KaitieG

Lowering PH is usually done by using RO water--but it can be tricky to keep things stable and can be a pain. My Ph is 8.2 and I just leave it there. If your fish are mainly coming from your lake, it seems like the fish should be well adapted to it. That said, the higher the Ph the more "Toxic" ammonia is to fish, so I'd start dosing with prime and keep doing big water changes.

I had a betta with neocardina shrimp for over a year--the colony grew like crazy. Might depend on the betta, but mine was totally uninterested in the shrimp. Angelfish is a different story.

I'm not a brine shrimp expert, but here's my experience: 1. Most of what I've heard has been "freeze for long term storage" BUT let them come up to room temp for a day before trying to hatch. That's worked fine for me. 2. I've never reused the water. It would be super convenient, but you have all the shells and stuff in there after they hatch. It's not too hard to mix the solution up, and it keeps anything nasty from getting started growing in the dishes/equipment if you give it a rinse after each batch. Maybe someone else with more experience will have done more of a "continuous add" system, but it's not something I've heard of.

From what I've read, shrimp and fish don't usually share diseases. So, when I added shrimp to my fish tank, I did not QT the shrimp. If I were to add additional shrimp to the already established shrimp population (which I've avoided doing) I'd QT those without meds and just watching for any signs of disease.

Seems like it could only add more places for bacteria to thrive to me! You can add decorations and plants as you go, so gravel should be the same.

I live in Wisconsin, and last winter I had an order go from Seattle to Pennsylvania, back to Washington, make a stop in Colorado, and then FINALLY come to me. Guess it decided to travel the "road less taken."

For stem plants specifically, I've had great success with Hygrophila angustifolia in my super hard Wisconsin water. I've had failures with Brazilian Pennywort, Scarlet Temple, and Water Sprite.

Seems like a fantastic idea to me! If you leave it in 6-8 hours it should come out nice and tender too 😉

Yeah--we like it a lot because of the smooth finish. My mother in law has one she uses a lot that has been at the farm house for several generations--this was as close as we could get. My husband has tried to figure out the differences in the casting, but no matter how much we cook in the new pan, it just doesn't quite feel or look the same. We've actually considered sanding it (the new--15 year old--one) down so it's smooth and then re-seasoning it...not sure if that's a terrible idea or not. I'll let you know the results if we ever give it a try.

Well there goes that theory! 😃

My brother has exactly 3 pieces of cookware: a cast iron griddle, a cast iron fry pan, and a cast iron dutch oven. I have the same lodge pan that @Streetwise bought and I like it well enough for things--especially bread and pizza, but my favorite is this one. It's an old garage sale find, weighs about half what the newer lodge pan weighs and has this nice smoooooooth finish. Pro tip from my husband: if you burn hash browns in it, DO NOT heat up a bunch of oil in it and then try to scrape it out with a plastic utensil. I just got to smell the whole thing while I was teaching my class this morning 🤨

Thanks! Got that as a free piece when I bought some local snails and shrimp. It's one of my favorite plants now and I've cut off huge chunks to use in my other tanks (grows like a weed...unlike the Java fern that barely hangs on). I like the bright green contrast with the other plants.

My bottles are about 6 ish months old and I haven't had any pads fall off--I think the issue is resolved. One thing I'd mention is that every single tank I have registers trace ammonia according the the Co-op test strips. API and Tetra test strips show none, and since most of them have been established for a long time, I dont think there's any there. I just set up a new tank again recently, so I was testing for ammonia (I had a used sponge filter), which I often skip on older tanks. Noticed it turned pale green, so tested all the other tanks too--same exact color. Then I tested with the other test kits and had the expected "0" reading. I'm not sure if it's an issue with me having super hard, high ph water or something else, but you might want to double check what "0" looks like on that test with your water and other test kits if you're using it to determine when you do water changes...you might be doing lots of extra ones otherwise. 🙂 I've found the other tests on the Co-op strips to be quite accurate for me, though, and definitely more convenient than the liquid tests.

We're working on getting my 7 year old more interested in reading, and based on a suggestion from his teacher he's started reading to our fish. It's pretty awesome actually beause you can tell them to "make sure you show the fish the pictures" and (since fish think they're going to be fed anytime anyone approaches the tank) when the child holds the book up to show the fish, they all come crowding around to look (for food) at the pictures. The idea hadn't ever occurred to me before. Anyone else have cool things you've tried with your kids to get them interacting with your fish?

or sprinkle in some fish food and pretend you have fish in there! That's usually plenty to sustain a cycle.

I have also had success (on accident) with my aeneus corys in 8.2 PH very hard water. Only ones that hatched out were after I moved adults to a different tank. Otherwise they eat their own eggs for me.

Welcome! I'm a fellow midwesterner, and plants definitely help with maintenence! If you keep your stocking levels relatively low and your plant volume relatively high you can get away with very few water changes most of the time. My only problem is that I always want to add one more fish...or one more tank 😄

He's very beautiful! Looks like a Phillipine Blue to me.

Congratulations! 🎊 still working on getting there myself, but definitely excited for you!

No real advice on changing the PH, but I've had luck keeping and breeding neocardina at PH 8.2 for about a year now. I will say that it took me a few tries to get a batch that did well, but at least with this strain of blue velvets it's not been an issue.

I know my angels eat a full grown male guppy here and there and ALL the fry. The smaller fish were there first. I think you'd very likely be fine with full size platies, and they don't look twice at my swordtails or corys if that's worth anything.

I like the look of bow fronts, especially if they're in the right place. Most of mine are flat, but I do think bowfronts can look really good as show tanks as they just offer something a little different visually. The only one I have is a 5 gallon, but I like how it looks on the desk more than its rectangular predecessor. If you have a place that would suit one, I'd say give it a go. I wanted one for my big tank, but the furniture that we reinforced for a stand wasn't quite the right size for one.

We got a batch of blue velvet shrimp about 8 months ago from a local breeder and the population has boomed. We have to have over 200 of them from the original 10. I've contacted a sort-of local pet store (about the only place with shrimp and fish within an hour's drive) and they are interested in purchasing some. The problem is I have NO IDEA how much to charge! I know they sell for anywhere from $4-$8 each locally. So do I ask for $1/shrimp when selling to the store? Too much? Too little? This'd be my first official sale, so just wondering where to start.

That's actually a great idea for the office to cut down on the need for water changes. I'm happy with the amount I need to maintain right now and don't particularly want to add another fish tank, but they're so much fun to watch, and I spend so much of the day working away from them that I'dlove something to just chill and watch while I work. A snail or two with plants could be really fun. I never ever remember to water my non-aquarium plants. Maybe I need to forget the cactuses and just grow wet stuff instead!

I would say yes to both--Yes, it will overpopulate and Yes it will eventually self regulate. I've had 3 tanks--they regulate significantly higher than I would normally stock them, but they do eventually sort of level off without having mass die offs or disease or anything like that. As far as angelfish, I added those to my large mostly livebearer tank and I now have NO population growth. So, I haven't really found a fish that eats lots but not all of the fry and keeps the population in check without totally eliminating fry survival. I just started another "replacement" tank where I can raise replacement fry and then add them into the angel community tank when they're big enough to not get eaten (aka full grown).