[Care Packages for C.A.R.E. Forum Members!]

15 minutes ago, Betsy said:

The C.A.R.E. package arrived todayyyy!!!  I don't want to spoil it for @Maggie and @James Black - have y'all gotten yours yet??

I love seeing what people get please share soon!  The CARE packages are such a fun thing for the forum.  It couldn't go to better people too🙂.  Congrats guys!

[Pre filtered water?]

[nana petite dark spots]

My light is in theory (I can't directly measure) about 50 par.  I do plan on shortening and splitting my photo-period but I've been too lazy to adjust it since its a bit involved for my setup.

 

I've been to busy to dip yet but yeah its a good point.  I'll be strategic when I do dip. 

[A cautionary tale]

So should I take out my razor blade sculpture?

 

Seriously though I used to think fish were "smart enough" to not get hurt but then I realized not all species evolved with the same kind of dangers so they'd have no reason to know.  I actually feel a bit worried about using dragon stone but I feel its a calculated risk and so far everyone's been fine.  fingers crossed!

[nana petite dark spots]

Okay thanks for the ID guys!  I may just bleach it then since it's easy to take the wo. Whole piece out.

[Easy Green and detective nitrates?]

To answer your question directly, one pump per 10g should increase nitrate readings by 3ppm.  So 0 to 3ppm may not be detectable by your kit.  Also just incase remember to shake the heck out of bottle 2 in the api nitrate test and to follow all the directions.  The nitrate test is easy to get false negative readings.

[nana petite dark spots]

I've had this nana petite for about 2 months now.  It recently got covered in diatoms and then I introduced otos who ate the diatoms off but the edges of some leaves still look brown and some leaves have dark spots now.  Is that a new algae? a deficiency? Maybe those were gaps in the diatoms and the plant made more chlorophyll there?  I tried rubbing the leaves an nothing came off.  I googled a bit and I saw a few people with similar problems do a quick bleach dip to remove the algae, but I don't want to do that if this isn't algae.

[Tips on keeping pond fish safe?]

1 hour ago, FriendlyLoach said:

I know of Cory's marshmallow trick

Whats the marshmallow trick?!

[blue shrimp turning green?]

ohh.  I kinda assumed all their organs and stuff ended with their "legs".  I didn't think it extended into the tail area.  I found this neat drawing though:

EDIT: woah their head is like all stomach!  crazy!

[color changing guppy?]

1 hour ago, Tory said:

This is purely speculation but I would guess that if his default is the paler color and the darker coloration only shows up sometimes that it's a mating display. My males definitely get more contrast in colors when they're showing off for the ladies

It's funny I've got 3 males and the two with long fins spend all their time doing what I assume macho fish stuff.  There's never any biting but they chase each other back and fourth and do this weird sideways shaky display at each other.  The irony is when I introduced otocinclus into the tank one of them chased the guppies away so I think they're actually big softies.

[blue shrimp turning green?]

I've noticed this lady shrimp has been turning kinda green in the last week.  Is it a disease or is her color just changing in her advanced age? I thought maybe it was a saddle but its too far back for that, I think.

[color changing guppy?]

Same guppy looses its yellow if something is wrong.  His "default" is no black but the black comes and goes seemingly randomly.  Those photos were 4pm and 430pm.  pretty centered in their photo period.  It's the blackness thats so "alarming".  I've heard of loosing color but gaining black is weird 😉

[color changing guppy?]

My guppy likes to change color some times.  it usually has a light colored body but sometimes it gets almost black in a patch.  Anyone know what this is about?  I know fish can loose color pretty fast if they're freaked out but this guy can turn it on and off in really short order.

These two photos were taking 30 min apart.

30 min later:

[Egg shells in shrimp tank?]

sounds way easier to pull a tums out of the back of your medicine cabinet

[Paints for tanks]

2 minutes ago, Ryan F said:

Hmm, I tried searching "paint" but that thread didn't pop up.

It's not just you.  I've had trouble with the search feature too. 

[Paints for tanks]

You can also use whatever on the outside. 

 

Another option is static cling film.  Both my tanks have it.  To me it's easier than paint but costs more.

[Hard Tap Water High in Nitrates. How do I fill a new 125 Gal Tank with the best water type.]

Oh good point.  They probably only regulate municipal water

[Easy green question]

I seem to recall that java fern uses a lot of potassium and deficiency can cause holes .  You could try adding just potassium supplement on top of easy green.

[Hard Tap Water High in Nitrates. How do I fill a new 125 Gal Tank with the best water type.]

I'm shocked by how many people have high nitrate in their tap.  Supposedly the epa sets the limit to 10ppm.  Is there some kind of exception?

[Is colored gravel truly toxic?]

Lets address the real issue.  colored gravel is like 20$.  fruity pebbles cereal is 3$ and a tube of epoxy is 5$ so you're wasting 12$ buying the gravel.

[How to clean monte carlo?]

Thanks for the advice.  I'll try a pump/4 days.  I have a strong urge to "do stuff" so I have to fight my self to prevent over feeding (fish or plants). 

[Ph 7.6 but I want to keep plants, shrimp, and tetras]

6 minutes ago, PlaneFishGuy said:

The pH in my tank is steady at 7.6. I want to keep live plants, tetras, and shrimp. I was looking at Seachem Neutral to get to to 7.0 (which is reported as top end for shrimp and tetras) but the review on using Seachem Neutral with live plants and shrimp are a bit sketchy.

don't tell my shrimp and tetras at ph7.8+

You'll hear a lot that you shouldn't chase a pH because doing so can be really unstable.  I think its actually pretty rare to come across a pH sensitive fish.  I'd just go for it and just make sure to acclimate before introduction (or don't some have good results just plopping into their water).

 

[Root tabs]

To put some numbers to it, those tabs are 10ppm copper.  google says caridina's start to die around 0.1ppm (rounding conservatively) , but that 10ppm is in a maybe 1gram tablet is going into 10's of liters of water.  so back of the envelope, you'd have to dissolve 40 tabs per 10g (sorry to jump around in units but "per 10g" seems to be a common measurement) to be dangerous,  and they're getting dissolved over time in your substrate and Cu is getting absorbed too, so that's a pretty good safety margin.

[What would you do with this?]

I have this dream of running an extra tiny tank like that with no filter.  nice chunk of wood in the middle or maybe a stone.  Lots of plants and a light.  handful of shrimp and maybe some snails. 

[Another use for co-op's black air tube.]

So I made a floater corral which can auto adjust to water levels during water changes similar to one of @Irene's videos, but as built, it only allowed me to do ~20% water changes, which so far has been fine.  10ppm nitrate is the max I've seen, but I just doubled my bioload so I want the option of _easy_ higher water changers.

 

I tried to make the sticks longer but then they become very prominent in my view and they look ugly.  So I replaced the suction cups with clips that hold bamboo skewers along the wall but they still stick out like a sore thumb.  Having just got some airline though I found I could run the air line over the bamboo to make it black and nearly invisible against my background.  Here's photos of what I mean.