Nomoretent

See that tiny brown dot the arrow is pointing to? That is it. RCS for scale.

I was gravel vacuuming my neocardina/neon tetra 10 gallon tank. I pulled out a few of the decorations pieces to vacuum under them. I put them in a white dish on the table because there is usually a nerite attached so he chills there while I work. A little water puddles in the bottom of the dish and I see some brown flecks, just like what suck up with my gravel vac. Only they are moving. They look exactly like shrimp poop, but they zip around in the water. They are tiny - the size of a poppy seed. No visible legs or antenae are visible to the naked eye, and they don't bend and curve like a work. Just poop zooming around. They are brown, not white. They are never on the glass of the tank, only see them when I gravel vac. Any ideas???

Thanks Guppysnail. I have put half a wonder shell in and will check my numbers again later. Thanks for chiming in.

pH = 6.6 Nitrates = 100 Hardness = 250 (12 drops from the API test kit) Nitrite = 0 Ammonia = ? KH/Buffer = 50 (6 drops drops from the API test kit) Water Temperature = 77 Using the Aqua Care 5 in 1 test strips. This is a 10 gallon tank I have had for a year and a half. The annubias nanna and java fern are original. As you can see, my plants are not thriving. I dose with easy green and the rhizome is not covered. My annubias gives me one new leaf every week, but then the old leaves show signs of distress. A couple months ago the entire top of my aquarium was covered in frogbit that had grown from one tiny plant I had been given. I cleaned out about half of it as I have to do periodically and the rest has almost completely died off. The only thing different is that I put the airstone in to add some air/circulation, and it buffeted the plants around, so I have taken it out. I have a betta log super glued to suction cups stuck to the back wall as a buffer under the filter output - this tank started as a betta tank and my neons seem to like the slower flow/diverted flow on the output. I also have a coarse sponge filter on the intake so the shrimp don't get sucked in. I used to get copeapods, but I started feeding less and haven't seen one in 6 months. I have one nerite that's been around for at least 6 months. I gravel vac 50% once per month and top off water in between. I have 6 neon tetras from my LFS that have thrived in the 6 months I've owned them. My real problem is my red cherry shrimp. I was given 8 last June and had one batch of babies last December. Since then my colony of over 30 has dwindled to maybe a dozen. About two months ago I started losing 1 per week. In the past 2 weeks I am losing 1 per day. I have had crushed coral in the filter for around a month trying to help (bio rings and filter floss also in filter). I noticed 3 days ago that one had a very clear White Ring of Death. Then the day after that the newly dead one had only a slight crack at the top of his back. The one that died today had no crack at all in her shell. I believe most of the deaths are failed molts. I have only seen 1 successful molt in the past 3 weeks. I consistently have high GH - I treat tap water with betta water conditioner from petsmart as that is what I had started out with. The test strip always has the GH colored lavender without any hint of blue. My KH and pH are always very low. I do occassionally put Seachem Alkaline Buffer when my KH and pH drop low. I feed algae wafers and Hikari Shrimp Cuisine. I'm bummed my little colony has only ever had one batch of babies and I hate seeing them die every day. Should I move them to my 3 gallon and start them over with a blank slate? Should I try a mineral block or wonder shell? It's frustrating that I don't know if there is too little hardness or not enough.

Thank you!!!

Have had this tank for a year. Nothing new except neon tetras. Nerites show reluctance to get on glass now, but shrimp still hanging out on the same leaves where this is growing.

I am having a similar problem. Hope someone knowledgeable replies.

Any idea what this white powder is on my frogbit? I grow this frogbit in my 3 gallon cherry shrimp tank, and when it gets too much there, I move it to my 10 gallon betta tank. It is fine in the shrimp tank, but after a few weeks in the betta tank, it has this white powder on some of the leaves. It seems like once too much develops on the leaves, they become translucent and melt away. I haven’t noticed it until just now, and I did do a deep clean on my HOB last weekend.

I will try that - thanks! I am trying to stick to plants that feed from the water column for now, so that should work. Goodness knows my water sprite was happy floating in the top of my 3.5 gallon, before I moved everything to the 10 gal. Do you think that the plants want more light now that they are in a taller tank, and that is why they like floating?

My husband bought the 3.5 gallon as part of a glow fish kit when he bought the betta for our daughter. I am using that tank now for red cherry shrimp (plus a nerite). So it should (and does) have similar parameters. It never occurred to me that that the plants would have to adjust moving from one tank to the other.

Thanks for your help! I will stop the equilibrium for now. I had crushed coral in both tanks and took it out thinking that may have raised the GH (though it would be strange if that were the case given that the KH was 0). I will put it back in the HOB filter and get to work on water changes. Any thoughts on Wonder Shell given my parameters? Thanks!

Help! I am new to this hobby, so please be kind. I have a betta in a 10 gallon tank and he is doing well, but every plant I put in there dies. I want to give him some tank mates, but I can’t without more live plant hiding places. My tap water is soft and low pH. My tank water has 0 kH, so I add seachem equilibrium just to bring pH up to 6.8 ish and have a kH higher than 0. I also dose easy green to about 20. The only odd thing is that my water in my tank tests off the charts for hardness - like 300. I am only adding 1/4 tsp of equilibrium every week, so that shouldn’t do it. My nitrites are 0. What am I doing wrong? My betta started out in a 3.5 gallon tank with green water - as soon as I took out the plastic plants and put in live plants, the water cleared up and my new plants thrived. When I moved it all to the 10 gallon tank, the plants slowly started dying. I have added Brazilian pennywort, java fern, annubias nana, vallisneria, and two water sprites and it is all dying. Even my java moss is failing to thrive. I did change out the painted rock gravel to natural stone aquarium gravel from petco. Also, you can see the decorations in the tank - it’s my daughter’s fish and she picked those out. Please tell me what I am doing wrong!