KittenFishMom

sleep tight

I don't know, he looks like he is tuning them out pretty well. Looks like he hasn't a care in the world. ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So true !!!

@Mmiller2001 Thanks for all this great info. I'm falling asleep and will read it over again in the morning and Start doing research. Thanks so much !!

P.S. my fish are 1 male betta, 9 neon tetras, 5 black kuhli loaches and around 11 peppered corys. my snail include bladder, ramshorn, mystery and some nerite snails. and 40-50 blue dream neocaridia shrimp, and an uncounted number of small cory fry. I have lots of different kinds of plants. most from ACO, some from the lake, and a few from eBay. I don't know the names.

@Mmiller2001 This sounds like the way to go, but I'm stumbling a bit as I feel my way along here. I'm looking at the Nutrient Dosing Calculator v1.5.91. My tanks are 55 gallons and 10 gallons I assume I'm using DIY fertilizer. It gives me 5 options for the 4 compounds you listed: CaSO4.1/2H2O, CaSO4.2H2O, MgSO4.7H20, and K2CO3. My chemistry is rusty. Which would I use I use for CaSO4? It wants to know what I am calculating for. I'm guessing "Dose to reach a target"? Is that right? Now the big question (drum roll please) How I do I figure out the right target for a planted tank with my fish, snails, and shrimp for these 4 compounds for water changes? Also, where would you recommend I get the raw compounds? Cornell's Chem stock room use to sell supplies for cash, but now it all needs to be department charges. Thanks so much !!!!!

@JessLynne7 I think it is a patented trade secret. Only the fish know how it works.

@jwcarlson I would trade all my tanks for a dog, but my husband says we have too much on our plate to add a dog to the family right now, so I am trying to get the tanks to work. I have been waiting 4 years to get a dog. We didn't think we should get one while we were Mom primary caregivers. Hopeful in a few more months things will get improve. Thanks for all the help and support.

@nabokovfan87 I'm falling asleep. I'll sort it all out in the morning and get back to you.

@nabokovfan87 I'll watch the videos again. I don't think he has anywhere near as much wood and potting soil in his tanks compared to mine. I remember how buffers work from chemistry, but it was too many decades ago to remember how to set them up. I might call SeaChem on Monday. @jwcarlson When I called SeaChem after testing my well water with all the API tests out there. After hearing the results, the person from SeaChem said "You don't have any fish living in that water, do you?". I said "well yes, I do."

My normal duckweed made it through fine, but my nano duckweed slowly died and sank and got sucked into my sponge filters because it was so small. It took me a while to figure out why my cycle was getting weaker. You might want to float the plants in a bowl for several days after treatment to make sure they stay health. (I put mine in a zippered mesh bag with a bunch of stuff on top to keep them under water, but not get crushed.

@nabokovfan87 of course I just ordered a larger jar of GH/KH+. Oh well. I thought Equilibrium was more for the plants in the tank than for the fish in the tank. I have both, so it works either way. I know Crushed coral raises pH and Calcium. I didn't know it did KH too. My pH is always dropping. I'm hoping uses both buffers will slow the swing downward. I don't want the pH to change suddenly.

Plant need oxygen 24*7 and carbon dioxide when photosynthesizing. I think opening the jar often, or venting it would be a good idea. You can put window screen under a mason jar ring (or a rubber band) to keep insect larva out. That will give the plants more light than a solid lid. If there is a lot of evaporation due to dry air, take out some water before adding water to avoid old tank syndrome like build up of things that don't evaporate.

I forgot to say that our RO system is an RO/DI system. The water comes out of the RO/DI system at 0 TDS . The water goes through the mechanical filter and the UV filter before the RO/DI system @nabokovfan87 I could easily be mixed up, but I think the GH+ is for the bigger size shrimp, and the GH/KH+ is for the smaller, neocardina shrimp. I only started keeping shrimp around New Years.

@jwcarlson I could tells you tales for hours about the well that came with this cottage we bought 5 years ago, but I will cut to the chase. Our well water has high ammonia, off the scale Mg, no Ca, a good bit of coliform and e coli (We have shocked it many times, many ways), sludge that messes with the UV and mechanical filter. It often smells of sulfur because of the iron bacteria. Water hardness is normally the sum of Ca and Mg, so we have been told our water is completely soft as well as off the scales hard, depend if they only test for calcium or if they test for both or only Mg. Sometimes after hard or long rains, the well will get murky. One time when I used the water in the tanks when the well was murky, it contained some kind of fungus or slime mold that clogged and blocked my sponge filter, killing my cycle. We have dug up the well to get it "fixed" so many times, I could find the well for you in the dark with my eyes closed. We got an RO system and now we have to put the right mix of minerals back in the water for the aquariums. I do not want to double dose the water. I keep an eye on the water level and refill to pre-evaporation level with un-treated RO water between and before water changes. Then, after we take water out, we refill to the right level with treated (re-mineralized) RO water. I keep seeing shrimp in tanks with fish and snails and live plants on the forum. I can get 30 blue dream shrimp for $35 15 minutes drive from here from a private breeder. My shrimp breeder says we can have any color we want as long as it is blue. (Ford said you could have a car any color you wanted, as long as it was black ((Black paint was the only one that dried fast enough for the assembly lines)) With such a nice price, I would like shrimp in both tanks. I know that you have to doctor RO water, and if you do it wrong, it is hard on the live stock. If you want more info on the well and all the different folks that have worked on it. Just let me know.

The current set up: 1) Tank 1 a) I have a 10 gallon tank with nocardia dream blue shrimp, peppered cory fry, java moss, and a bunch of snails. b) I have been re-mineralizing the RO water with Salty Shrimp HG/KH+ and 1 part Seachem Acid buffer to 2 parts Seachem Alkaline buffer. (Mixing 10 litters at a time) c) I want to add more shrimp and more plants to this tank. 2) Tank 2 a) I have a 55 gallon tank with adult peppered corys, Kuhli loaches, neon tetras, and 1 male beta, and a lot of snails, including ramshorn, bladder and mystery snails. I have a jungle of plants that are gr owing very well. b) I have been re-mineralizing the RO water with Seachem Equilibrium and 1 part acid buffer to 2 parts alkaline buffer. (Mixing 5 or 10 gallons at a time) c) I want to add shrimp to this tank. Should I be using a mix of the HG/KH+ and the Equilibrium in both tanks? If so, how do I figure out how much of each to use in how much water? I really want the snails in tank 2 to get enough calcium, but if I add shrimp, I don’t want them to get too much. I was breeding the 3 hi-fin corys in tank 1, but got ammonia spikes so I moves the adults back to tank 2 and used Stability and Complete and bio-balls floating on top to get the tank back in cycle again. Note: Both tanks have organic potting soil capped with large black sand and a lot of wood and IALs. As a result of the wood and leaves, the pH drops rather quickly over time. I look forward to all input Thanks !

I found this on en.aqua-fish.net: "Paradise fish will also enjoy having Ramshorn snails in the tank as snails are vital part of their diet."

@nabokovfan87 It was the adult corys in the 55 tank that got confused when I put the extra fine fry powder in the 2 HOB output streams. The fry were eating the food as fast as it hit the bottom of they tank. I have added back more java moss in the fry tank, so I have know idea how many fry are in there, or where they like to be. I need the food to be spread all over the tank. I'm getting a second batch of 30 shrimp tomorrow to increase the clean up crew. I will put a few in the 55 tank to see if the fish will leave them alone. I have seen a fry few swimming higher in the fry tank, so they are getting bigger and stronger.

My guess the one with the narrower mouth. My yoyo loaches went nuts for snails and they had a narrow mouth , just right for getting into the shells.

I have some tiny cory fry in my 10 gallon tank, and all the adult fish are in my 55 gallon heavily planted tank. I was popping a pinch of this and a pinch that into a little electric coffee grinder to grind for the fry. Vibra bites, sinking pellets, goldfish food, Xtreme Nano, basically everything the adult fish really like that is top shelf quality. I ground it fine and adding some in the little tank. I thought it might take the fry a while to eat the amount I had ground, so I used my 1/32 spoon and put a few spoonfuls into the outputs of my HOBs in the adult tank. The corys could smell the food, but not easily figure out where it was. The zoomed all over the tank tasting everything. They groomed the mystery snails shells. Every time one swam though a dense plant, several followed, licking the leaves. I have their dinner socking in a bottle cap of tank water so it softens up so they can eat it easily and quickly, before the snails try to cover it. I won't tease them like this again. I was just curious to see what they would do if the whole tank smelled and tasted yummy. Have a fun evening.

I have caught them with this from Amazon.com . I won't catch all of them, but you can get a feel for if the population is getting bigger or smaller over time. I bait mine with fish food or chicken liver. Some fish like to eat leeches. Leeches can hide in water plants or under stones, or in mud or sand. If a leech gets on my skin while I am in the lake, I just pour salt on it and it drops off. Do not pull them off, just put salt on them. Pulling a leech off a living thing that they have bitten can cause damage and or infection. Salt just makes the leech let go quickly. ( Just like the scene in "African Queen".) Lucky for me, the leeches I see here are very small. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09L6HH6BF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That is a leech, no question. I just found a few in my shrimp tank, which I thought I had been so careful with. might have grabbed on a wet net coming through plants from the lake in the other tank.

@Darax I bought a tank of mixed guppies off craigslist. They had been neglected and they owners had only used RO water in the tank. The ones I got had been through a lot before I got them, and were very sturdy. When I couldn't feed or check the water for 3 or 4 days at a time, they still thrived. I gave them wonder shells and spring water and high quality food and they would be an asset to anyone that mixed them in to their breeding stock. A lot of them had very fancy traits, so some had mixed some very fancy guppies in with them. I thought about keeping a tank of males, but they don't live very long, I think about a year or 2. I didn't want to watch them die off so soon. I hope most got good homes and will be able to pass on their strong traits to future generations.

I feel your pain. While I was caring for my mother, my small guppy population exploded. I had them in 1 of my 5 10 gallon tanks that was getting over populated and wasn't able to get home often. Friends advised adding a lot of plants for water quality and moving the fish around to distribute the bio load. I am guessing I didn't mention that some of the fish were guppies. After 4 months of exhausting care for my mom, I came home to some where between 300 and 400 guppies and all other fish had died and having to do several water changes daily. It took 5 months to get them all rehomed. I wish you the best of luck.

@Candi a surprise, just like a box of Crackerjacks, or a tank pregnant guppies. Just full of surprises !, Everything about ACO is special and wonderful. Who else would send a surprise sticker. It is the first thing I look for.