BeeD

I had a similar situation a few years ago. Tested new tap water before moving in, PH 7.5, GH was high but KH was not. Moved, did a couple water changes and tests during that first week but stopped testing. Did a test 3 weeks after move and found my PH, GH, and KH all maxed out on the chart. What I found out was that with limestone well water, or even small towns that draw from large limestone wells for municipal tap water, there is very little oxygen. There was enough for my fish to survive, but as the oxygen level increased, the O2 activated the KH and increased KH and PH, and possibly the GH reading as well. The physical solids responsible for KH had been there all along, but chemically it wasn't reacting in the water the way it does once it's oxygenated. I use an RO mix for most tanks, the guppy-only tanks being the exception. I left one 10 gallon tank to test guppy grass, marimo balls, and anubias in full 9.0 PH liquid rock water, and they did well, so I use them. Haven't tested crypts in full liquid rock yet. Edit: The PH change always seems to be nice and gradual any time I start up a new tank. I realize this might not be relevant because you didn't mention the KH or PH readings.

I love seeing various takes on blackwater tanks. The people who manage to pull together a lot of reds in the tank are my heroes. I can't remember the video, but someone had redroot floaters and all red fish/shrimp/etc, and I think something with a red eye. That was a beautiful setup.

Compiling some points for you OP. HOB pros: Easy to reach/maintain, can use variety of media and mix them, easily modified, more gallons per hour than sponge filter and picks up detritus floating in water, tons of mechanical and bio filtration overall, good surface agitation (oxygenation), good current for stream loving fish but usually not too strong. HOB cons: No bio filtration during power outage (unless modified with intake sponge), really need to modify the intake to avoid killing snails or weakened fish, loud trickle when water isn't level with the outflow, might want to put a custom baffle on the outflow to slow current or keep floating plants settled (can find stuff on Etsy, lots diy projects on youtube), can be really loud when starting up after power outage. Sponge pros: Plenty of bio-filtration, bio filter active during power outage, nice lazy current for lazy fish and floating plants, good oxygenation, easily modified, can be supercharged, fish/shrimp/snails can all be seen picking at microbes, most air pumps these days are pretty quiet. Sponge cons: Doesn't collect detritus as well, more annoying to maintain, sound from bubbles can be annoying to some people and modifying with an air stone will add to maintenance, I love/use sponge filters but airlines everywhere. Edit: Forgot something. I think they're kind of even on salt/mineral creep on the glass, but it's a little harder to completely cover a tank with hob; have to really think through your mod in that case, because you can accidentally wick water on top of your lid. Edit 2: Corey's videos... I'm starting to think the answer to the question in that last video might be 'yes', and I have one on order because, well, why not?

I actually do have one slow moving plenum tank, Novak style, or at least that is what I was attempting. Still have one sponge filter in there because I don't trust myself at all, lol. I think what I ran into with sand tanks is that I was just to rambunctious when doing cleanings or moving things around. Also probably depends on the sand. The black sand tanks must have had grains just small enough to drift up into the filter. Again, could be that I wasn't gentle enough.

I've really only used hob and sponge filters. I lean toward sponges lately, even though I find them more annoying to maintain even with Corey's bag trick. Still, it's over in a few minutes. I love HOB filters, but imo they just aren't good for sand tanks or lower water levels. I had too many filters die from rogue sand grains in the impeller, and the trickle is just too loud when the water isn't level with the outlet. I also kind of prefer a nice lazy current in my planted tanks.

Maybe the cause was secondary then? Bacterial or fungal infection? Could just have been a sudden ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spike caused by the wood. Was this a fairly newly established tank?

Photos would definitely help. I'm not an expert on cardinias, but I think some of the black varieties spring from the red cherry lines. Maybe someone gave you some culls from a breeding project. There could also be some genetics from blue lines in there, which would cause a lot of brown offspring in my limited experience. Also, I think shrimplets can appear darker than they will in their adult form. Amanos will not cross with the cardinias.

Okay now that is interesting!

I was thinking this as well, @Khole new fish, because most of my shrimp go into hiding when they molt. I have seen an amano shrimp just before a molt one time, and it did look a little milky. I know (or assume) it molted because after it disappeared for a while, I saw the shed drifting around the bottom.

https://aquaticarts.com/products/american-flagfish-killifish Okay Flag Fish keepers, I have some questions. I've wanted to keep these for quite a while, but whenever I think about pressing that button on Aquabid, I hit two snags because of my current setups. Plants... Do they eat crypts? I assume they will destroy guppy grass and leave anubias alone. What about pothos roots? I've read they don't always eat algae. How do they do with a normal variety dry/frozen? Have you seen them become dependent on live foods? Do they like those nori strips? So that's all. I want to set up a cool tolerant tank in my basement with rosy red minnows, flag fish, and white clouds. I think between the rosy reds, flag fish, and my tank setup, algae will become pretty scarce. I can supplement with guppy grass trimmings if the flag fish are interested.

I'm with you. I'm very intrigued by North American only tanks, and I still can't believe some of those darters and shiners are really out there. Emerald Shiners don't seem to do well in aquariums from what I hear, but a population worked its way up to the lake I frequent. They're a 'big water' fish, and watching them behave like sardines on this little crystal clear lake was amazing. Whenever the sun caught them right, they flashed that emerald green (more of a turquoise) iridescence at me and I just wanted to jump in and snorkel with them.

Several days ago, my sorority guppies were moved to a temporary home while their tank was renovated, and tonight I moved them back after replanting their crypt forest.

My bettas are all gone now, and I was considering letting all my tanks go to liquid rock, but you may have changed my mind.

I'm really into that background.

I'll have to see how they do long term here in their new environment. I plan on taking at least a month to acclimate them. I have 5 gallons to work with. If I notice anything, I can just abort mission and add marine salt. I had them alone in there for quite a while, and it looked to me like the eggs just dissolved. I might have just not seen them though, because I have no idea what they look or how they move. That would be really ironic if I stuck those guppies in just when my nerites finally hatched. I never really took them (e: the nerites eggs) to full salt. I've been wondering if that was the issue.

I guess it's around a quarter inch right now. It really was crazy. I keep thinking back on it, wondering if it could have been something else, but I just don't think so. I wish I would have seen it right before she dropped it. My theory is that she coiled it up in her stomach and couldn't spit it out. Either the other fish pulled on it, or the salt helped her relax.

Was breezing through your thread to catch up a bit. I think we share an appreciation of red ramshorns.

I'm so curious about the ones sticking to the glass.

Got it. I wonder if their adaptation to freshwater is inhibited, because of osmotic pressure, or if they just need minerals.

So one of the things that prompted me to finally start an account was this 10g tank I've had running for two years now. The point of it was to slowly raise the salinity to brackish and see if some nerite eggs would hatch. Nope. The snails are still in there, but this thing turned into a brackish guppy spa. I will explain, but first, here are the fundamentals of the system... 5 gallons of brackish water in a 10g, sand substrate with 1/3 of the bottom set up as a deep bed, old tiny sponge filter, spiderwood, some cholla, tannins and mulm, old fading light from a Fluval 5 gallon, 3 red racer nerites, 7-9 guppies. The tank registers 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, and 0 ammonia, probably due to the lava rock and deep sand. Everyone is healthy and happy, but I will be very very gradually acclimating them back to fresh and increasing their water volume. Then everything in the tank will be incorporated into their new system. Side note... I kept the water level at half because nerites spend much of their lives above the water line. They eat film and whatever else grows on the damp surfaces above the line, and sometimes just stay up there for days. Long story for the dedicated readers... I put two female guppies in there a little over a year ago. They looked to be carrying panda guppy genes from my mixed tank, and they weren't doing as well as the others. I decided to test a theory. The theory is, my water may be liquid rock, but that doesn't mean it has the best minerals for weaker strains of guppies. So into the brackish tank they went. These two shiny little females flourished and dropped their fry. The whole colony is strong, and the females all have great tails like their mothers. One has this beautiful black/maroon tail that I did absolutely no justice to with my terrible photography. Fast forward to last week... In my main mixed guppy tank, I noticed a juvenile female with something sticking out of her mouth. I swear to you, it was a beard hair (mine), and it looked stuck. She wasn't eating with the others, and she looked a little stressed out. She was still moving around well, so I decided that she could handle a move. My thought was that if epsom salt helps relax their muscles, maybe brackish water would help her? The other fish immediately started trying to get what she had in her mouth, but the hair didn't move and they gave up. A couple of days later, though, a lot more of that hair was sticking out. After three days, no hair, no sign of infection, nobody else had tried swallowing it. She was still hesitating to eat, but as of yesterday she gobbles food like the rest. So there you go, the weirdest tank I've ever run.

I'm glad I saw this thread. Like a few of you, I'm still waiting for Winds of Winter and The Doors of Stone. I almost picked up The Dragon Reborn after watching the Amazon series, but for the 1,000th time I ended up putting the Wheel of Time on the back burner. Currently reading The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England.

Wisconsin. Currently living in the Fox Valley area. Good people around here, but I'm torn between wanting to be farther from this slowly amalgamating I-41 suburban blob and wanting to be closer to an LFS. Choices choices.

Hi all. I'm Brett. I've been around the old forums (aquahobby, fishlore, etc.), /r/aquariums, facebook groups, and fishtube quite a bit in the past. I've been staying out of it for a few years, but I still see a value in it. I'm just here to stay in touch with the fishkeeping world and learn from you all. Once in a while I may share something. Here's the Groot Tank, a 40 breeder. The glo-fish (Henrietta) is the last of a 2014 colony, and is currently tolerating a swarm of male guppies. The guppies are a soft cull of fancy/common crosses, most of them flash iridescent green. Trying to slow the colony down for a while. There is also a female cull tank. It's a little hard to see given my terrible photography skills, but I keep the water level down to cover the back and sides in pothos. The pothos was recently trimmed, but one vine has grown down into the water already. The anubias is kept floating because it's easier to propagate them into my other tanks that way. Also I just kind of like it, and so does Henrietta. Edit: common guppy crosses, not wild guppy crosses.