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nabokovfan87

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Everything posted by nabokovfan87

  1. nabokovfan87
    Root tabs? What is your GH in the tank? A lot of swords (and similar plants will eat a lot of root tabs. It's just something to keep in mind. If you are continually having struggles, then perhaps it would be worthwhile to consider pulling the plants and substrate and adding a layer of aquasoil style planted tank substrate. This would let you reduce your need to use root tabs and give the plants that food they want at the roots. In terms of translucent leaves, this is something I have seen and it does point to a certain type of deficiency. Potentially you might need to add in some iron. There are a few great people here that can help with deficiencies and are much better experienced at them than myself. Maybe @Seattle_Aquarist can help us out!
  2. nabokovfan87
    Well you're seeing nitrite, so the cycle has started in the right way. What is your filtration, what is your PH and KH in the tank? If you're not seeing any ammonia, you can double check the results right after you add in the liquid ammonia using a different test method. Secondly, you can take a water sample to the fish store and have them test it for you as well. When I setup a new tank, I literally just set it up, add air, and make sure water is moving. That first week or two you can just let that run and let the tank get used to being an aquarium. Think of it as a leak test, but moreso you're just conditioning the sponge, the equipment, verifying everything works. I add in some fish food and just let the filtration mechanically do it's thing. After 3-4 weeks of this, that is when I bust out the test kit and see what I see. A lot of the method here is time and patience. Unfortunately you might be doing everything flawlessly, but just need to give the filtration a bit of time. There isn't going to be an intense bioload on a shrimp tank. The goal right now is going to be letting things run, grow some diatom algae, aufwuchs, and bacteria on surfaces so that when the shrimp are added to the tank they have places to graze on and ease into their new surroundings. I would take the time right now to verify your GH and KH as well. Beyond having a filter and good oxygenation, those two parameters for me have been critical to success.
  3. nabokovfan87
    The anubias may be rotting due to the placement (too much light) or if the rhizome is below the gravel. I can't tell from this photo, but I just wanted to mention that. Any of those leaves that are curled inward on themselves and the leaves with heavy algae you would want to remove. If the rhizome is deteriorating, you can also remove that section of the rhizome. I believe this is a gravel tank, not a soil substrate tank. Potentially what you are running into here is the lack of nutrients at the roots, especially for stem plants. Yes, stem plants want nutrients from the water column, but they also can benefit when it comes to having some nutrients available at the soil itself. Have you ever used root tabs previously? PH is 7.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, gh 11-12, KH 3, tds 339. Should I dose iron every time I dose easy green and easy carbon, do they all work good together? I dose Iron if I am running ferns, moss, anubias, or red plants. I dose it every time I add in my fertilizers. You can start off with 1/2 dose of iron and see how the plants do with that single change. Part of the goal on figuring out this issue is to not change too much! One of the only things I can suggest here is what I would do. If this were my tank this would be my attack plan: A. Considering a different substrate and/or root tabs for the sake of ensuring plant nutrients. B. Review lighting (intensity and duration), consider plant placement changes for heavy algae covered plants, and ensure lid is clean ----->Lights should only be on for at most 8 hours given your algae issues. Anywhere in the 4-8 hour range is acceptable. C. Ensure filtration is adequate and cleaned often while trying to get ahead of this. (you're running a tidal, so please also consider the phase 1 adjustments in my tidal mods thread in my signature) D. Considering using a phosphate liquid test kit to monitor excess waste and organics in the water promoting algae. E. Use a toothbrush or similar to remove algae from plants. Remove any dead leaves or dead plant sections to encourage new plant growth. ------> Step E needs to be done weekly. F. Keep a rigorous schedule and try to stick to it for the next month. Weekly tasks, monthly tasks, etc. G. For the next week, consider a 7 day blackout with 25% water changes each day. Weekly: -Dose ferts -Trim and review plant health, take photos -Clean filtration -Test your water, nitrates, phosphates Every 2 weeks: -Siphon the substrate, scrape the front glass, clean the lid Every month: -Water change -verify all equipment is functioning properly. Welcome to the forums @CatherineD , I hope everyone here is able to help get things on the right step for you!
  4. nabokovfan87
    It may have just been an issue of not planting the MC deep enough. Especially if you have soil in there, deeper planting allows it to get to those nutrients faster.
  5. nabokovfan87
    Hello Everyone! It is that time again where I am going to trim the plants and I want to try something particularly new for myself. The Stems as they stand are not extremely long, but there is enough there where I can go ahead and trim the stems to propagate them out. My question is two fold and I assume the answers, but I do want to ensure I am doing things properly for plant health and growth. If I am planning on "topping" the stems, how close to the substrate should I cut the stems? Can I cut them directly at the level of the substrate? Should I leave some leaves or will the stems that are currently rooted easily grow new leaves if I trim them bare? This is the tank in question. I'll grab a photo tomorrow after working of an easier view on the stems currently and my plan on where to cut. Older Photo, plants are taller now.
  6. nabokovfan87
    Well, maybe this is a bit different of an issue now compared to previous years. I think the general advice nowadays is that things have improved to a point where there's no need to use shop lights or to use spotlights or other "budget" options from the hardware store. Why? Well, for one there is a plethora of other options on the market. Be it Cory's own ACO Easy Plant LED Light, something from Nicrew, from Finnex, or Hygger, there is a new variety in the market pushing to be affordable and have some of the features you need for your aquarium. By the time you get the LED from the hardware store and the timer you need, I would argue you'd be right at the price for something else, designed for the tank, and will make you a bit more.... happier to view and use on a day to day basis. Hopefully others can chime in with their favorite hardware store style setups as well as their favorite budget lights. There is a lot of options though, thankfully. Best of luck!
  7. nabokovfan87
    Very very cool. It'll be great to see them in action 🙂
  8. nabokovfan87
    He has a local friend. I'll link the video here. I think they went to her house for care for the time being.
  9. nabokovfan87
    That's exciting! Get some rest, hopefully things settle down for you at work.
  10. nabokovfan87
    Update for today: Sand is cleaned: ZERO SHRIMP went up the siphon and I did have a batch of new baby shrimp that were still white and very tiny. They were all scooched out of the way when I was siphoning as best as possible. Testing for today: KH: 4 deg GH 8 deg
  11. nabokovfan87
    I would move it to another tank. Hopefully you're able to catch em out.
  12. nabokovfan87
    Basically the fish is trying to tell you what it wants. It's weird to think of it but those fish do like to have shade to hide under. Mine would get pushed out of the caves by my RTBS, she's the same family of fish, very similar in terms of her shape and she definitely did not want the SAEs in her area. At the time I had 2 other tanks that needed SAEs and so the ones that were most aggressive towards my RTBS went to other tanks. The ones that remained would sleep on big plant leaves and on chunks of wood all day. The fish might just need a bit of a territory to call home and to rest during the bright hours of the day. If you're going to net the fish out, use a 5 or 7" wide net. Use your hand to guide the fish to the net (Cory has a video on netting fish) and then just have some patience. Cypranidae rish are extremely fast swimmers. The only real trick is to drop the waterline and then use the method:
  13. nabokovfan87
    Having some sort of "shrimp food" with calcium is the key. Some are better than others, but that shrimp food would be something you feed often. The algae wafer or pollen or anything else I only feed at most once a week. I've run into some molting issues and ruling food out as a cause for concern is good. I know others feed a variety, fresh foods, etc. That is just my method. I got mine as a sample bag when purchasing shrimp online. I feed the tank a powder food once or twice a week. Just repashy powder. There's other stuff, like sera micron and shrimp baby foods that do the same thing. You can also powderize wafers too!
  14. nabokovfan87
    Firstly, congratulations on the baby shrimp, that's wonderful. It would be really cool to see that 55 turn into a 75G, especially for rainbows. Maybe that 55 becomes the sump? You mentioned it in other places, looking for that sump setup, so I know you're still mulling those things over. For shrimp tanks, I don't know how good it is to have tank linked to tank and so on. I can't say it's bad in anyway because you're dramatically increasing dilution. For breeding and selling of breeders I think isolated tanks with flow through drains is probably your safest best. In my case, one tank gets worms, I notice it, they all do. I would had for one parasite or med or bacterial issue from something to see that spread to all of the other tanks. That journal thread should show up annnnny day now.
  15. nabokovfan87
    @FyaNyan A blue fish I recently learned about is a native, cooler water fish (works with the barbs you have) and it's called a... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmy_sunfish @Fish Folk keeps a lot of native fish and here is their thread with photos of one of the species of pygmy sunfish. @Fish Folk how many of the sunfish for stocking this 20G tank would you suggest? To your stocking question on the green neons, you could easily add a very large school of them to your tank.
  16. nabokovfan87
    First page and I'm already worried about import shrimp. 😞
  17. nabokovfan87
    It's hard to see without photos from the top (to see fin shape), but I'm pretty certain you have more than one male.
  18. nabokovfan87
    I wonder how some moss would look on the top of the wood out of the water. 🙂 Do you scoop duckweed at all normally or just for the video?
  19. nabokovfan87
    Yeah, that's where mine are always at when I first saw them. They used the heater cover as their cave and hung out there. Congratulations again though, good signs!
  20. nabokovfan87
    Short term I think it would work fine. It will deteriorate over time though. The best "bags" I've found are the seachem tidal bags (you can't get them any other way). So if you buy one of their media refill things, I got some zeolite to get one cheaply, and then just store that while you use the bag for whatever media you need to. They sell carbon and other things that are useful as well. ACO does sell some media bags, I can't speak to the size of what you're needing for the HoB, but hopefully you'll have some success getting what you need! Welcome to the forums 🙂 .
  21. nabokovfan87
    Yeah... it's not optimal, just have to start somewhere! You'll get fry soon, especially with them in the new location and all the adjustments. I'll be excited to see them do their thing. It's really cool that you have them 🙂 .
  22. nabokovfan87
    That's awesome. Where do you usually see the baby shrimp?
  23. nabokovfan87
    Most of my groups tend to start female heavy too. Once you get a spawn you'll have less worry and added females for genetics variation.
  24. nabokovfan87
    some are absolutely safe. Some will wear over time and then the paints and coatings leech into the water. Unfortunately I can't say which works well and which doesn't because there's not really a certain brand that always does it one way. I'll give you an example of a few I had: ^^ Both of these are relatively small. Ultimately used for bottom feeders, catfish caves, but they are either open or very small for the fish. The fish quickly outgrow them. I would prefer standard slate / ceramic caves because they can be generally larger. I also use food stacked now to provide the same affect. Below is another example of these type of decor pieces. it is very exposed and open on all sides. Fish would go in and basically try as hard as they could to avoid light. 4 big openings on the piece and it's very hard for them to feel safe with that. The ships, most of them are similar in flaws or things to look out for... Fish can swim in, but sometimes they just get lost and get stuck. Some of them have holes that go up the masts to let the air bleed out. I had to plug all of those with silicone after some fish went in, got lost, and then went in and got stuck quite a few times. There's not a lot of swim throughs on the sails, etc. This bit of decor is probably one of the biggest issues around. It's been reported many times to cause issues with fish. The bottom of each leg is hollow all the way to the top of the piece. There is a very large 1" diameter hole and then there are several smaller ones for air. I lost a few fish and then had to go back to sealing up all of the holes. Pinholes are fine. small holes are fine. but the majority of holes in these things are sizes that fish will want to use as a hide. It's very dangerous because they can get in pretty easily, but have a hard time getting out. Paint and all that other stuff aside, that's the main issue.
  25. nabokovfan87
    Pleco, cherry barbs, and white clouds would be wonderful. There is also stuff like neon green rasbora or emerald green rasbora, a variety of species that would do great! The tanks looks nice, well scaped, and I look forward to seeing it all grown out. 🙂
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