ChrisD

Fours cats, two rats, two small fish tanks, and a nine-year old humanoid. The rats probably have the best attitude towards life amongst them all. I forgot to mention the neighbor's cat who comes to hang out frequently.

I suspect that, even though I said I dosed properly, I'm not doing so (see below). But I'm not going to analyze further with these ferts. I just bought some Easy Green and will use it. The thing is (and I'm sort of answering my own question), liquid tests are titrations. Assuming the test kit reagents are correct and the testing procedure followed properly , it's not possible for them to be wrong or inaccurate.

@Daniel, Ah yes I remember when a bag of coal was a legit threat. Alas, kids these days don't even know what coal is.

A few hours after properly dosing ( based on directions) my planted tanks with Seachem Flourish, Searchem Nitrogen, (and Flourish Excel though it should be irrelevant), my API test kit indicates 0 ppm of nitrates. Should this be the case? If not, perhaps could it be a problem with the test kit?

Those look great! Good job with the creative engineering.

I've had a couple of open-top aquariums over the years and only lost two fish to jumping. One, a clown killifish, happened to be found in a squashed flat stepped-on state by my kid just this morning. He seemed a bit despondent lately - the holiday season can be tough for some creatures.

@Pearl I can get more tanks using smaller ones that one 10 gal in the same amount of very small extra counter space. I'd like at least one more small tank to offload some junky guppies into.

I plan to rescue my GFs depressed betta from a bowl and put it in a 2.5 gallon aquarium. She's not going to want to gravel vac it weekly if at all. The tank is going to be planted (prolly pennywort since I have plenty extra) but what about the fish poop from one betta? Would a snail be able to take care of it and if so, what type of snail would both handle the poop and not becomes dinner for a hungry betta?

@Alexa See:

Much to the horror of the "One True Way 'Scapers of YouTube", I've decided to subvert the dominant paradigm and let my planted tank kinda get out of hand. As a consequence, I haven't seen some creatures in weeks

I see and hear references to culling shrimp and other aquarium inhabitants. I DO know what culling means, but how do you cull shrimp or other inhabitants in the least cruel way (assuming you don't simply move them to another tank)?

I just thought I'd share this. My pennywort went plumb loco this past week. After suffering from months of my persistent trimming in the tank, it decided to liberate itself from the tank and is "going for it".

Well, I questioned the guppies and they adamantly denied any anti-shrimp activity and pinned it on the clown killifish. The clown killifish made the compelling argument that they hang out at the top of the tank and pointed fins at the amano shrimp. The amanos said they saw the guppies going after the shrimp. Someone is lying.

I got 5 guppies recently. None are more than 1" or so. They are fed Hikari Fancy Guppie food daily. Yesterday, my daughter says "The guppies are biting the heads off your shrimp!" No way! I figured she was making up stories. Then tonight I found a pile of just tails from full grown cherry shrimp collected at the base of my filter. Thoughts?

Well, my filter has a spray bar (Denerle Eckfilter), so I can see the outflow. I'm more interested in seeing the flow in the rest of the tank- the course water takes to the filter inflow. I would think food dyes would instantly dilute and thus not last long enough to allow tracking.

I'm trying to come up with a method to map the water currents in my aquarium. I think it'd be cool to both come up with a method and to see the results. I only have an in-tank filter and air stone- no supplemental circulation pumps. My first experiment is going to involve putting some sort of flag on the end of a stick and methodically moving it around the aquarium. Anyone else have ideas?

My concern about these items is that they require wifi connectivity to work properly. And I suspect it is more than just wifi- it is a working internet connection. Where I live, our cable connection drops quite frequently. Because I leave for work before the aquarium lights and CO2 come on and after they go off many days, I'd always be wondering if they ever even came on for the day. I think I'll have to stick with the more traditional timers for my own sanity. It's a shame cause they are kewl.

Should I bother trying to raise my pH? Thoughts and opinions please... Given the params below and the health of my plants and livestock, is it worth trying to raise my pH, to prevent the swing (0.25-0.5), or to improve my tank (if need be)? I was thinking about adding argonite to raise my KH which is essentially 0. But I think it's silly to buy 10-20 lbs of the stuff and I already have some Seachem alkaline buffer. Aquarium: 10 gallon. High lighting. CO2 injection. 1+ years old. Parameters: Temperature: 76 deg F. pH: Before lights on at beginning of day 6.5; After lights out at end of day: 6.0-6.25. Ammonia: 0. Nitrate: 0. Nitite: 0. GH: ~160 ppm. KH: ~0. Ferts: Seachem Flourish. Seachem Excel. Seachem Nitrogen. Plants: Java moss: insane growth. Pennywort: prolific growth. Rotala indica: moderate growth. Ammannia Gracilis: Recently planted but beginning to take off. Livestock: ~20 Cherry shrimp colony- healthy and breeding. 4 Amano shrimp- healthy. 4 Clown killifish: 2 males, 2 females, males healthy, 1 female healthy, 1 a bit under weight. None breeding. 1 Feeder Guppy (rescued at GF's insistance). Happy, go lucky little guy.

Perhaps I did not communicate or use terminology properly. I used dGH and dKH to mean the number of drops of GH and KH test solution used from my API test kit. They say that one drop = 1 degree of hardness.

How long does it take for a Wonder Shell to have an effect? Prior to the addition of a small Wonder Shell to a 10 gallon tank, my dGH was ~6 and my dKH was essentially 0. After the addition of the Wonder Shell and waiting 24 hours, my dGH was about 6.5 while my dKH was still essentially 0. Should I expect a rise in dKH in a 24 hour period? Would my plants be absorbing the extra minerals released by the Wonder Shell hence the apparent failure to raise the calcium hardness? Thanks in advance for your input.