BeeD

I'm a little afraid of stepping into politics in this thread, but I do kind of think the kids would all be better off if their schools required a Dave Ramsey curriculum. Even the kids who are barely paying attention will learn something that will be of immense value. We would not have been able to buy a house if I hadn't taken at least some of his advice.

No need to worry. You are correct about the small amount being safe and normal. I think I misunderstood. I thought that you had been doing frequent water changes to keep the water stable, so I assumed it was testing much higher than that before water changes. It's possible that it can be cycled and still need frequent water changes, but it depends on your bio-load. I don't know. I guess I never see the nitrites after my tank is cycled, but that could just be my test kit.

The PH scale is exponential, so the drop from 8.4 to 7.4 is actually massive. 6.0 is neutral, and I would honestly not enjoy working with that water, so I would never use just straight RODI in a tank. I might use it for hatching killifish eggs in the future, but that's about the only time I would ever use pure RODI. I do use a mix, but that's because my water tests off the charts in KH/GH/PH after oxygenating in the tank for a while. I do use RODI for top-offs in my only tank that evaporates. But I try not to go to far with that, because the mineral content is not static. I want to replace whatever is lost. So I guess what I'm saying is, there are benefits, but you probably don't need to take it very far. Most fish will live a long time in 8.0. 7.8 is great. 7.4 is great. Definitely don't use straight RODI.

I think your tank is still cycling, based on the presence of Nitrite. In that case, it would definitely not be every other week for water changes yet. I'll let the more experienced people weigh in with details, but I would say it's normal for your water changes to be at least once a week for now. I have a couple questions I think others will ask. How long has the tank been running? Did you use any tank conditioners? Did you boil the wood and leaves?

Wow, all those hours I spent on reddit and other forums, I can't believe I am just now learning about that Redface Topminnow. I am constantly learning things on this forum. You guys are great.

Whenever these crashes happen I can't help thinking about how much I hate these carbon cartridges they sell new fish keepers. I don't know if it was the ammo-lock, but based on what she has said, something knocked the carbon out of commission pretty fast, but I guess not until after it starved whatever bb was living in the gravel and etc. I'd like to know more about that filter pad too, for exactly these situations. I just wouldn't know how much to put in, I'd be afraid of affecting the cycle. Hang in there. I've been through it too. I think they have you on the right track, and the plants will help. I don't think I saw anyone mention it, but if you can, try to feed earlier in the day so that the plants have plenty of time to soak up the ammonia he produces after eating.

I agree. I think that's a good way to go about it.

Most people under 40 probably can't buy a used vehicle that is only a few years old without taking out a loan. I would guess that more than 75% of people under 30 couldn't buy a $5,000 car right now without taking out a loan. I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure this hobby is carried by people who took out loans for things that were more important to them, including that 50 inch LED TV.

Well there are some people here keeping them, I'm sure they'll be around to exchange information about this. Try a forum search for your favorites, see if anyone has discussed them. I know for sure there are some active discussions going on regarding a couple Shiner and Darter species, as well as Florida Flag Fish.

I visited Hawaii once, and I learned to appreciate a good Aloha. Aloha, and good luck with your projects, looks like you're off to a great start.

It's a debt economy. GenXers, Millennials, and Zoomers are living in the wake of Boomer debt-excess, and they don't know how to deal with it. The way to deal with it is to not support the debt system. I just don't think many people want to live that way, or they've already dug themselves down. I don't know how many Zoomers are in this forum, or how many of you have kids, but every time I talk to younger people I tell them get roommates, share the costs, enjoy yourselves but SAVE MONEY, and of course learn how to not be selfish so that you can actually enjoy your time living together. No idea if I know what I'm talking about, it just sounds right to me. Also, that's not to say that all Boomers lived beyond their means, but I think most will admit that the 2008 crash had a lot to do with the way the financial system was set up to take advantage of Boomer driven market growth, and what that system then had to do in order to continue growing in a more difficult era.

In my experience, the population can stabilize, but sometimes right on the edge of your tank's limits. I think more and more of the guppies will start eating fry more aggressively as they start feeling crowded, and females will delay egg development (or something like that). Then a generation will die, and more fry will start to show up. If you do interfere with that system by separating, do it with absolute efficiency, because you can trigger a ton of fry to drop at once. Separating can be hard because some males develop more slowly. I'm too lazy to go search old CoOp videos, but I feel like I remember Corey talking about this a lot. I feel like everything he has said about it has been true for my guppies.

Halfway through your thread I was getting ready to discuss Daniel Abraham's style, and ran into your plot twist. I don't know what to do now, lol.

I think I have a very long way to go, especially with my fraternity/sorority cull tanks already filled. May not be able to do this, but it has been interesting.

I think I have to read it now.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, because I've only had Mbunas. But if someone did want to breed peacocks, is it best to stick to one species/strain? I know my Mbunas crossed, and the offspring weren't as colorful. Which made them a little harder to give away, so I had to do some separating to avoid over populating.

I've just decided against video for now. Caught myself spending too much time on it, and really leaned into the distractions pretty hard that day. But I still want to share with passersby here. My favorite female guppy, favorite fish overall. Plus a Gen1 offspring male from one of the males in the next post. Anyway, proof that the wildest female guppy I've ever seen eats snails when I cut back their food for a day.

I don't think you should have any problem capping any of the planted substrates with regular gravel. Most rooted plants will require you to truly 'plant' them down into the substrate, so their roots will find the good stuff.

Congratulations.

kjyghfs

pbg

I got the obligatory snail riding a snail picture covered. Oh shoot, I see @Guppysnailalready had it covered.

I am in awe of this. I have been contemplating a Figure 8 tank for a long time, which is half the reason I tested out a little brackish tank. Is that duckweed or bubbles? Brackish duckweed?

I don't have much to add. I've been in a reading dead zone for a while. I did reread The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I'm surprised by the fact that I liked it more as a teenager than I do as an adult. It doesn't seem like something that teenager would find compelling, but I guess teenaged brains will grab onto anything new and soak it in.