Minanora

@Guppysnail I know. It'll be a long time before the shrimpscape is ready at this rate. The Amano shrimp in my 75 are doing well; at least the ones I catch a glimpse of... they're good at hiding. I can always tell when my son sees one though because he makes a racecar sound when he sees one fly by. Husband makes helicopter sounds and makes an Arnold impression of some kind. So I know they're in there. Haha. I've even turned up the lighting to make more algae for everyone. I'm in love with the three-striped cories we got. They're so much fun to watch! Sadly I was right about one of the otos. I found the one that had never eaten anything this morning. Everyone else is doing great. The other oto's have full tummies all day and love to play together. The Harlequins are beautiful in the sunrise. They flash bright silver when they dance up and down the east facing side of the tank as the sunlight comes through our sliding glass door. It's amazing how smooth and chrome-like they look when the light hits them just right.

Welcome! Congratulations on the new tank! Used tanks are sweet. 2 of my 3 tanks are used. One given to me by a neighbor, and the other is from our local Turtle rescue/sanctuary. I love to give old tanks new life. ^_^ Sorry to hear about your pond. Keeping raccoons away is not easy.

I would love to adopt a plant from you. I can send you a list of what's in my tank as well, if you're interested in anything I have. I'll message you my information.

Thank you everyone. My plan is to switch to a stronger mix of R.O. water and less tap water. I am letting my 10g quarantine tank do a fishless cycle and I'll use it to experiment since it only has plants in it right now. I generally never let nitrates get over 10ppm but I'm curious to see what higher levels will do to kh when using more R.O. as well. I'll pick up some equilibrium this week. I know my KH will be lower with a lower pH. My worry was how fragile pH can be with lower KH. I'm probably worrying too much though. I can supplement KH to keep the pH from dropping too quickly. @Gator Interesting to know about peat moss. I currently don't keep angels. I love them though!

Thank you both. This has been exhausting. I really hope everyone pulls through. Before I added those root tabs this aquarium was almost running itself. Just my swords were looking hungry. It's hard not to beat myself up. It's not fun to dread the morning check up and feeding. I feel like I'm going to walk in and find that someone gave up over the night. The tiny babies make me feel a little better. And the Shiva photo bomb. She's the only girl that's not sick or having any other issues other than being a week away from having babies herself.

@Wingman12r and @Schwack When you started with your shrimps, do you remember the pH of the water they came from? I'm wondering, if I buy shrimp from my LFS that are living in that 6.8 pH water, how well they'll take to drip acclimation. I just got corys from them that were at a pH of 6! I drip acclimated them for 5 hours, which I hope was enough. They seem to be doing well. I just worry about the hardiness of the shrimps, they're not cheap and I want to make sure they have the best chance at success. Thank you guys.

It's totally going into my 75G. It may crowd out my Val... but that's okay! I can, and will, move some Val for this beauty! How much current does it prefer? Is it beautiful and wispy under a moderate flow or is it best suited for a calm area of the tank?

@xXInkedPhoenixX I see that on @Mmiller2001's cover page, what a lovely scape! and all that beautiful Red stemmed Myrio in the background. I have those and they grow prolifically in my tank. One of my favorites.

So I use CO2 in my keezer in my garage and I force carbonate beer for bottling. The acidification that happens is from the carbonic acid I assume... I'm glad to know that it isn't a long term change. Very interesting... For some reason I was thinking that it was permanent alteration to the water chemistry. I haven't done a lot of research, but that makes me a lot more comfortable... and I really want to do CO2. I have a mild obsession with plants.

He's beautiful! Love your plants! Welcome! ^_^

What about CO2 injection? How much does that affect pH? I've been scared to use CO2 because of that actually.

Welcome to the best fishkeeping forum on the web! Congratulations on your Betta!

I saw this in a review of my LFS.... This person had them order a plant for them but she didn't say what it is and it's so delicate looking and beautiful!

@Struggle Thank you. Alright. I can do that. Yeah I can agree with stability, I really want to make sure everything stays stable. I'll work with my RO and see how it goes. Our dang tap water.... I love the hardness and magnesium content but dang, between 8.0-8.2 is rough. My husband is into this enough that he is happy to expand our RO holding capacity to 5G... Though I'm sure he just wants the capacity for brewing beer.... 😛

Adventures! Today we made our way down to our "local" fish store! Husbands first trip there! It was a good trip. So... we picked up a school of 12 Harlequin Rasboras! These were meant to go into the 75G and they will be going in for a while; but then they're going to go into the 20G once I move the rest of the guppies into the 75G and pretty much everything else is going to need to move. The reason... I want to be able to put Neocaridina davidi variety shrimp into the 75G at some point. Which means I get to have my school of Ember Tetras, too! Which is funny because I wanted them to begin with but DH (dear husband) wanted to pass on them and get Rasboras instead. 😛 On that note DH also, unprovoked, said I could make a shrimp tank! WOOOOO! I'm super excited! So in a few months I'll be setting up a shrimp tank! I can hardly wait! I'm not buying anything for the shrimp tank just yet; I got those Rasboras, and some super cute Corys for the 75. So I want to make sure I give everyone the attention they need before I commit to making the shrimp tank. Which I think will be a nano tank.... or maybe a 10G... Not sure yet. We'll see what happens. We also got 6 Amano shrimp and 4 otos for the 75G. I've been waiting to pick up these guys until there's enough algae and diatoms in the tank to sustain them. The snails are starting to really, really proliferate so it's time. All of the otos look pretty good. One of them doesn't have a fully belly... but my LFS said that if they pass away that they will replace them. I expressed concern to them because generally, once an oto stops eating, they generally don't eat anymore and pass on. Which they waste away after the stores regular "5 day" live guarantee... but they know me pretty well in there so they said they would replace him if he didn't make it. I've also decided to change out the substrate on the 20G tank to the Contrasoil planted substrate. So that will be happening in the next few months as well. Also got another green light for a Koi tank out by my garden. But I'm probably 6 months out on that, at least.

@Schwack, Wow that is good to know. My LFS keeps their shrimp at 6.5-6.8. I really want the Sakura orange shrimp variety (Neocaridina davidi). And I feel like everything I keep would do better at a more neutral pH (which is more acidic to my more alkaline pH). I think I should have been more clear on my verbiage surrounding my meaning of "more acidic". I keep Corydoras, Oto's, Guppies, Harlequin Rasboras (which I understand prefer a pH of around/below 7), Swordtails, and Neon/Glowlight Tetras. Seems like different sources say that Neocaridina davidi shrimp varieties can be kept at higher pH levels. I just want everyone to be happy, and it would be cool for everyone to be more likely to spawn.

My tap water is very hard and the pH is a solid 8. In my 75G the substrate and driftwood help; the pH is a 7.7-7.8 in that tank. However I would like to start keeping cherry shrimp. I was going to get some today but upon further research I wanted to make sure I knew exactly what I'm doing when it comes to the pH of the tank. (I got permission to do another tank!!!!) WOOOOO! I'm thinking that I want to shift the pH of all my tanks to a more acidic environment. I know I want to gradually get to the pH over several weeks, and I want it to be a stable/sustainable change. My 75G has a canister; the 20G is a HOB. What can I do to begin to adjust my pH down? I want to get to 7. And I feel like I can manage water changes by only changing a max of 25% at a time; but I'd like to avoid using exclusively R.O. water, but I can do that; it just takes time... my R.O. water is coming out at 6.2. How do I keep the pH stable without affecting the KH and GH? This is a battle I've been wanting to fight for a while. Anyone have advice? Thank you in advance!

Well, the fungus on Plug is back. Still in the course of treatment of Ich-X. Still seeing behavioral issues with Plug, Pepper, Macaroni and Misty. Misty is giving birth today. There's 3 living fry in her breeder box, two dead. So I was right on with guessing that she was about to pop. However she's stopped birthing as of the last few hours. I've been keeping the room dark and quiet. She's eating again at least. I'm seeing some reddened gills on Macaroni, the girl that has the swim bladder issue, and she's still nose to the sky. Poor thing. Clamped fins on Pepper, the swordtail girl, and Plug with her weird fungus tuft. Pleco is looking about the same, but he's eating well and has resumed his usual patterns of activity. I've been doing daily water changes of 33% as directed in the treatment directions on the Ich-X. I'll be continuing the treatment for the next 3 days since I started on Tuesday. Thoughts on starting treatments of para-cleanse and Maracyn as well? Also noting that I've been keeping an eye on Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates every day, multiple times a day with the API kit. No elevations of any. Still 0's and <5ppm Nitrates at this point.

@Beardedbillygoat1975 thank you. When my husband and I lived in our apartment I was heartbroken to have to part with my aquariums. Our lease did not allow fish tanks. After years of remodeling our current house, the dust had finally settled so we can comfortably have aquariums. Though I wish I could have more than two... I do realize that we have limited space and time. But I can dream. To have our 75, my husband had to go under the house and reinforce the floor first. No small feat with our tiny, crowded, crawl space. I also got my 75 used for 20$. It was a turtle tank before. Then it sat outside for months. I spent two days cleaning scale off with razorblades. No other cleaner worked.

@Guppysnail my water is okay, but I've not measured the silicate/silica content and our water supplier does not have it in our annual report. I think I'll remove the phosphate pads and just roll with it. Like I said, I'm thinking we'll pick up some otos and shrimp this weekend. I had to explain the biology of diatoms to my husband when we had them in the 20G. And honestly I'd rather have diatoms than BBA. I had lots of bladder snails, I still have quite a few, but I thinned their population over the last week because i want more materials for the otos and whatever shrimp we get. On my 407, I noticed that the grey lever on the hose valve assembly has a flow gauge on it, same photographically as a volume level indicator looks. I'll attach a picture. I'm using it to control the flow level (though I haven't gotten the manual back out to see if this is it's intended purpose, I'm pretty sure it is based on the verbage they use to describe it). So that way the community isn't swept away by the flow. Seriously, at full throttle it's like an amusement park ride, and that's in a 75... And there's nowhere for them to escape. I will probably keep the spray bar because I like how I have the flow located and the size area that the strongest current passes over. It is good for my Eriocaulon Vietnam, which grows best with more current passing over it. I want that to thrive since it's one of my favorite plants in the tank. My guppies did like the diatom diet as well. The babies in the 20 are coloring up faster than the ones in the 75 because of the more diverse population of organics they have to eat in their tank. Even with their age gap (6ish days), it's obvious. And that filter floss pad material that came with the canister was black and absolutely dense when I cleaned it. I was surprised that the filter was still working so well. My bio-load is pretty small. 2 swordtails, 1 adult guppy... Pako... Him and his mojo. And the 3 week old derp squad. Half of them are 3 weeks old today! The other half are 3 weeks on Saturday. And the snails. I do count my driftwood as bio-load for that first mass of gunk in the filter since it was leeching a lot of sugars, proteins and fungus. I mean, those pieces are quite large. I did use my siphon to collect huge tufts but there was a lot, and way more than the fish/snails could manage before it got too ripe. It's still even making more film in some areas. I'm going to raise the temperature 2.4 degrees by the end of today to encourage more bio activity before the shrimp, so they have more food. So I'm sure the wood will make even more goo. 77 seems to be a sweet spot in my 20G, so I'm going to see what the 75G does at that temp. Plus it's better for the babies.

@GuppysnailI dig the advice. And I'm happy that you liked reading about my adventure! Thank you. I have plans to hotrod this filter for sure. Yesterday I removed one of the layers of factory carbon and filled that layer with a bag of ACO bio-rings. I have every intention to remove the phosphate pads, I was thinking they may help with silicate/silica (diatom food) at this stage though? I may be totally wrong but that was my thought with leaving them in there in the first place. I wasn't stoked with phosphate removal, but I hate diatoms so I figured I'd try it. My diatom period for the 20G was only about a month long, but I spent a lot of time physically removing them at the worst stage. I'm scared to have to do that with the 75. May get shrimp this weekend though... And/or otos. So exciting! Family trips to the LFS are the best! This will be my husband's first time inside our only local specialty shop. Phosphate removal is a saltwater thing I think... I would guess, anyway. Mine is a Fluval 407. I feel like the trays could get shifted up when finally remove all the carbon, added two sponge layers on the bottom, then one with that factory sponge/filter floss and the two trays of bio-rings at the top. I feel like the single layer of sponge with filter floss it came with clogs way too fast because it's just so much water volume for so little filter floss and fine sponge. Totally going to take you advice for the ppi of the sponges to add and replace the factory white floss. I had no idea how to make sure the sponges I order are the right density! Thank you!!!! You rock! My HOB in the 20G has just a medium sponge that I cut and a bag of bio-rings tucked in front of the sponge. It's a marineland 150. The bio-ring bag is the "replacement" part for the aquaclear. When I feel the need to add carbon, I use the replacement for the aquaclear as well. 😂 When you removed the spay bar, did you go back to the factory outfall piece? Did you have the same issue with the flow rate of the extension on the spray bar? Thank you again.

Totally agree with all of this, and then some, but YES! I do think the casting for this film was perfect. Probably going to dig through the layers of books in our bookcases to relive the glory of the books. At least I think we have them all...

This was legitimately my main issue with the film. My husband thinks I'm ridiculous. I'm a huge Sting fan. Actually saw him live in Feb of 2020 in his "The Last Ship" play. Aside from the obvious lack of the beauty that is Sting, even in his roll... where his death is commemorated by the sound effect of crashing bowling pins as the floor splits. I can't unhear that sound. My husband and I joked about it when we were dating so long ago while we were participating in a Dune themed drinking game that was insane... No further comment on that. I liked this new take on Dune, only after rewatching for a second time. I'm still split to be honest. It lacked some of that build that I expected. But I had to look at it differently and appreciate it for what it is and how beautiful the film is. The music is on point. I just think it could have been, different, not better per say, just different, but that's because I partly expected a remake of the classic Dune movie set. I don't know why I did, I saw the trailers... I do look forward to another chapter if it actually happens.

I love everything about every page of this thread! Except the cabbage moth catapillars... demons dressed as beautiful white fluttery flappers. Then they lay eggs and ruin all the things! Curse you cabbage moths! I still didn't even use BT in my garden this year... I should have. I have a backyard orchard that I prune and tend. Four raised beds, and two ground level plots. I have grapes, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, plums, pluots, nectarines, peaches, apricots, apples, pears and hops. I preserve all most all of my foods that I grow. And i have a bee garden in the back corner that brings me joy year round. These photos are from May, but once I get out and clean up all the weeds that have invaded I will post updated photos of my bee garden. It finally rained here so I can actually pull the weeds instead of scrape them.

Good news about Plug the Guppy! After day 1 of Ich-X, the fungus is completely gone. She's still lethargic, not eating well, hanging out up at the surface, but no fungus is still progress. Haven't seen the Pleco yet. Corydoras were out playing in the bubbles and making laps up and down the wall (not up to the surface for air) last night so they seem more energetic than they had been since the spike. The most pregnant guppy, Misty, appears to either be stressed now, or she's about to have her babies... we're at exactly 28 days today so I'm hoping it's the latter. Macaroni, the guppy girl with the swim bladder issue is still pointed to the sky... she's trying to eat, she refuses to eat from the planting tongs, no matter how delicious the food offered is. Her gills are extremely red still. She's putting up a fight, but I'm not sure what steps to take after the Ich-X session.