rnn

@BuzzDaddy21 thank you for your support! I don't have any fish stock, just the shrimp--I tried to be super careful about over feeding but that definitely could have happened when I was thinking I had more shrimp in hiding vs them being gone, so it could have contributed to my snail boom earlier on. @Guppysnail and @BuzzDaddy21 thank you for the extra shrimp info! My fault for being imprecise in an attempt to have a shorter post--I should have said she was berried, and that she dropped 7-8 eggs several weeks into carrying; only one of her berried eggs hatched as far as I could tell. The snails ate the dropped eggs before I could try to nab them. I'm not sure what happened with the rest of her berried ones, as shortly after I wasn't able to find her. Thank you for sharing that video, it's very helpful to see!

This is a little long, apologies in advance! The problem: My tank is slowly unbalancing. tl;dr: My KH and pH have both lowered over the past couple months; my java ferns and christmas moss have totally died over the past couple months; my shrimp have been disappearing over the same timeframe; the snails are going wild; duckweed and floating stem plant are thriving; my nitrate readings are erratic. SOS, I miss my balanced tank! Tank specs: I have a low tech planted 15 gallon fluval tank, big sponge filter in the back (separated by a plastic panel from the main tank), light on 30% of the max it can go for 8 hours. Tank occupants are a handful of cherry shrimp, and an accidental ramshorn snail explosion that I'm in the process of getting under control (via assassin snail, acquired today). Current parameters: Nitrate*: 40ppm; Nitrite: 0ppm; GH: 300ppm; KH*: 60ppm; pH*: ~6.8-7; Chlorine: 0 *=more on these below I've got a few things going on that have crept up very slowly, so it took me a bit to realize that multiple parameters were shifting, and now I'm struggling to figure out which troubleshooting to do first, and how long to wait in between changes. The full story: When I first got my cherry shrimp, I had lots of algae and bio-film built up for them (I cycled for ~4 months with plants: java ferns, christmas moss on driftwood, one bacopa carolina) and a nicely balanced tank--my Easy Green fertilizer schedule was worked out and I wasn't having to do any water changes, just top-offs. Once they ate all the algae, I started feeding them a rotation of hikari shrimp cuisine/repashy/bug bites a couple times a week. I also got a fast growing floating stem plant (not waterweed but looks sort of like it?), a smattering of duckweed, and a hidden snail along with the shrimp. Things seemed pretty good for a few months, except my java ferns started dying off...then the christmas moss....and the duckweed and floating stem plant grew rapidly. My fertilizer schedule became very unbalanced as I was trying to figure out how much and how often and testing nitrates every day. My nitrates would read 0, I'd dose first up to 10-20 and they'd drop rapidly, so I started dosing twice a week. Then I'd test and they would read at ~40+ for literal weeks. Then a sudden drop again back to 0-10. Meanwhile the snails were doing their thing and multiplying while I tried to collect all the eggs before they hatched (an impossible task /cries/). While I was focusing on my java ferns and moss dying, and the duckweed+stem plant+and snail explosion, I noticed that over the past couple months my KH and pH have been slowly shifting. Using the aquarium co-op test strips, I used to have a KH reading of ~80ppm and a pH of ~7.4-7.6. When I tested today, my KH reads at ~60ppm and my pH ~6.8-7. And, after dosing easy green two and a half weeks ago, my nitrates are still at 40+. (All other parameter have staying the same--VERY hard chicago water at 300ppm GH; 0 nitrite; 0 ammonia; 0 chlorine). I read somewhere that nitrates can "use up" KH/alkalinity, which can make the KH and pH both drop. Is that a #fact? And, lastly, my shrimp have been disappearing over the past two months. I started with 8 shrimp about 7 months ago and now I can only find 2. They were molting fine, and grazing on the logs, hanging out all over the tank, one even laid eggs (that the snails ATE) but then fewer and fewer were visible. I thought at first they were hiding in the back of the tank, but I couldn't find them. I've only seen the same 2 shrimp for weeks. They seem relatively uninterested in the shrimp food (though the snails hustle to it), preferring to pick over the driftwood and the dying java ferns. I cut back on shrimp food to accommodate. Lastly-lastly, while the snails are multiplying quickly, there's also a scattering of empty snail shells across my gravel, of different sizes. Here's what I've come up with as a plan so far: -I got an assassin snail today to try to get the ramshorn population under control. Maybe the ramshorns were outcompeting the shrimp for biofilm and other food? -I'm going to do a 10% water change this week to try to get the nitrates back down, and see if it helps get my pH and KH back to where they used to be (80 KH and ~7.4-7.6 pH) and stabilized. From there, I'm not sure what to do....not fertilize for awhile just to let things settle?? I don't want to kill off new ferns and moss again when I don't fully know why they died in the first place. -I ordered a phosphate test kit, a calcium test kit, and a potassium test kit after watching Irene's video on balancing a tank. Maybe I'm low on phosphate and/or potassium and the java ferns got sad? Maybe my calcium is low even though my GH is 300ppm? I had a very hard time identifying which nutrient deficiency the ferns were having since they were having lots of symptoms. -I thought of clearing out some of the duckweed--maybe it blocked too much light for the christmas moss?--before I try to add new moss (I picked up some java moss today that I put in a five gallon tub with a dose of easy green up to 10-15ppm nitrates, nano pump+sponge filter, and just a cheap LED) -I'm considering pulling out the fast growing stem plant entirely to try to "start over" with the plants. Would this shock my tank system too much? Should I cut it back week by week until it's gone? I'm worried it could be responsible for gobbling nutrients before my slow growers (fern, moss) could get it. But then why do my nitrates sit at the same level for weeks and weeks and then drop? I thought the shrimp would like it but I literally never see them on it. I do see the snails on it frequently--could they be eating all the biofilm first and so the shrimp aren't interested? Are there any other things I should add to my plan, or things to definitely avoid? I feel a bit out of my depth handling so many seemingly disparate issues at once. And, any recommendations for shrimp food to try? I've got repashy community, hikari shrimp cuisine, and fluval bug bites for shrimp--my red cherries are totally uninterested in all three. I'm sorry this is so long, but I wanted to give as much info as possible. I am truly grateful to anyone who makes it through and has any thoughts or advice! --R

@Irene thank you so much for taking the time to go over your experience with pygmy corys! I'm a little starstruck haha, you are a celebrity in my house! Conflicting water parameters is such a good point, and I realized I definitely had the assumption that just because I'm in the same city as my LFS, the water parameters would be the same in the store as in my tank. I brought my water parameters in to them and asked about everything except what their pH was in the pgymy cory tank. My LFS is wonderful and I definitely don't blame them--and I'll never forget to ask about water parameters again. I'll be calling them this week to follow up on that. Looking ahead, is there a reputable online place to find individual breeders (such as the person you purchased your corys from in Maryland)? Or is it more of a google-and-see kind of thing? @xXInkedPhoenixX thank you for the info on your method of acclimating otos! My main (non-QT) tank is a 15 gallon low tech planted tank that I've been plant-cycling for the past 2.5 months; I wasn't originally intending to get more than the corys, otos, some shrimp, and snails because I was worried about overstocking once the corys and otos have their groups filled in. That said I'm thinking it's not a bad idea to get a couple tetras/rasboras/middle dweller like you suggest, to help season the tank a bit more. Thanks for all the snail info and suggestions, too! Your snails are so cute! I didn't know there were so many kinds of nerites, they sound wonderful. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think I've hung out with either apple snails or mystery snails before--I visited a friend-of-a-friend years ago who had some pretty large snails that would come to the water line during meal time for hand feeding, haha. Thanks again everyone for all the help and advice!

@laritheloud and @xXInkedPhoenixX thank you both so much. Your responses have been immensely supportive and encouraging and I truly appreciate it--I was ready to throw in the towel, but after reading through what you've both said a few times and letting things settle for a couple days, I'm looking forward to trying again (carefully and slowly). What both of you say about QT being personal helps make a lot of my research online make sense--I felt like I was finding different answers everywhere! So I also really appreciate you taking the time to go over what things you do for your new fish, as it helps give me different examples and parameters to think about. Your explanations helped me understand more about the meds, and different things I can try/adjust for next time. Definitely thinking I will let the little dudes settle for a couple days first--whether it was the meds or not, it sounds like this is the best way to observe how they're doing without any other interference so that I can better gauge how to proceed. I think I got super scared by all of the stories out there about secretly sick fish rapidly messing up a whole tank and the difficulty in treating a primary tank vs doing it in a QT. @laritheloud thanks for the link to Irene's account! I love her videos and somehow missed the one on cories--thank you! @xXInkedPhoenixX I was hoping to have otos one day so that is good to know about otos + aquarium salt. I also see that you like snails! This might be a weird question, but do you have any recs for some particularly charming snail species that won't reproduce too much/take over? I'm thinking that while I gather my courage for another try with the fish, I'd love to get going on keeping a snail or two or three. I've always really loved snails! I've got a low tech planted 15 gallon tank with one little pond snail that snuck in on a plant two months ago (whose eggs I have been taking out because I learned they are basically the tribble of snails, haha). Anyway, thank you both again!

@Streetwise and @Colu thank you so much for taking a look, I appreciate it! I'll stay the course!

pH: 7.4-7.6 Nitrates: <10ppm Hardness: 300(GH)ppm (at least...chicago water is HARD) Nitrite: 0ppm Ammonia: 0ppm KH/Buffer: 80-100(KH)ppm Water Temperature: ~75F I'm new to the hobby and brought home my first fish on 8/5--3 pygmy corydoras--and put them into a 5 gallon quarantine tank I had set up earlier that day with a sponge filter w/ nano pump, heater, dechlorinated water, and a couple plastic plants. The sponge filter was an extra that I had been keeping in my cycled main tank for several weeks. I tested the water before going to my LFS and all parameters were as listed above. I acclimated the fish to the temperature of the QT by floating their bag in the tank for about 40 minutes (recommended by the LFS). The LFS told me they had been at the shop for ~2 weeks and were acclimated already to chicago water, so that shouldn't be an issue re: hardness. I didn't think to ask the pH of the LFS water. After putting the fish into the QT, I added in the quarantine medication trio as a preventative measure per the Aquarium Coop instructions (1/2 packet of maracyn, 1/2 packet paracleanse, and 1/2 teaspoon ich-X) and everyone seemed okay the rest of that day, but then the night of 8/6 I checked on them before going to sleep and they had all died. They lasted a little over 24 hours with me. I feel really awful! And I can't figure out where I went wrong. I tested water parameters with API master test kit and aquarium coop test strips before, during, and after having the fish in the QT and they were all as listed above. I called my LFS about what happened and they said adding in all three medications at once could have been too stressful on top of the general transfer stress and that could have been what killed them. My sponge filter plastic tube also came right up to the water line creating a decent amount of surface agitation, and they said that I should raise the water level to have a higher column of submersed bubbles rising to the surface to increase aeration, as maybe there wasn't enough oxygen in the water. They recommended not adding any medication for 4-6 days unless the fish show specific signs of an illness. They also recommended adding aquarium salt at the beginning to help reduce stress. I tried very hard to do lots of research and do everything right for the little dudes so it is very heartbreaking to have messed up so quickly. I feel so bad for the little cories. If I get up the courage to try again, should I skip the quarantine med trio? Raise my water level? Try aquarium salt? All of the above? Something totally different? Thank you for any advice--this forum has been so supportive and helpful so far!

Hi all, I have a two part question: I was wondering when to do my first water change (and how much) after cycling with just plants? And, is it possible for my tank to get out of whack with just plants? (I don't have any fish yet) I have a 15 gallon tank with java ferns, a couple bacopa, a japanese clover, and christmas moss on driftwood. I've been letting it do its thing for ~2 months, with root tabs for the bacopa and clover and two pumps easy green fertilizer once a week. I started getting algae about a month ago (yay!), little hydras, tiny copepods, and the pond snail that snuck in on a plant seems happy. I've been letting things grow and haven't done any water changes or tank cleanup beyond removing some plants that melted back, taking out some snail eggs, and trimming the algae. Throughout this process my ammonia level has been 0, and the nitrite and nitrate have been low. There was a small nitrite bump in the beginning, and then that went down to 0 after a couple weeks and has been at 0 since. Nitrate has been <10ppm throughout. It seems like the algae has stopped growing as of a couple weeks ago (picture attached--it used to be thin and stringy and very abundant; it's not short and clumpy and disappearing). I haven't seen any copepods recently, either. The driftwood has tiny white dots on it (picture attached). Are these signs that something is going wonky with the cycle, or just normal? All my water parameters are normal as of this morning (0 chlorine, ~7.4-7.6 pH, ~80-100(KH)ppm buffer, 300(GH)ppm hardness, 0ppm nitrite, nitrate<10ppm). I assume once I add fish the parameters will change and I'll be testing a lot to figure out my water change schedule. Until then, do I need to perform weekly or monthly water changes with these parameters? Should I do a water change right before adding fish? How clean should I scrub it pre-fish? Thank you for any help! This forum has been such a good resource!

@lefty o @Ken @ARMYVET Thank you all for your help and encouragement--I was worried I had messed up already! Much appreciated 🙏

This is my first aquarium, and I am a week and a half into cycling my tank with only plants when I noticed this afternoon some ghostly, globby semi-transparent white blobs on the gravel, as well as on the pipe of my pump! I can't figure out if it's a fungus or mold, and if it's dangerous. Do I need to get rid of it? Will it magically go away all on its own? If I should clean it out, what's the best way to do it without spreading the spores/little bits around, and without potentially setting back my cycling? I have a low tech 15 gallon fluval flex, so there is a sponge filter in the back section along with a pump in the compartment right next to it (the pipe of which has what I think is the same blobs on it--almost looks like wet tissue?). It's stocked with 9 java ferns, 3 bacopa, and 6 dwarf sag. Decorations are driftwood with some christmas moss tied on, and a couple terracotta shrimp hides. I have small-medium gravel for my substrate, and I added in Seachem Flourish root tabs for the dwarf sag and the bacopa the other day. I haven't done any liquid fertilizer yet. Temp is a steady 80F (my apartment is a bit warm in the summer, and I haven't had a chance to try cooling the water temp down yet). I really appreciate any help! Googling has been quite confusing and my LFS is closed until next weekend 😭