MDonnelly

I bought two mystery snails about six months ago. They were doing fine until about three weeks ago, when one of them passed. The other one passed yesterday. I was sure I was doing something terribly wrong, but my parameters are all fine, I have lots of nerites and pond snails that are fine, all fish are fine. Regular water changes, nothing out of the ordinary with foods or chemicals (Easy Green about every other week, following dosing recommendations, occasional AC Root Tabs, I do run Co2, but not a ton). The more I read, the more I'm convinced they just died of old age. They were mature when I got them -- they never grew at all. So I guess I have to decide whether or not to get more. I hadn't realized it was common for them to last less than a year.

I don’t want to kill any creatures, if at all possible. I know it happens but I don’t want to rush things and have to chase numbers constantly. That would be stressful.

Yeah, I was thinking some nerite snails. Not as exciting as shrimp, but probably safer at this point! I’ll wait on the shrimp. I’m just itching to get something in there, but I’m being patient.

Yeah, I was thinking I might lower the lights and cut back the time. I’ll do that and see if it helps. Just in the couple of hours since I posted my question, I can actually see the long green algae threads have grown. It’s happening fast.

Two Amazon swords, 1 Anubias nana (had 2, one died), 2 ozelot swords, 1 bunch iloydiella, 2 bunches ludwigia narrow leaf red, 2 small cryptocoryne undulata, 2 Java fern windelov. Javas are glued to rocks, anubias glued to driftwood. All others planted in fine gravel.

Hi, I’m 2 weeks in with my first ever tank. 40 gal. breeder, about a dozen plants that are starting to grow a little, Fluval Plant 3.0 light (about 8 hours a day of 60% light), Marineland 275 hob with custom media, medium sponge with air stone, tank temp 78. Not adding any extra ammonia source, feeding with Easy Green and root tabs (have used easy green 3 times, have put in maybe 4 root tabs so far). I’m not testing a lot, because I’m so early in the process and I am following Cory’s advice to just let the tank season a good bit before worrying about much of anything. I’m getting a fair amount of algae and stuff in the past few days. It started with what I think are diatoms (rusty brown patches on plants and glass) and now I’m seeing green algae on driftwood that’s starting to form hairy threads floating. Not a lot of threads yet. Also a lot of just general crud that looks like sort of like dust on rocks, plants, wood. I’m thinking this is a good sign that the tank is seasoning. Tested with API kit yesterday: High range pH 8.0 (tap water measures about 7.4) ammonia maybe slightly green but I’d say no more than maybe .25, Nitrite .3, nitrate maybe 2, but not more than that. My main question is, is it too soon for me to maybe add some shrimp to start cleaning up the algae? I know I’m not ready for fish. But could I risk some shrimp at this point?

I just ordered a small clear acrylic breeder box. I figure I can use that to hold the plant stems and roots in place at the top of the tank. I have a glass lid but there is open space at the back (I'm not using the plastic strip that came with the top). At least until they get big enough to sort of support themselves without needing the box.

Yeah, maybe spider plants would work! I know they won't hurt cats. I'm going to try both pothos and spider plants.

Thank you, both of you! My cats have definitely experimented chewing on my house plants, so I do try to be careful. But it sounds like pothos is not as toxic as I believed. I grow cat grass for them now, and since I started doing that, they SEEM to be leaving the other plants alone. Plus, the top of the tank isn't all that accessible. I suppose I can just keep it from trailing all over the place, and then there wouldn't be much risk of them getting to it. I think I'll try the pothos and see how it goes!

I would like to try having a plant that has its roots in the tank and leaves outside the tank. I know Pothos will grow this way, but I have cats, and it is toxic to them. So I can't really have them in the house. Has anyone grown any cat-safe plants this way? I'm not sure what plants can grow hydroponically like this and really flourish. All I ever see is Pothos.