn't even consider that - excellent point on stream fish being more amenable to these sorts of conditions. I'll keep that in mind as I search for suitable livestock.

So I'm working on my first mini outdoor pond setup this year and I've been going thru a lot of the old AC videos on pond setups. Based on my location in the world, the angle of the sun, and the limitations for where I can have the pond placed, I have real issues with daily temperature swings - somewhere around 20F swings between night and day at the moment with what I assume will be even worse swings come mid-summer. Obviously I'll need to come up with some shade coverings and/or some kind of container insulation (and yes, I'm aware a really easy solution would be to stick the pond in the ground but that's not an option where I live), but what I'm wondering is: what do we feel are "acceptable" daily water temperature swings in order to prevent livestock harm? Tl;dr - My pond's daily water temp swings are roughly 20F - so ignoring the how I lessen these fluctuations, what would be an acceptable goal for temp swings? 10F? 5F?

Aaaaaaaand the way overpriced big glass box has finally arrived...

Background: 5.5 gallon nano tank Stingray light sponge filter Fluval Stratum anubias/java fern/java moss/swords/crypts/frogbit spiderwood + a few rocks (~20) x carbon rili shrimp, (2) x amano shrimp, (2) x nerite snails Problem: Over the better part of a year, my little nano colony of neocaridina shrimp slowly went the way of the dodo. Testing the water for any kind of ammonia/nitrite spikes always yielded zero. Temps never fluctuated beyond 74F - 77F. Lights were on a timer so algae existed but was never excessive. Plant growth was slow but constant. GH/kH were monitored as well and kept stable with the help of Wonder Shells. Water changes were occasional but never more than 10% so as not to shock the system. Point being: I really like shrimp so I made a concerted effort to keep the tank pretty darn stable. (Suspected) Culprit: Eventually all but maybe two or three of the carbon rili shrimp had either actively died and were removed or went "missing/melty/through a time portal back to 1985" so I finally decided to change things up and broke down the tank in order to start fresh. Oddly both amano seemed alive and happy. Well, one of the things that I was apparently doing well was growing plants in this tank and so with enough foliage cover - and admittedly a little bit of oversight on my part - it hadn't occurred to me to keep an eye on the two nerite snails. I would always see at least one on the glass so I figured everything was kosher. Fun fact: that was not the case. Guess what I found under the bottom of the spiderwood in a little area with tons of plant cover. A sadly deceased nerite (that smelled utterly like something death would bring on vacation). I have no idea how long that was in there and I'm guessing the decay was, at least in part, taken care of by the plants and even some of the shrimp themselves to a certain extent but I can't quantitatively say by how much. Issue: All that being said, how are people generally dealing with little hidden gems like this - I would never have normally be able to look in the spot I found the dead nerite without breaking down the tank. A good chunk of the semi-decent aquascaping would have been uprooted and/or who really moves around hardscape "just because"? I'm open to any and all suggestions - even including, "man...why you so bad?"

This THIS *THIS* Nitrate testing is maybe the most obnoxious test (other than GH and kH) to run with the liquid Master kit. That being said, I can 100% guarantee your results will be off if you don't follow the directions completely. How do I know? Because I couldn't figure out why my shrimp were dying in my old RCS tank. Ammonia? Zero. Nitrite? Zero. Temps? Stable @ 75F for over a year. Tank was well seasoned and super happy. Nitrates? 40. Oooooor were they? Stopped being super lazy one day and really shook those bottles and vials for the correct amount of time. Oh, weird, will you look at that? Nitrate levels OFF THE CHART. ...whoops...

Almost forgot about the desk tanks too...

So I agree with how @MickS77 has measured - that's definitely something I hadn't planned well and am now sort of stuck with...mostly because I'm lazy and don't want to go through the effort of removing that 29 gallon the second level and the 30 gallon on the third level. They're both still serviceable but I'll be the first to admit that it's a huge pain and I should have planned a bit better on the outset. /shrug lessons for rack #2, I guess?

Ah *this* is what I like to hear - just got my 20 long setup with a couple of golden white clouds and hoping to turn a few into many, many more. One thing I'm wondering: I vaguely recall @Cory saying if you wanted to breed white clouds to have them alone in the tank - no shrimp, no snails, nothing. Even a nerite or two? Little pond snails to help with cleanup and keep the tank balanced?

I've had great success using the HD Gladiator Racks... https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gladiator-4-Shelf-60-in-W-x-72-in-H-x-18-in-D-Welded-Steel-Garage-Shelving-Unit-GARS604TEG/206688384 99% sure these are the same racks I've seen in @Randy's fish room on some of the videos. Super sturdy - can handle tons of weight - and reasonably priced given the weight capacity, but definitely not the cheapest.

On a serious note - I have been wondering what the delta is between frozen baby brine and live baby brine. Obviously, I can only imagine the live is better but I wonder if anyone has done any kind of objective testing (or even just somewhat scientific anecdotal) on the real world results between the two.

Looks awesome! I had a similar shrimp + betta setup and guess who no longer has a shrimp + betta setup...

"Artemia Blender" 🤣 ***FTFY

Decided to start keeping a record of the space that was formerly my basement and will soon be the new runner up in the First Annual "Why Do You Have So Many Tanks?" Competition. Currently waiting on my Waterbox 3620 to ship and thinking about what kind of load the tile floor will take before cracking...