anodyne99

I hope someone with more shrimp experience than I can help! I understand that Salty Shrimp Gh/Kh remineralizes water at a ratio of 1d GH to .5d KH. Compared to Equilibrium and Fritz Cichlid buffer (or baking soda), Salty Shrimp is crazy expensive. If I maintain the same 1/.5 ratio and go to the same GH and KH levels (I do GH 6 and KH 3), is there any reason not to switch from Salty Shrimp GH KH to Equilibrium and Fritz Cichlid Buffer (or baking soda)? Thank you so much for any advice you can offer!

Just had the same experience with the test strips (Spring 2024). I hope the coop will consider adding a note somewhere on the packaging or website so others don't go through this!

I used a box cutter with a fresh blade. Definitely go slowly. It didn't make a perfect cut, but it also doesn't show.

I would fill it with dish scrubbers or super coarse sponge and put a clump of floss right in the front. Then I would just be super irritated every time I looked at it, but it would probably get the job done.

Do you know the scientific name of this variety? It seems like there are a lot of pennyworts.

I'm looking forward to seeing how these turn out. I just learned about these fish and I am astounded by them!

Glorious, I will have to make one.

Love the idea of a way to hold a sieve under the brine shrimp hatchery! Does it work pretty well? No slipping?

Wow! Incredible! I will look forward to following your adventure. Congratulations on getting your kids interested. My daughter is like....no, just, no.

Those bowls are crazy gorgeous! Are things improving with the pothos? About to start my own ricefish attempt!

My first try at vallisneria failed and I learned the hard way that it's really important not to bury the bulb, only the roots. "But my new plant has no roots attached, what do I do?!" you may ask. In that case, let it float in your aquarium for a few weeks until roots appear. Once you have those, you can bury them in the substrate with the bulb on top. * also, in my experience, vallisneria will do best with nutrients through its roots as well as in the water column, so get some tabs to add.

Thank you so much for that thoughtful and helpful reply. It honestly never occurred to me to worry about whether a plant was native. Since we live in a pretty urban area I'd be nervous anything collected from the wild (such as it is here) would be contaminated, sadly, but I bet others won't have that problem! I will seek out a specialty nursery!

For those who have outdoor tubs in the summer, what do you do to ensure the plants you buy are free of pesticides? Is there a reliable way to clean them?

Thanks Whitecloud09! Can you tell me how I would know whether a light is considered high, medium or low on my tank? Of course the manufacturer sold it as "super bright!", and it looks bright to me, but I'm not sure I trust that to be true by anyone else's standards!

I don't have any advice, but I have the same thing happening, lots of runners but the taller plants don't seem to be doing well or are outright fading and being eaten by snails. I have heard that some plants may focus energy on sending out runners before they focus on growing tall, but I don't know whether to trust that. I hope someone will chime in with more experience with this plant. This is my second try, last time I think I gave up too soon.