nabokovfan87

Plecos won't bother it. they are hidden. Just keep an eye out for fry!

@Dan did they mention anything about damage to the tank or hardscape itself? I'm sure the chemicals in the heater aren't great and you may have to do something to clean everything....? Their engineers should have some sort of MSDS (material safety data sheet) for the heater assembly and be able to assist with clarification on how exactly to get back to safe for fish or if that is at all possible.

Get yourself a test kit for GH/KH. TDS does not give you enough information for keeping shrimp. If you ever have molting issues, exclusively feed shrimp foods with calcium in the food itself. (shrimp cuisine, etc.) GH for my Neos: 6 is minimum. 7-8 is preferred. KH for my Neos: doesn't matter as long as the PH is stable. I tend to use PH as the value of care in lieu of KH. Meaning.... I make sure PH is close to 7 and doesn't dip too high or too low. Using the strips, I thought I was fine, GH was dropping off and getting too low. At that point I got the GH/KH kit and found that my KH was extremely high and my GH was getting very low. In terms of lowering TDS you can use something like an RO unit, Zerowater filters, Distilled water as options to introduce lower TDS water. I would still opt for testing things after that point as well because you might not be aware of how well the filtration is performing for you. You can also run carbon for the time being in the tank to start filtering out anything you can if need be. Aquarium soil substrate can also be used if you have very hard water, but note it may pull nutrients you need in the tank for the shrimp.... (just be prepared to add some GH Back if you need to) Your GH looks pretty high. This can make the shells too thick/hard for them to molt through. https://www.shrimpscience.com/articles/shrimp-tank-gh/ @Cinnebuns used a tall bucket to try to pull lower TDS water from the tap after letting the minterals in the water settle a little bit. They are dealing with very similar issues to what you're experiencing as well 😞 .

PSO is such a weed! 😂 How is the little suction cup planters doing for you in the taller tank? Have you been able to keep algae at bay on those plants?

ORD! (Haven't even had coffee yet 😞 ) Awesome. Sounds familiar! It looks good and it'll be interesting to see how things develop for you. That original "island style" setup was pretty spectacular. Open space for corydoras and everything included. One day my plants will grow!

Definitely not good. The only thing that would ever (or should I say) cause a heater to explode is that it isn't sufficiently underwater and/or there isn't enough movement to keep the heater working. If you do email/call fluval let us know what they say if you can. I'd be extremely curious to hear what a company does when something like this happens.

It's on the underside of the light, the black label where it says "hygger" this is the 978 one.

Sounds perfectly fine to me. Yes, it's such a well made one! Welcome to the forums 🙂

nahhhhhh nighttime they are feisty and active. They just don't like the light. yes. Most of them look viable.

Yep, I'm right there with @Pepere . I fill mine 1/8" or so above the bottom edge of the rim. If you have something like corydoras and not a lot of space between the waterline and the lid, that could present a problem. Just a heads up for air-gulpers.

I'm not saying you should at all do it, but what a beautiful tank when you first set it up. You could cut back so many plants and it would still be a pretty epic tank. Not sure how on earth I missed the thread, but these things happen! You had a reply a year or so ago talking about java fern with Torrey. The comment was mentioning about how you don't really feel great with it because you keep seeing signs of nutrient issues. Has this changed? Out of curiosity, what is your water testing for this tank in terms of KH, GH, Nitrates, and temp? What is one thing you wish you could tell yourself that you learned through the life of this tank? Just meaning... a piece of advice you'd give yourself or a change you'd make after the experiences you've had with the tank.

Is there a chance these are crossbred? The fry you're showing here is missing it's top fin 😞 As far as what is going on, my recommendation would be to start with the basics.... In your 20L: 1. What are all of the water parameters, including temp? 2. What is your filtration and is it sufficient for the population boom? 3. What is the substrate? 4. What are you feeding, how much, how often, and when it comes to the 20L itself is there mulm for the fry to graze on in excess when need be? I know you mentioned sponge filters, but what kind? How much air? Where are they placed? I would recommend using aquarium salt. 1/3 or 1/2 cup per 10G for the fish in question. You would want to make sure oxygenation is sufficient. The white film is likely related to some sort of extrernal issue irritating their slime coat. Paracleanse would be a good idea to follow up with as well for the tank once you get fungus and other issues under control. For now, salt should be sufficient to help with external issues, osmotic regulation, and to give the fish a little bit of electrolytes to fight this thing off. This covers some of the questions above. I wanted to reply separately just for the sake of clarity. I would verify nitrate daily at this point. I would also recommend verifying PH. If you only have corydoras in this tank, drop the temperature to the 72 range. Air should be sufficient and you should have "enough" filtration. As soon as you're done with meds I would recommend adding in some carbon. Just place it in a media bag near (or on) the sponge filters.

Neocaridina shrimp (they can be perfectly fine with 5 weeks to themselves as long as it's been established. I would also opt to add in a clown pleco to help provide some wood pulp/mulm for the shrimp to graze on. They do very well with neos and you don't even really need to feed them much of anything. Once the colony is established, then I would stock in something like a single bolivian ram and call it good. Autofeeder, very small amount each day and eats basically what the shrimp would want. Once that is good you can do something like add in some small green neons or small tetra species to the top of the tank and you're perfect. Small tetra food would just be a powdered type of food which works with the autofeeder and helps to feed the baby shrimp. It's a win win! Lots of great options, it's a really fun tank I think! Just establish the shrimp first. Betta won't ever be able to get them all. For neos, you'd only have to add some equilibrium. Amanos will handle whatever. The fish usually don't mind. GH = calcium, so the neos or other dwarf shrimp can be much more sensitive to it. (minimum GH = 6 deg, preferably keep it 7-8 range as a minimum) Before your vacation, you'd make sure parameters are good, they will absolutely be perfectly fine with it. Everything else doesn't matter and can be based on whatever stocking you choose.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh GH = mixture of calcium, magnesium in the water. (See Equilibrium as it also contains potassium but is a GH buffer) Phosphate = use the liquid test kits (Aquarium Co-Op does sell it I believe Iron = use the liquid test kits Calcium = use the liquid test kits (very, very common in saltwater) Potassium = use the liquid test kits Magnesium / Manganese = use the liquid test kits JBL and Sera have really thorough test kits you can find. Fritz is also in the process of releasing one. Seachem and API have a lot of the individual mineral test kits available.

When it comes to my own experiences... man what a mess. I initially used the Tetra ones based on Cory's old vlog videos and recommendations. I was using the API kit prior to that. When I transitioned to liquid there was some discrepancy. It wasn't a serious issue at all, but there were and always will be some strips I won't use. (ironically API is one of the worst offenders for me). I replaced my tetra strips with the new ACO strips as both my liquid kit and my tetra strips were well expired at this point. I used the tetra ones as a comparison, knowing that they could be erroneous in quality compared to the fresh ones. Ultimately, my biggest struggle with the new strips is that I have a very difficult time reading the values. In the testing above it was mentioned a very slight shift of 6.8 -> 7.3 with the PH. I often find myself squinting and changing rooms (light sources) to try to find out what I am looking at. It might be 6.8, but it just as well could be 7.2. I squint again and just weight the colors and it's not quite 7.4+ and so I just submit "it's fine and within acceptable ranges". With the API kit, if you test 7.3 with the "low PH" range then you'd want to right away go and re-test with the high PH kit range to verify your results. For me: API Tests: -Nitrate is a pain -PH, easy to test but I'm always doing 2 tests because it's in that weird range of 7.0-7.2 -Ammonia is so useful! -They need to have the GH/KH kit included or purchased and I don't like how difficult the test is. -Color scale is generally easy to read, just remember to shake the bottles! ACO Strips: -Nitrate is hard for me to read (pink is very feint in my range) -Nitrite is easy to read because if it's not white it's sensitive and obvious -PH is very hard for me to read -GH can be very hard for me to read -KH is often in the 40-60 range and the scale is 40 or 80. I couldn't tell you what the PPM is but it's "enough" Here's the thing...... I got the API GH/KH kits and it was vastly off compared to the strips. So I am right back at the beginning of wanting to play water chemist and forcing myself to use liquid kits. I have had some tests where I trust the strip more than I trust the liquid. I like to have both and to verify them off of one another. If I see ammonia at 0 on one test, but the tank is clearly showing stress signs, I'll verify with the other test kit. Hopefully that helps. I would use both. Honestly. If you have to choose one, get that lab coat out.

Mark's Shrimp Tanks uses PVC pipe for his. as far as ceramics, they might sell some terra cotta pots that you can just punch out the base on and use as well. Another option would be to make some with slate tiles.

Welcome to the forums! For any store you walk into, any employee should be able to elaborate or answer any question about the arrival process for fish and plants in the store. They should know (and not be afraid to say yes/no) if there is a QT process and what it would be. A sign of a great store would be how that conversation goes.

What is your GH in your water in the tank as well as your tap water? What is your fertilization schedule and what fertilizer are you dosing? The yellowish plant leaves are heavy indications of missing nutrients. The spots and holes in the old growth on the fern is an indication of either... The rhizome is buried and it should not be, choking out the plant, or that the plant is having nutrient deficiencies. 100%. I attached a video above that helped me out with my ferns. I wrap mine with a plant weight and they just sit on the top of the substrate! Oh BBA has been invading my tank too. I understand your struggles! Hopefully we can help and gets things going in the right direction for you. 🙂

There should be an indicator LED on the solenoid that you can use to verify the switch is working. There also should be a switch on the timer itself. I would highly recommend for your own sanity to use the kasa plugs (Amazon has a 4 pack that's extremely affordable or they have the power strip version). They make it easy and it's much more.... Much easier to use day to day because it's literally just a plug and an on/off button. The entire schedule you can monitor and verify over the app on your phone. I use that with my CO2 but I also have the mechanical ones as well. There is a little switch that you might need to turn on to ensure it works (there was on mine) and you would see the little bumps under the dial lift an arm, that arm is controlled by that switch. If the switch is lifted than the little mechanical time is always on I believe. Hopefully that helps. I'm sorry you're having issues with it. Definitely weird.

Which one!? Holy smokes. I am glad the house is on and all that. I would highly recommend getting some sort of heater controller and/or make sure that the heater is on a surge protector. Man.... That's intense. If you have some photos, I would highly recommend contacting fluval and stuff as well.

It's not nearly as bad as Ive seen on some bloated fish. Hopefully it will pass.

It might be difficult, but I would suggest a riser. 6-8" if you can. I just lifted mine.... what a difference. The angle on the light changes as well, so at the front / back of the tank So the front carpet for me was getting light at say... 35 degree refraction, but after lifting the light it's coming in at 20 degree refraction or something (not science exactly, but to give you an idea of why I see the difference in the lighting by lifting it). Oh for sure! I can't speak to which is "better". I was just saying that from an engineering of products side, that's very likely why they moved it. My apologies if there was any indication as to which would work better!

Step 0: I had some snails for the puffers Step 1: I got some pea puffers Step 2: I couldn't get the puffers to eat the snails. Step 3..... This is exactly what happened to me and why I really am hesitant with the snails. 😞

All of those. yes. Do not feed the fish for at least 5-7 days to help it pass anything internally. If you can, try to get a photo from the side as well.

It is on the links via the hyggar website. Keep in mind that the newer one likely has a lot more white LEDs and likely has a lot better spectrum for plants. Per their chart, they copied / pasted and didn't share that data with the customers. Apart from what they shared in those links... unsure what else we can truly gleam from the LED array patterns. The older light does seem to have a lot different LED structure compared to the newer versions. This would be equivalent in some way to how the Aquasky light is different than the Planted 3.0 light for fluval. One has a few more color channels, but in terms of LEDs (count and quality) it's very different. Why hyggar didn't highlight this, I cannot say.