Flipper

I posted too quickly! Looks like you already have fish. Tank has come a long way. Great job, aquarium and stand look lovely 😍

I'm liking your hardscape and it looks like your plants are starting to come along. What size is this tank? Any fish stocking in mind yet?

As I said, I have a small sponge filter but rely on my HOB to catch the majority of the gunk. I use the sponge filter more for aeration in the water column and the attached ACO curved tube to shoot water across the surface. That horizontal jet stream shoots over, hits the waterfall of the HOB and circulates it so my water really gets circulated down into all tank areas. If one had that much mulm in a sponge, even if you covered it with a bag to remove it, it would dump most right back into the water before you got it above the waterline, and then would just polute the water again. HOB has a basket where most mulm stays until you pull the basket to clean. That's the logic I use. My tank is healthy and fish are still happy with me after 2 years.

I agree with Johnnyxxl ....... Unless, by some strange coincidence, you're having the same or similar problem as I am/was. My plants and some of my substrate were just covered in brown stuff (last few months). I knew it wasn't diatomes because it wasn't a slippery biofilm. Upon real, real close inspection, I realized it was little individual, brown crumbs. I thought "WHAT, MY FISH CANNOT POOP THAT MUCH?!!!" I have 7 nanos and a 2 inch, full grown pleco in a 20 high with good filtration. 😳 And, I never had this problem before now. So after more sleuthing, I realize that the crumbs were thickest in areas near a piece of Malaysian driftwood that is 2 years old. Pulled it out and could tell it was getting soft and breaking down, threw it away. Vacuumed the gravel and plants and most of it is gone, not all. Now, I monitor my tank for a month or two and see if I fixed the problem. I realize that a small part of my brown crumbs may have indeed been fish waste, so I know that won't change, but I cut the food back a bit. I make sure I pull out dying leaves, maybe leave a couple for my shrimp. I wish I had better vision; might have resolved this earlier. Just something to ponder. What's in YOUR tank?

I love my Seachem Tidal HOB. Lots of room for layering inside. Starting at the bottom, I have: The blue course sponge that comes with it, followed by a less course sponge, then a fine filter sponge, and last, a bag of bio filter media. I buy in bulk and cut to fit. This way, most of the mulm/brown diatomes stays in the filter and you can clean it in old tank water along with your water change. I clean filter once a month and I'm careful to change out only 1 sponge each time so that you keep the good bacteria in the other sponge. I swear by a good HOB but I also have a small sponge filter in that tank. Hope this helps you. https://www.amazon.com/Seachem-Tidal-Filter-Sicce-Gallon/dp/B07NJ28T1X

There's some food already there for the babies. Do you have shrimp pellet food for your other shrimp? If so, put 2 or 3 pieces in the tank for the babies, maybe twice a week. That should be fine.

I should clarify, the shrimplets in my photos are already a week or two old, so not exactly newborns.

@Little Guys Congrats on new shrimplets. 👏 I got babies a few months ago and as I keep watching, they have multiplied, so I have babies of all ages. They start out unbelievably tiny; it's almost unreal just how tiny. Here's a picture of some of my newborns. Compare them to the size of my small substrate pieces. I'm so happy that this gave you so much excitement, as mine did for me. 😃 ❤️ That's why we do this hobby. Can you find all 4? Top right, 2 babes on the plant leaves.

I forgot to mention that Bashful, my dwarf clown pleco, is about 2 1/2 inches long. Told you he is tiny ... 😊

She is SO beautiful. re: Plecos. I've had only one pleco and he/she is a tiny dwarf clown pleco. I've looked that up many times and Google has never found a single mention of a "dwarf" clown, but my LFS sells them. I've named it Bashful and just assume he's a boy, because he acts like a boy to me LoL If I ever get a large tank, I'll try a big pleco. For now, I absolutely love little Bashful. I feel protective over him, like he's my baby 👶 ❤️

Can we see a picture of your tank now? I'm sure curious! 🤗

I hope enough people hear these complaints and avoid the Fluval tanks. Our hobby is hard enough without setting ourselves up for problems, especially cleaning problems. Let's use that energy for other things, like sitting and watching the fruits of our labor and relaxing in our recliners just enjoying the fish and other animals. 😃

I hated my Fluval Flex 15 gal. If you have your tank against a wall (which most people do), it is very hard to get to the back section to clean and it's dark back there. I got rid of mine before I even got it cycled. That curved front panel, that looks cool, is it's one and only plus side. Go for a better built tank, that's easy to clean, like my Aqueon 20 gal. And, if you want a beautiful tank, do that with plants, fish, wood, rocks (that you can buy with the money you saved on the tank).

I was asking for help with my power outage, not asking you two to debate proper temps for shrimp. I added warm, conditioned water so the temp never fell below about 74. I covered the tank with towels and perhaps that prevented gas exchange. Today, I have slight ammonia and think maybe my cycle crashed a little. I added FritzZyme although it expired in Dec 23. I have ordered an air pump battery backup to handle a future power outage. Now, you boys be nice. 😉 @JettsPapa @nabokovfan87

Yesterday we had a 7 hour power outage. Our house got down to 72 degrees. I covered my tank with towels to hold the warmth inside. I aerated the water by hand every 20 minutes. I poured water over the filter to try and keep good bacteria alive. I worked so hard but lost several of my yellow cherry shrimp. It could have been the temp but most likely it was lack of oxygen and too much carbon dioxide build up. @nabokovfan87 I would love your opinion. I worked so hard to save my tank. At least my fish and pleco made it OK.