MarkM

Don’t think this is the one I was thinking of, but he talks a little bit about the how often you could dose and there being little risk over dosing with the coop root tabs.

I seem to recall on one of the live streams Cory saying he does exactly that. (Not 250, but a bunch) The way I understand it is the ferts get “sealed” in the substrate instead of being added to to water column. This way the plant roots can pull the nutrients in. Otherwise you would just dose into the water column like you do with easy green. from the How to use root tabs page Because root tabs are water soluble, the key is to insert them into the substrate as quickly and deeply as possible. It’s okay if Easy Root Tabs accidentally pop out or get unearthed by your fish because they won’t harm the water quality, but ultimately, we want the root feeders to have access to more nutrients in the ground. Therefore, use planting tweezers or your fingers to push the whole root tab to the bottom of the substrate. (Do not remove the fertilizer from the capsule or else it will dissolve in the water column.)

Personally when I’ve done fishless cycles from scratch, I dose ammonia up to 5ppm until nitrites show up and then up to 2ppm daily until cycle is complete. Then I do a 90% water change to flush the nitrates out. I was curious about optimum nitrobacter growth conditions and for what it’s worth it looks like high temp and ph is the way to go. from wikipedia According to Grundmann, Nitrobacterseem to grow optimally at 38 °C and at a pH of 7.9, but Holt states that Nitrobacter grow optimally at 28 °C and within a pH range of 5.8 to 8.5, although they have a pH optima between 7.6 and 7.8.

I've also been curious about otocinclus and using the med trio in general as it pertains the fasting portion of the regimen. You've spoken before about the risk of Otos just ceasing eating once they begin to starve. If they're not showing signs of sickness would it potentially be beneficial to ensure they are eating properly for a period of time (a week?) then dose meds to eliminate any potential diseases. If so, are there any other fish that have the same propensity to stop eating once they start starving?

Well based on this weeks video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F27ASpJ3u0w&t=1254s where he just yanks the feed drum off, I wouldn't be worried about separating the two half to install the shroud anymore... @Levi_Aquatics I would assume (and hope) that off would shut the unit off and stop it functioning. Otherwise there would be no way to stop it without clearing all schedules or draining the battery entirely.

The uncovered area at the back of the tank is pretty narrow so I hadn't had luck with centering/rotating. Mounting it to the light bar is a good idea as it would've allowed me much more space on either side. The good news is that the shroud is doing the trick and I haven't found anyways escape pellets in the last week. Also, 3d printing may not help keep away the raccoons, but I found https://www.amazon.com/Orbit-62100-Activated-Sprinkler-Detection/dp/B009F1R0GC?th=1 to be pretty effective....

I have two of the coop auto feeders and overall I am very pleased with them. Both are mounted on rimmed glass tanks with glass lids so I mounted the feeders of the sides of the tank toward the back. The open portion of the tank is wider than the feeder so I didn't anticipate any problems. What I found was that while the majority of food would go into the tanks, I would randomly end up with pellets on top of the lids, on the rim, or even some that had bounced out the back of the tank. It seems to happen more towards the end of the rotation. So if the feeder is mounted on the right side of tank the wayward food winds up on lid, and if its mounted on the left it ends up on the rim of bouncing out the back. I haven't been able to observe it happening when manually triggering the feeding cycle (thanks observer effect!). My best guess is that some of the small 1.5mm pellets are getting caught in the opening and working their way loose as the drum rotates back to top. Or if the pellet makes it back to top while stuck in the opening it falls out early when the cycle starts. As a low tech solution I cut up a pop bottle and stuck it on the back of the tanks to rebound the food into the water. This caught most of strays going out the back, but made a mess on the lids. I decided to print up a shroud for a more permanent solution. If anyone else is having this issue and would like to print one for themselves I published the design https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5180069. Its a fairly noninvasive modification, but the instructions state "Do not attempt to disassemble. Disassembling will void the 1-year warranty." so take that into consideration. Like all other modifications to things, best to err on the side of "This probably voids your warranty. Don't try this at home. Not responsible if you break your stuff, hurt/maim/kill yourself or others, etc, etc, etc". I wanted a tight fit without screws or glue and unfortunately the food container side's diameter is slightly larger than the motor unit. I solved this by pulling the two sides apart to mount the shroud. The two halves are held together by a plastic clip, visible when if you open the food container. If you press that the two sides will come apart (I've also pulled them apart accidentally trying to get the food door open). Then you can slip the shroud onto the motor half and then put the food container half back on the motor half. Slap the two halves back together and voila, less food pellets found in random places! I've only been using it for a couple days, but seems to be working ok.

I wanted to provide an update. Shortly after my last post the female black molly succumbed to her infection. The Male continued on and healing took a bit of time, but eventually made a full recovery. I moved him back into the main tank last week and the next morning I found out the original cause. A female molly in the tank was chasing him around and attacking him right in the side. Back to the beginning on healing, but now I at least know the cause.

That fix has been in his hospital tank for a week with no real change for better or worse, but a female black molly now has what I would call a distended lower jaw and swollen gills. Sorry for the quality of photos, phone did not want to focus on the all black fish. Water parameters are still same (Checked with both coop strips and the api test kit). I did an additional water change two days ago. Moved this fish into the quarantine with salt for now as well, but still thinking maracyn?

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll get him moved into hospital (it is a planted tank) and start with the salt (already have aquarium salt) and see how he does.

A week ago I noticed a large white spot on one of my male molly fish. Water parameters were normal for tank (picture of test strip below) Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate between 25 and 50, Hardness > 150, Buffer >40, PH 7.2 -7.6, Chlorine 0, and temperature 78° F. Molly1.jpg is picture from last week. I did a 50% water change at that time and otherwise adopted a wait and see approach. Tank mates are other Molly fish, a Cobalt angelfish, some Corydoras and Ottos. No changes in stocking levels in past 8 months. I have not noticed any new aggression beyond what is normally displayed between the male mollys. Molly2.jpg and Molly3.jpg are taken today. the affected area seems to be slowly spreading but fish seems otherwise unaffected. It is eating/behaving normally. Water parameters are same as last week (seasoned tank so they're pretty steady). Any thoughts appreciated. *Edit* To add no other fish in tank show any similar signs.

I was on the fence about keeping them, but without something to keep them in check I fear they'll be more trouble than I am looking for. Thanks for the help and information. I'll remove them post haste.

I recently purchased some plants and instead of the normal alum dip I decided to throw them in QT. After a couple weeks in QT I found some baby snails (as I understand happens), but I not very familiar with snails. Any idea what kind of snail this is? My main concern is if the 3 I've found are going to rapidly become many many more...