lmhicks101

@Colu thank you. I’ll give it a try and fingers crossed.

Ammonia - .25 Nitrate - 70 Nitrite - 0 PH - 6 KH - 2 GH - 8 temp - 78° This is the only fish with this. It’s acting normal. I’ve been gone for several weeks. It wasn’t really interested in food but didn’t run or sit around looking lethargic. When I tried to catch it the thing took off like a rocket.

@Seattle_Aquarist I didn't change much. Same Fluval 3.0 light with the same pro light spectrum. I'm using the Thrive C with 6 pumps twice a day. The only thing that's changed is I switched to 3 of the fert pearl filled tabs you guys suggested and the sand. I did add the ludwigia and a couple new Pink flamingos in the front. The scarlets are in the old tank too but behind the log. I had a big spike in black beard algae last month which before I had just a little patches of green spot algae. I just kept plucking it off and got a few amono shrimp and now just a small spot of green algae on the moss on the log. All in all I'm happy.

2 months after switching from fluval stratum to HTH and now using the home made capsules this is what my tank looks like. Here’s a before and after. I’m loving this.

I’ve seen the articles on here from Co-op and other sites but just wanting some opinions. Are Amonos good for black beard algae? I have ottos and they don’t touch it. I don’t wanna go the chemical route just yet and the hair is on the plants directly under the HOB stream.

This snail was buried for over a week I thought it was dead so I pulled up up and put it in the front of the tank. Well a few days ago I moved him and he sucked himself in. I flipped him over the right way so his she was down and he flipped him self back upside down and has been like this. Does he have a parasite? I thought he was dead so just treated the tank with no-plunaria. nothings bothering him and he has food. He’s sitting right where I drop the frozen food at.

It’s sand and thank you. There’s 12 Kuhlis in there. I actually just changed from stratum to the sand a month ago. I treated everything but something snuck through. That tanks heavily planted so no looking forward to having to rescape. I feed them with the coop auto feeder twice a day and a frozen bloodworm or brine block every other day. 3 spins in the morning and 2 at night. It’s a 29 gallon with 12 Kuhlis, 10 Pygmy corries, 3 ottos, 15-16 cardinals, and 10 harlequins. I feel like they’re eating the plants at this point.

I currently have an over population of ramshorn and I’m trying to get rid of them. I’m using no-planaria since I also have those in the tank and on day 2. I’m not intentionally over feeding them but my tanks heavily planted so plenty of food. I tried assassin snails and no joke the rams ate them. I have 2 dead ones in the front of the tank and the rams hallowed them out. This was before the no planaria treatment. I’m considering using the Cupramine if they’re still around. My issue is I have Kuhlis and a little worried about them with the copper. Any suggestions? Also tried snail traps and plucking them out but I travel for work and when I get back they’re populations back to what it was.

@KittenFishMom not sure about safe-t-sorb as I’ve never used it but with any other substrate you should give it a once over rinde to remove small particles that will cloud your water so I imagine this is the same. If you’ve never planted a tank before I would recommend watching multiple scraping videos to get an understanding of how far to plant them in the substrate. Definitely do your research as some plants need more light then others. Some need more nutrients. Some need on rocks and not planted at all. I truly recommend getting a nice pair of scraping scissors and tweazers. They will become an extension of your arm in that tank. this YouTuber makes some of the most beautiful tanks that are set up really simple https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=37GntJo93ec Good luck and enjoy. Plants have honestly become more interesting to me then fish lately and every time I go to the store for anything I’m always at the planted section “just looking”.

@gardenman I didn’t think about that. I thought maybe the light substrate reflecting more light could be an issue but that makes sense. Thank you.

I’ve looked and found a few things on this online but wanted some of your guys opinions. For some background, I have a 29 gallon with a tidal 55 and a nano co-op pump and medium sponge filter. Lately I redid my tank from fluval stratum to hth pool filter sand and love it. However several of my Kuhlis have been stressed out glass surfing. Waters clean, lights the same as it has been, no stresses outside of the tank. No tank mates being dicks. Food is on an auto feeder and I still drop in some treats. It’s been 2 weeks and still flipping out. I’m grasping at straws here but I never noticed it until now but my filter and pump make some noise. I put my ear to the tank and that tanks a bit noisy. Yes it’s no different then before the change and it probably just comes down to new environment stress but only a few do the surfing. Any ideas on this and anyone have opinions on noise in the tank causing stress?

@Streetwise That’s actually awesome. I can’t understand what he said he added besides pollen. I actually lost all of my duckweed and frogbit in a nitrogen crash a month ago but I had a pothose vine clipping in the tank I took out the week before and one little frogbit was on it and when I put it in a vase to grow out that little bit has about 15 pieces now. Glad I saved it.

@Odd Duckthabk you for that. I’ll definitely use that before trying to add black worms. Even though I completely redid my tank and took out the old substrate for sand I found some on the wood in the tank. is it this?

Not a problem. I’m curious what the difference exes between the copepods and snails would be. Both have hardened shells and the snails are all closed up when I put them in. Their shoe would prevent most from getting to them. However they died quickly. I tried dipping the snails in for a few seconds then putting them in clean water to test how long I needed to soak them to make sure they were dead and they never came out of their shell after a few second submerged. Yet the more exposed copepod lived way longer. I wonder if they have a tolerance or if this was just a one of.

@Fish Folk I just changed out my substrate from fluval stratum to HTH sand so I’m reconsidering letting them in my main tank. How long do they last in the fridge? My local store can only get them as small as a 1/4 pound so is that to much for a 29 gallon with some Kuhlis, pygmy corries, harlequins, and cardinals or would that last awhile?

@egruttum how far do you space them?

I’m using Osmocote Plus pearls with HTH pool filter sand. Currently is tucks to put one pearl every inch. I’m thinking of just making my own tabs. Does anyone have any experience doing this and a preferred jell capsule and filling technique? Also how often and how far apart do you place them?

Found something interesting. Still doing finishing touches to my rescaled tank and I found more plunaria, snails, and a small copepod. I did the whole vinegar to get rid of them and the copepod survived a tablespoon of vinegar for over a minute where as the snails and plunaria died near instantly. Now this was on a 5 gallon bucket lid on the cracks on the sides where there’s little pockets for water to collect in. Water was already there so it wasn’t straight vinegar. @dasaltemelosguy just something you might wanna look into.

@dasaltemelosguykeep us posted on what you find.

@Guppysnail I found a white/grayish blue bladder I might keep now if I see them again. @dasaltemelosguy I got some assassin snails that have been doing pretty good so far though I just tore my whole tank down and switched to sand and a lot of the snails I had are gone but they’ll keep what’s left in control.

@dasaltemelosguy for me I haven’t quarantined them as they all come from the same 2 lfs and I already had a snail infestation. Someone in another post told me about a spice called Alum at 3 Tablespoons per gallon in a 5 gallon bucket. He suggests 9 scoops to 3 gallons of water leaving room for water to rise and leaving them in for 3 hours. Snails and other creatures die instantly and snail eggs take 3 hours to get breached by the alum. He said he was told about by a biologist friend. Here’s the screenshot of his comment about it. However if I was to get them from anywhere else I would do 3-4 weeks if you want to be safe without any chemicals or additives just like with fish. From what I’ve seen snail eggs take roughly 2 weeks to hatch and about a week for the snails to grow big enough to see.

My tanks leaning towards the Dutch tank eventually. Thank you for that. Yeah 8 pounds is about $11 so that’s the way I’m going.

@Sumson how often do you add them and how far apart? From the blogs I’m reading about them it’s about 1 much apart every 3 months.

@Seattle_Aquarist thank you for the advise on HTH. I redid my tank just now with it and absolutely love it. I’m using the Aquarium Coop tabs right now but would you recommend switching to the osmocote ones? I ran out of tabs with this tank so need new ones now. Is the screenshot from Amazon a good deal for it?

@Gator I put them in sandwich bags and all plant clippings I put in my snail tank for them to munch on.