WillMcK

Dang! They must’ve come from the place where I bought the water hyacinth. Thanks for the reply!

Broke down my summer tubs today. These came from my golden white cloud pond but a few clearly are something else. I had some platys going in another tank that may have accidentally transferred out to the pond for the summer. Any idea what the bigger grey fish is and the multicolored ones are?

No ammonia or nitrites, nitrates 20-30ppm. Any idea what this could be or any treatment recommendations?

Ok, working on moving it now. Thanks.

I have 2 mini ponds that have been set up since late April here in southeast NC. I’ve got golden white cloud minnows and rainbow fish on the way but I’m worried about my temps! One pond is a 40gal and the big one is 110. The big one gets more shade being off the deck but the 40gal is on my deck and only gets partial shade for small parts of the day. We’ve had highs in the low 90’s lately and nightly temps in the mid 60’s. Pics show the 40gal at 91 degrees and the big guy at 83. In the morning both tanks sit at around 76-77 degrees. Should I move the 40gal onto my screened porch?? Thanks for the advice!

Great, thanks for the advice, I'll check them out. I think it's been mentioned in this thread already, but water hyacinth is a great option as a floating filter plant. Just check to be sure it's legal in your state and not considered invasive.

Is it safe to top off my outdoor mini ponds with collected rainwater from a rain barrel? I've read conflicting advice on the internet about rainwater having a dangerously low pH. But what about when it rains? If you top off with a hose, then is it okay to top off then immediately dose prime?

I got this book and can't recommend it enough. It's an easy to follow step-by-step manual from the expert in the hobby. I've followed his advice on setting up 2 tubs this summer-a 40 and a110 gallon. So far I've got some Yellow Iris and water hyacinth and Creeping Jenny growing. I threw in some java moss and some dwarf water lettuce from my tanks and things are looking good. Anyone have advice on where to buy water lilies online? There's a local garden store that said they may have some after Mother's Day but who know what varieties they'll get.

Unfortunately the Fish Room in Wilmington is not really that impressive. I still support them when I can but it seems like covid has hit them pretty hard in terms of orders, as I’d imagine is common everywhere. The owner is really nice but I get the feeling it’s not quite what it used to be in its prime. I’ll check out the Raleigh location and see if they can get some apistos and if not I’ll try my luck with Aquabid. I’ve ordered from Aquahuna a couple of times and have been very pleased but I don’t think they carry them.

Hey Paul and Daniel, I live in Wilmington and am hoping to set up my first ponds/tubs this summer. Thinking of a couple in the 40-50 gallon range. I’d like to dedicate one to some apistogrammas but can find anywhere local or online to get some. Any ideas where I might find some in our area? Or maybe online? Thanks, Will

Is that bad? What should I do?

I recently found those in my tank too...I have neon tetras and CRS. I've pulled out the ones I can with tweezers when I seem them but I know there's more hiding, and probably eggs too. Are they dangerous? Should I care or just let them be? They are nasty looking...

Whew. Ok thanks for the quick reply. Here’s a pic I just got

I've had my light off all day as I just added some new shrimp to my tank and right after I clicked the light on to check on things I found 2 large worms (1" or more) going through the surface of the substrate. They really look like earthworms to me. Are they harmless? Should I remove them?

Triops! Reading about these things, they get a lot bigger than I would expect so they will be going no where near my tanks. Thanks for the info. I'm learning about all sorts of little critters lately, I just identified some seed shrimp in one of my tanks.

I got this as a fun Christmas present and I'm wondering what exactly these are. The kit comes with "brine shrimp food" but nowhere does is specifically say these are brine shrimp eggs. Anyone seen this before? Can I hatch these and feed them to my fish? https://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Prehistoric-Creatures-Horizon-Group/dp/B07953S2VQ

So are they are the same thing? One won't raise my pH and KH higher than the other? I have a bag of aragonite on hand but wondering if I should get true "crushed coral" instead. Aquarium Coop is out of stock at the moment and the internets seem to indicate there is a difference, but what that difference is...I can't figure out. Help me obi-wan @Cory, you're my only hope...

I've been doing some research trying to find out the difference between these two. I'm getting confused and going down the rabbit hole of aragonite vs. crushed coral and the calcite vs. aragonite forms of calcium carbonate... I want to bump up the buffering capacity of my tap since it comes out at 2dKH and a pH of 7.0-7.2. I also would like to increase my GH since my tap is pretty soft as well at about 2dGH. Rather than dose equilibrium and alkaline buffer with every water change, adding cc or aragonite to my canister filter seems ideal. So my question is...is there a difference? Ideal pH would be no higher than 7.4-7.6 since I want to keep bolivian rams, black phantom tetras, any corydoras. Thanks!

I've been doing 50% water changes every other day and ammonia is staying between 0-.25 on api test kit. No meds in the tank after the first week. Going to give them one more week then do a 2nd paracleanse treatment. I also have been dosing seachem stability with the water changes and I think my bb colony is going strong. I suspect the antibacterial meds in the first week hurt my bb colony. Fish are doing well. I'm curious about the re-dosing of meds. If I'm not mistaken the aquarium coop shop re-doses meds in all their quarantine tanks with 50% daily water changes. Not really following the half-life of the meds comment...from my minimal chemistry background, I thought that related to radioactive isotopes...

I dosed 1mL of prime and that seemed to hold off the ammonia for about 24hrs but had to do it again the following evening. Decided to do a 50% water change today and redosed the meds proportionally. Fish seem to be doing just fine. I think my beneficial bacteria may have taken a hit initially so I dosed stability to help bring the colony back. Going to be patient with the process but vigilant on keeping parameters in check for these guys. Really will be relieved when I can feed them and finally get them into my main tank!

Ok sounds good. Should I do a proportional redosing of the med trio?

I just recently started a 10 gal QT with 7 black phantom tetras. I added an extra sponge filter I had running in my main tank along with another sponge off the intake (main tank is cycled with only plants right now). I dosed the med trio Sunday night. Monday read 0 ammonia and zero nitrites. Water started to look a little cloudy at that point. Just tested the water today (Tuesday) and got .25-.5 ammonia and 0 nitrites. What should I do? Water change and proportional med trio dosage? Should I add prime or stability? Is that safe? Do nothing and keep and eye on them?

Awesome, thanks for the replies.

I think Cory recommended Julii corys. Would those be considered small enough to have more than 6 schooling around together?

My newly setup 40gb is almost finishing cycling. It’s planted and looking good and I’m just about ready to add some fish (following one of Cory’s stocking ideas). Will start a quarantine tank with one of the following species but I don’t know what I should go for first: 3-4 Bolivian rams 10 or so black phantom tetras 6 corydoras Does it matter what I start with? Thanks!