Bitty

I have always been one to give the advice to not chase PH...but I've come to the point where I think I need to lower mine to so my bristlenose plecos are more likely to breed. I have wild caught L183, but my ph is 8.4. I all ready have driftwood in the tank. I do water changes every two weeks. I usually use city water which is also hard, but I do have a water softner on the house but that only lowers hardness. I'm thinking of getting a portable RODI system and cutting my water during water changes to the ph I want, maybe closer to 7. What are your thoughts? Do I need full RODI or will just RO suffice?

I like the look of river pea pebbles, and I have tanks with both sand and small river pebbles, but I struggle to grow any kind of plants. I've spent more money that i'll ever tell my wife on coop plants that just melt away and never come back, I even wait to see if they will after initial melt. My wife's class room tank that has fluval substrate is lush! Is there a plant substrate that looks more natural than little black balls? I'd also like to not be jagged edged so corys dont tear up their barbles. Thanks.

Its a 55 with only 2 CPDs and super red long fin and starlight plecos. I'm trying to get the plecos primed for breeding but the snails are seriously getting alittle out of control. The Sharks could really use Nabbie right now! Im in the bay area...

Any one used copper to eliminate snails from a tank. I'm not anti snail but I feed this tank heavy to promote breeding and the bladder snail eggs clutches are all over the front of the tank. Is Seachem Cupramine Copper a possibility?

Wow this did help a bunch!

Ok I'm getting over run with Montezumae swordtails here and need to start shipping. Looking to pick you highly intelligent ppl on how you ship your fish. What carrier is best/easiest, what insulation do you use, what filler material do you use, O2 in the bag or not, polyfil in the bag or not. Thanks in advance!

@Colu, so if i let it sit without feeding for 1 month will i be safe to add fish? I am planning on dosing levamisole maybe a week before that...

@Colu, if there are ramshorn snails in the tank do they carry the parasites? Or are they only fish parasites?

Thanks for the info!

If you suspect internal parasites wiped out the livestock in a tank, would waiting and doing vacuuming be a good enough treatment for the tank? it only had a super red and a few guppies and ramshorn snails. All that's left are the snails. I want to wait/treat the tank before getting any new livestock. 36g bowfront. I have levamisole and paraclense on hand.

I have lavamisole also. I wouldnt say they have sunken bellies too bad, these are all juvenile.

Yeah this tank has been running for over a year with stable parameters. I think I might have introduced parasites from my LFS...it def affects the guppies more than the plecos, but I have been loosing 1 juvi plec ever couple days.

So I am having some deaths in my 36g bowfront. I want to run some meds through the fish to make sure they are healty. I'm also breaking down the tank, removing substrate and amazon sponge filters, drying it all out, and replacing substrate and using Coop sponges. I have a 5 g bucket I'm warming up for a qt tank. My guppies look skinny and never really beef up but I haven't noticed stringy white poop. I have the trio, which of the 3 should I use? Or should I just use them all. The fish are guppies and super red plecos. I have plenty of other tanks to use the media to jump start the cycle on the redo. Thanks for your help!

Cory, any idea what is aquabid name is? I'll keep an eye out.

yeah the ones from Imperial come with some orange. I had bred alot of it out but then lost my males. The new ones from IT don't seem to be doing anything. I wanted some new stock...I'll keep looking. Thanks.