Dacotua

I had two of these USB Nano pumps in the past. Both pumps failed. After the 2nd one, I elected going back to a normal pump and havent had an issue.

Doesn't matter. The bottom basket of a 307 and 407 are the same. You clog it, the filter will slow down. You should be cleaning your canister filter monthly, however I've let mine go 6 months at a time in the past before cleaning it. If you over feed, you need to clean the filters more often. Your beneficial bacteria should match the amount you feed in time anyway. (Natural Ponds do not have filters, the Beneficial Bacteria matches the bio load of the system. Your tank will do the same thing)

If you put only bio media (no sponges) in a filter, it will flow more. Sponges will restrict your flow and the more clogged they get, the more they restrict it.

Honestly, you don't need a HUGE canister filter for an aquarium. I'll give you this example, a Fluval 107 canister filter can hold all the media yoru Seachem Tidal 75 contained. It would absolutely work just fine in your aquarium. Don't believe me? There are people with a large sponge filter in a 75 gallon tank and it does fine. Filter companies want to sell you more and more filtration (funny the cost goes up per larger models). Depending on YOUR STAND, I would probably put a Fluval 307 or perhaps a 407 in your tank. *I* prefer the 307's over the 407's simply because the 307 isn't as tall and fits inside my stand just fine. On a 307, the bottom basket has the bio-sponge with Filter floss on top, the next two baskets are full of bio-rings. I've run 307s from 40gallon tanks all the way to 80 gallon tanks. They work fine on them.

Like I said, if you want them all dead, buy some NO-Planaria and medicate your tank. It will kill every snail in the tank. Wait two weeks, then do it again. (To make sure you get them as snail eggs will hatch and a new colony will appear). Myself, I just accept the snails. I did put a few Assassin Snails in the tank to keep the snail population under control (I have a sand substrate so the Assassin snails bury themselves during the day and come out at night).

Goldfish or Loaches love snails. HOWEVER these both require a larger tank.

You can always add a few assassin snails to the tank to keep their population under control. But if you are the type of person that NEVER wants a snail in their tank....Buy the following and medicate your tank with it. It won't kill shrimp, but does a number on snails.

I would trash that tank. I would absolutely not use it. Years ago I had a chip on the edge of a 60 or 70 gallon tank (Don't remember). That tank held water for a year or so, until one winter night at about 1am. I heard a crash and the sound of water running. I got up to see a crack going from the "chip" all the way down to the bottom of the tank. The pressure of the water pushed the water out of the tank and all over the floor. Unless you want something like this to happen to you, then I wouldn't use it. My guess in my case, it was heat and cool cycles on the glass, even tiny heat cycles (water changes and temps in the house). Over time a small crack formed and then one night, the pressure of the tank spread it across the tank all the way to the bottom. Consider it the same as your windshield on your car. Get a stone chip in the window, don't get it fixed. Eventually moisture will get into it or the wind blowing against it will cause it to spread.

I HATE that black hinge on a lot of glass lids. I simply removed it. When I want to open the top, I just remove the front portion. I cut lexan/plexiglass strip for the "Backstrip". I pushed the glass all the way forward, then measured the rear. I cut a piece of plexiglass to fit this area. If you are worried about it sagging, you can simply superglue a small piece of plexiglass in the middle so it overhangs and catches the glass. The rear should be fully supported by the tank (if you have a framed tank).

Which one did you buy Green Machine one? Theres a pin hole in the main body, you'll be able to see a small pin sized light coming out of it. Today, I run a inline UV system that connects to the output tube of my cannister

Just a word of advice. Many many many people will say throw a established sponge filter into a tank and its instant cycled. My experience with this, this is not the case. It will speed up your cycle, but will not instant cycle your tank. I ended up putting a sponge filter into a new tank (The sponge filter was from an established tank of more than 3 years.). I added drops of ammonia to the tank, Ammonia would go to 0 fairly quickly but Nitrite was thru the roof and I barely had any Nitrate. It took the tank over two weeks to cycle. When I decided to make my shrimp tank, I tried again using an established sponge filter. After two weeks of having high nitrite, I decided to throw in a bunch of floating plants and start dosing ferts. After a week of doing this, the tank cycled. Frog Bit works works wonders in zapping all the Nitrite in a tank. Not sure if the tank cycled officially or the frog bit simple removed the toxins from the tank. Didn't matter to me, I put my shrimp colony in it and its been running ever since. What I'm saying is be very careful when you start cycling your tank.

Cut the tubes. (The green tubes) See pic. (Nano filter in my 5g shrimp tank) Another option is take the Nano Filter apart, Toss one basket, cut the black sponge in half, now you have a 1/2 sized nano.

Did you do a large water change before you added all your fish? Whenever I do a fish-less cycle, I do a 80% water change before I add my fish. Sometimes there can be things in the water you can't test for. Sometimes fish just die when you add them to a new environment. Stress can kill a fish quicker than anything.

If you want a natural way of keeping them in check, put 1 or 2 assassin snails in the tank

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09C1CWYWC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 I recommend HiTauing Aquarium Heaters. You can adjust them by the controller thats not in the tank. They are fairly inexpensive and comes in various wattages.

Maybe, but I have had a lid made of it now going on 4-1/2 years.

Female in the first picture Makes have more squared fins and don't look "Circular". Females fins seamlessly morph into the their head. On a male, this is not the case.

Dead snail. I have assassin snails in every one of my tanks. I use them to keep the pest snails in check.

I use a straight edge and a box cutter to cut the poly carbon sheets. You cut them similar to glass. You take your straight edge, place it on the sheet where you want to cut. Run the box cutter down the sheet, scratching the surface all the way down. Run the box cutter 4-8 times down the sheet in the same spot. Next grab the sheet flex it across the scratches you just made. If you scratched it deep enough, it will snap along it and your done. If it doesn't snap, place your straight edge along the line and proceed to use your box cutter and cut along the line again 4-8 times. Then try to flex it at the scratch mark. It will snap eventually. I use single thickness lexan for my lids when I need them. They are light and crystal clear.

Here is a Hillstream and a Cory sitting peacefully, just hanging out.

I personally would put Assassin Snails in the tank even after you remove 80% of the snails. Consider the Assassin Snails as natures way to balance the snails. (I put them in my tanks, I still have snails, but I don't have huge outbreaks of them as I did in the past.) To combat Algae, may people put algae eating livestock in their tanks. To help out with Water Quality in the tanks, many of us put live plants in the tank. To help clean the tank, many of us buy a "clean up" crew. So putting Assassin Snails in the tank will help you out with excess snail populations. A good think about having Assassin Snails in the tank, they will eat excessive snails and leave their shells. Those shells will help with calcium in your tank, you won't have to keep adding cuttlebone or any other calcium products for your snails/shrimp.

I have (6) six reticulated hillstream loaches and at least (6) Cory's in my 40 gallon tank. They seem to get along fine, I haven't seen any aggression towards each other at all.

Regardless what you think, it probably has it in it if you are on a city water system. I always recommend you put PRIME into the water you are putting back into your tank.

If you want to kill ALL the snails (You'll also kill your ghost shrimp), its time to treat that tank with ICK treatment (MAKE SURE IT HAS COPPER). You'll kill all those snails. You'll have to do some massive water changes later (over and over), if you ever want to kill shrimp in that tank again after putting that much copper in the tank. Alternate Method - Put 5-8 Assassin Snails in that tank OR put 2-3 Large Goldfish in that tank. Goldfish LOVE snails and so do Assassin snails. (You just can put both in the tank, the goldfish will eat the assassin snails). Since you posted you don't mind snails, Make a couple DYI snail traps and put food in them. Remove as many snails as you can. TRUST ME, you will not get them all. You'll probably get 80% of them, if you can live with the remaining 20%, thats all that matters.

I only keep shrimp in a 5.5 gallon tank. Shrimp have such a small bio-load it doesn't really matter. (I use the 5.5 gallon tank to raise red cherry shrimp for my other tanks). You'd be surprised on how many shrimp you can raise in a 5.5 gallon tank and not have the water go bad. (Its a ton)