s_in_houston

Something to think about. No dead snails but there are 4 living nerite snails and 1 mystery snail. Plus there’s a colony of neocaridina shrimp and they do like to molt their outer shells. Oh and come To think of it, every time I lower my water my tank is left with a white-ish residue covering the glass. It reminds me much more of calciuM than any algae.

Funnily enough I had a big scare once when I randomly decided to test my tank for ammonia and it came up positive right after a water change. I did yet another change. A huge one. Fish died. It was from that that I learned about the presence of ammonia in chloramine-treated water, and that the Prime I had already been using made the ammonia harmless. In other words, routine tap ammonia and not a cycle crash and I panicked for nothing.

🤔 I don’t know what you mean by degassing. I have been testing the tap water immediately, as opposed to giving it time to sit out. Should I try that? Could the “rise” in GH be something that happens on its own?

I don’t know how long this has been happening. I only recently bought the API GH/KH kit to see if my water hardness might be affecting my plants. And testing both tap water and aquarium water was done on a whim. Glad I did. Since writing the first post here, I’ve done multiple big water changes (~40%) and I’ve had multiple chances now to see the GH rise. It’s a pattern for sure. And any process of testing by trial-and-error I’d ready rather avoid. My substrate is super prone to cloudiness. Plus I have a bunch of planted plants including new ones that are still delicate and adjusting to the new tank. So I’m trying not to cause too much shifting substrate and too much disruption to the plants, not to mention the animals. worst case scenario I remove literally everything from my tank. See what happens with just water in it over two days. See what happens with just water and substrate over two days. Etc etc.

Thanks. The one upside is that I’ve been feeling like *something* is wrong. My plants used to do better than they are now, and I follow all the usual advice. So there’s a glimmer of hope that I can finally resolve the underlying problem. (I‘m no expert but. I would have to think rapidly-swinging parameters are bad for plant life.)

Update: It’s not this. My GH rose significantly since I did a big water change on Monday. Either something in my aquarium is leaching (even if it’s not “supposed” to) or something I add to the aquarium is causing the problem (another even if it’s not “supposed” to). It’ll have to be trial-and-error figuring it out. I’ve heard of people having problems with big pet store gravel, which I have in a bag inside my aquarium. I’ll try that first.

Hey wait. I do feed my fish brine shrimp every other day. Albeit frozen baby brine shrimp. Now I wonder if that could be the source.

I use a lid so I only add water when I do water changes. I’ll see where the numbers are this weekend or so and if the change is a big one. Thanks.

okay y’all. I did a big water change and it lowered the GH in my aquarium significantly. I’ll check again and see if the level rises on its own at this point. Then I know the problem is caused by something in my tank. I think. Right?

Okay I’ll look into this. I have a lid so I don’t do top-offs, per se. Or at least not much. I had been doing weekly water changes of around 20-some-odd percent for a long time and decided to be a little bold and daring and change my routine to every other week.* That said, there is always at least a small amount of evaporation. And after writing this post, I realize there are a few sources of rocks - some aquarium-store-bought rocks (probably slate) and a small amount of Petco gravel. But I’ll look into the video. Can’t right now. Thanks!

My girlfriend tells me I’m obsessed but I promise her it gets much “worse.” If it’s any context, I have one 15-gallon tank.

I noticed last night that the water inside of my aquarium was much harder than the water directly from my sink. ~220 vs 143 Is this normal? I thought aquarium water was supposed to soften over time. When I conducted the test, it had been a week since I’ve done a water change and 7 hours since I added Thrive fertilizer. (And I’m currently conducting the tests to see if maybe my water hardness is a factor in what I see as mediocre plant performance.)

No insight but I wanted to express solidarity. I keep my ludwigias alive but they’re not in great shape. I think people overstate the degree to which they’re “easy” plants.

No real input other than to tell you that after 5 years of fishkeeping, I can tell you there’s not any standard, accepted recommendation. And you will hear plausible-sounding “scientific” explanations behind different people’s routines. Why more changes are good for plants. Why they’re bad for plants. I’m not ready to join the “no water changes” religion (which is what this is as long as no one can point to any studies), but I also don’t care to overwork myself. I’m experimenting with water changes every other week. I know Aquarium Coop says to keep going without them until your nitrate gets really high. I know my bottle of Thrive brand fertilizer says to do them every week and they give their own rationale. Anyways. I try not to sweat it but I agree with you on the idea of doing at least some water changes since we just don’t know all the variables. Weekly 20% if you want to give yourself an amount that’s the median of all the conflicting advice you’ll hear.

Ahhh okay. Flowers would be nice but one of this particular plant is definitely enough in my aquarium.