Fishingfool

I have a bad infestation in my 9 gal tank. I've given up and accepted my fate.

Got any small hillstream loach? Looking to add 1 one in a 9 gal cuz they look cool and my single Otto has decided to go on strike on cleaning my rocks.

So, less overfeeding and they die off completely? What I dont get is, if it's a sign of overfeeding, does that mean those critters are always there, just cant see them? Or do they appear out of thin air once a tank is overfed? Today is water change day. Since it's only a 9-gal tank, I use a siphon and bucket. Typically change out about 3-4 gallons. What I found is, the worms on the glass are very easy to suck away. I removed quite a few doing it this way. I cant vacuum my substrate. It's SeaChem Flourite Black. It's way too light and I always lose a few when I hover near the bottom to get the crud. My hose has this little cap thing to help prevent that but it appears to block flow and prevents sucking up any visible particles. Can Rhabdocoela live outside water?

They are unsightly. Kind of like bread algae and the likes. If I see any, I try to tweezer them and remove it from whatever surface they are attached to.

How long does that take? I got a couple magnifying glasses to try and help. So far I haven't been able to get one of the larger ones up front for a closer inspection. But now I'm 95% sure they are rehabdocoela. How do I get rid of them? Are they harmful to humans? I don't want some eater to splash on my eye and get these suckers in them. Or a cut on my hand.🤢

Do you guys sell any siamese algae eaters? I remember seeing them in some of the tanks but I don't think they were actually for sale. Looking for the tiniest SAE.

These suckers are tiny. Only thing I had available was a loupe and now I think they are rehabdocoela. I do not see a pointy triangle head. Does look more rounded. Then again, they are so tiny, it's hard to focus on them.

It's a Fluval Flex 9. Been up and running for 10 months. I added some chili rasboras and a couple of amanos and some new plants to the tank that I got from the co-op a couple of days ago. Wow these new additions are tiny. I never realized how much my CPD grew. Anyways today while I was trying to check up on these tiny additions, I saw little white things on the side glass. Upon closer inspection, they look like of like white slugs, at least the biggest one, which isnt very big actually. There are about a dozen that are super tiny. Maybe tip of ball point pen size. They are thin and move around the glass like a slug. I'm guessing they are planaria? If so, how do I go about eradicating them? Or just leave them alone? https://i.imgur.com/l3qOelZ.jpg

I forgot to mention. I added 2 Otto's about 3 weeks ago to help with the algae. They did a great job on my rocks and leaves. Then 1 died about a week later. This other one seems to be doing well still,

Well a bit of an update, sort of. I'm still doing weekly water changes. As of today, the test strip on my tester showed pink for nitrates before I did the change! It wasnt pink enough for 20 PPM(1st marking) but it finally changed colors. I also tested ammonia with a test strip and it looked very promising. Slightly different shade than 0. So I tested the water with my API freshwater kit. Ammonia is barely .25 PPM. It's somewhere between 0 and .25 PPM. Great! Nothing for nitrites. And nothing for nitrates........ So I assume I have some nitrates now but below 5 PPM for the API kit to not pick up. Crazy this tank started back in early Jan and here we are at the end of April and finally seeing signs of going the right direction. At the way it's going, I'm thinking I should be able to do bi-weekly changes soon. I think it's just about time to replenish the root tabs but I may wait until I see signs of distress of the plants?

So here we are, 3/31. I'm still in the same spot. Ammonia 1-2 PPM with 0 nitrites and nitrates. I tested with new test strips also. Seems pretty closer except according to the strip, my ammonia is about 4 PPM. I understand strips are less accurate though. Starting last week, I've been using a syringe to add SeaChem Prime. It's basically .1ml per gallon. Which is about 3-4 drops. Without a doubt, I was overdosing with API Conditioner early on. Not sure what effects that might be. I'm also adding SeaChem Stability, half capful. Even though it doesn't seem to be doing anything. I already have it. Might as well use it. Today, I trimmed off a lot of the dead to melted leaves. Hoping to reduce the ammonia from decaying leaves. As you can see, I do have quite a bit of algae now. I think it's hair algae? I do like the look of it on my rocks. Looks more natural. I haven't been dosing in a few weeks now. Just whatever root tabs from Jan. The fish seem to be fine. The shrimp seem to be fine. They haven't made a dent at all in the algae. Want to pick up an Otto to help. The plants seem to be doing fine. I did remove the clump of dwarf hairgrass on the left. Wasn't completely dead but a lot were and it was too hard to separate the few living strands.

Alright, so today is water change day. I also lost a cherry shrimp yesterday that I got last Saturday. I tested my water that I pulled out of the tank, which included the dead partially pulverized shrimp. Estimated about 2.5 gallons pulled. Ammonia ~4 PPM Nitrites and nitrates 0. I did buy a new bottle of SeaChem Prime to try out. Even though above shows smell doesnt mean much, this bottle of SeaChem barely has a smell to it. I had to take several deep inhales to get a scent of it. If my little dropper is accurate, it's roughly 2 droplets per gallon of SeaChem. I only need no more than .3 ml for this water change. We'll see how well this works out. I'm going to add some of SeaChem Stability again since I have a spike of ammonia from the added shrimp.

Correct. I'm still seeing about 1 PPM of ammonia each week before the water changes. About .5 PPM afterwards. Maybe a tad more or less. Really hard to tell. I'm still at 0 for nitrites and nitrates. And yes, my bottle of API conditioner smells like a bottle of farts. Supposedly it's sulfur base, so that make sense but wow. lol

Well, as of last week, I still have no signs of a cycle. All the current fish seem to be doing well. So we shall see how it goes.

Added 2 cherry and 2 orange shrimp yesterday. Was looking for some Otos but no go.