BAT

@Cinnebunsthanks! should I move him into the planted tank with the betta and other snails? do you think it would make it happier? more places to hide and more to eat?

@Cinnebunsthanks for the tips! I just tried an air bath. It didnt come out of the shell - and i think it the trapdoor was sort of open when i took him out of the water. I gave a gentle tug to the trap door and it didnt come off. I smelled him and he just smelled a bit fishy but not stinky. I put him back in the water and will see how he does. He is in a quarantine tank with a bare bottom. I am wondering if i should move him into the planted tank. But if he is dead i dont want him to rot in that tank. Thoughts?

I got a mystery snail in the mail yesterday. I let the bag sit in water for 30 minutes. Added him to water. And he seems to have moved to the back of the QT near the heater. He has not moved in a day. Should I be concerned? The instructions said the travel can stress them. And the weather was high 40s. I took package right in when it arrived.

Did u try moving it to the center to get more direct light? That plus root tabs helped mine

I ordered a mystery snail online. When it arrives do I need to quarantine before adding to my planted 10g with betta?

GOOD NEWS! After daily water changes (no vacuuming) the ammonia and nitrites are now 0! YAY! Thanks all!

NICREW SkyLED Plus Aquarium Light for Planted Tanks, Full Spectrum Freshwater Fish Tank Light, Light Brightness and Spectrum Adjustable with External Controller, 18-24 Inches, 18 Watts https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083ZDMMYH/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_i_THWX8RQ88TWNR0EZ0T78?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 i leave it on 10a-5p

Nerms, i am trying to recreate these driftwood bonsai at home (see pic). I was wondering if the brown that attaches the smaller driftwood to the main driftwood is this kwikwood (see pic)? Any ideas? Is the Kwakwood aquarium safe?

@xXInkedPhoenixX parameters about the same - so not worse at least. Did the water change with minimal disturbance as you suggested. I am near the end of my bottle of bacteria - what is their shelf life once opened? Fish seems to be doing OK. I keep a close eye.

Ha! My husband who doesnt do fishkeeping says - you are changing too much at once. Now i will tell him that he is right LOL thx you!

I bought both from AC and in my 10g with gravel the micro sword did much better. I had to remove the dwarf hair grass because it was slowly dying away. See pic for sword. Not sure why its upside down. Not so on my iPhoto.

The original nitrate spike - yes. Was using root tabs. People told me that wasn’t it but i was suspicious. I was using seachem tabs then. After that i switched to AC tabs. My plants seem to be doing well even without tabs. So hard to know! I also wonder if when i disturb the gravel after putting the root tabs in - that makes it worse

Thanks @xXInkedPhoenixX! This is VERY helpful. The good and bad part of the hobby is the continued learning! I will follow your lead with the sponge cleaning. They didnt look very dirty so i was treating myself more than an issue. I have PTSD from a time when I wasn’t gravel vacuuming and I got a nitrate spike out of nowhere. And then that spiraled into a stressed betta and fin rot treatment and quarantine - that we have just recovered from. I stabilized this tank before putting the betta back in. I have a pretty thick gravel layer - like 3 inches. Is that OK?

Oh no! I also squeezed out the filters earlier this week!😱😱😱 I was worried that gunk in there would cause a nitrate spike. So when do u squeeze out filters in general?(frequency) also, how often do you vacuum substrate? I was getting black funk again and smelly mulm (is that what it’s called?) so I thought I should keep vacuuming.

Tank is 15 mos old two sponge filters snail died last week. Vacuumed up substrate after finding him. And having been diligently vacuuming. only other thing is i added root tabs like 4 days ago

Nerms, Am 0.25 Ni 0.5 Na 15-20 planted 10G tank with 2 non pest snails, host of pest snails, 1 betta any idea why the nitrates are spiking all of a sudden? Yesterday i did a 50% water change and added bacteria, but slightly worse today. only difference is i added some new plants last night. 2 micro swords from AC

@GardenStateGoldfish—-Update on this - the snail was dead. I went to move him to another tank and he fell out of his shell 😱

@GardenStateGoldfishthat you say this - and i looked up operculum (LOL) - it might be that the yellow mystery snail doesnt have his/hers. And SpongeBob was in the place where i found this. Is this bad? i have VERY hard water - on the strips it always reads at the highest level.

I found this (see pic) in my betta’s tank this morning. Any idea where it came from? I have a yellow mystery snail, a brown mystery snail and a nerite in the tank. Everyone is accounted for and moving.

Hi Nerms! So far so good. The nitrates seems to be staying at 20 or lower with no change in water change schedule. I just returned my betta to the tank after his quarantine treatment for fin rot. I will continue to follow the water parameters closely.

It looks like maybe. What ware the water parameters?

The plan seems to be doing ok otherwise. There was a big die back but it now seems to be doing ok and sending up new shoots. But this seems weird. It’s like the shoot turns to mush in older shoots. What is going on?

@Mmiller2001i had the same thing happened I think. Does it look like this? See attached. Mine did it during a high growth period I think. I wonder if under fertilized for me.

Not to be devious but how will your Landlord know?

Ok. I will try a water change and see what I get. Thanks!