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Irene

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Irene last won the day on October 15 2020

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  1. Irene
    Lol, yes you can use that, as well as Hikari First Bites, Sera Micron, Repashy gel food powder, and of course the BacterAE that everyone else has been mentioning.
  2. Irene
    Hmm, I'm actually not sure! I've never done repeated exposures before. What I did for my tests was to dip once and then leave the plants in a quarantine container for 2-4 weeks (depending on how cold the water is) and see if any snails hatch. If the snail eggs stayed light colored and never darkened into baby snails, then I knew they were safe. 👍
  3. Irene
    I like using Repashy Soilent Green and Community Plus, canned green beans and carrots, and sinking fish foods. If you are trying to raise lots of babies, I like adding catappa leaves and powdered fry foods.
  4. Irene
    @theotheragentm So far, I have tried as low as 4 hours (for 1 Tbsp alum per gallon of water) and I was able to kill ramshorn snails and snail eggs. I'm in the process of testing this new recipe on other pest snails (waiting for them to produce eggs), but the sensitive plants did much better with only 4 hours of exposure.
  5. Irene
    @CT_ My java and Christmas moss did fine with alum. I can't remember which other types of mosses I've tested before.
  6. Irene
    Thanks for the catch! I fixed the link, but it may take a while for it to update.
  7. Irene
    It probably depends on how hard your water is, which you can measure by using a GH test kit. If your water is pretty soft (below 4 dGH) like mine, I like to add more minerals by using Wonder Shells or Seachem Equilibrium. Works wonders for my amano shrimp and cherry shrimp by promoting healthy molting of their exoskeletons. I have only kept balloon mollies (which are smaller than regular mollies) and they didn't eat my amano shrimp, but I'm sure they would eat any baby cherry shrimp if I kept them in the same tank.
  8. Irene
    I haven't bred them, but they look super cool! Definitely post some pictures if you ever find some fry.
  9. Irene
    Yup, that's pretty much how I started - feed Easy Green if nitrates get low and add new root tabs in the substrate every 1-3 months if the plant stops growing new leaves. Not sure how often you need to refresh root tabs for anubias and java fern in an Easy Planter.
  10. Irene
    Fluval has a freshwater calcium test kit I was able to source. Can't remember where I bought it from, but I believe I saw the same kit in Petco the other day.
  11. Irene
    @StreetwiseI have totally gotten strands of marimo moss balls that floated off and became their own separate clump. Guess I had the right conditions for growing algae! 😂
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  16. Irene
    Here's an article on pH, KH, and GH from Aquarium Co-Op that covers water chemistry at a very high level as it relates to the aquarium hobby: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh I haven't read anything about fish metabolism as related to their pH needs, but I haven't looked into it either. From what I understand, KH corresponds to the total carbonate and bicarbonate ions, and most hobbyists do not have an ability (or need) to measure carbonates separately from bicarbonates. Similarly, GH corresponds to total concentration of ions like calcium and magnesium. I have found freshwater test kits that measure calcium, but not kits for magnesium. For guppies and ghost shrimp, probably all you need to focus on is aiming for a pH greater than 7.0 and water hardness of 8 dGH or higher. If you are getting high-end guppies, you can always contact the breeder and just try to match their water. For the purposes of fish keeping, you don't need to go that deep down the water chemistry rabbit hole (unless you really want to, of course).
  17. Irene
    Copying @Robert in case he has time to answer. Have a safe drive and enjoy your visit!
  18. Irene
    FYI some of my more sensitive plants (e.g., guppy grass and some crypts) did not react kindly to the alum recipe (1 Tbsp alum per gallon soaking for 3 days), so I've done some experiments to limit the amount of time the plants soak in the alum. So far, my limited testing has shown that ramshorn snails, their eggs, and planaria were successfully eliminated after soaking for a mere 4 hours (at the same concentration of 1 Tbsp per gallon). The sensitive plants also survived the alum dip much better with that shortened time period. However, I need to do more testing to make sure that the recipe works for other types of pest snails.
  19. Irene
    No worries! Check out this thread where many people have posted their Fluval light schedules:
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