nabokovfan87

do you aerate the water prior to WCs? How long?

Loved em... Plants were good quality and they didn't really crash at all on me. I am interested to get more, but I really... really have issues with the "tissue culture" junk that the big box store near me has available. There's fresh and then this stuff is basically dead and waiting to be thrown out. Tragic to see. Probably a great way to slowly transition them. Similar to Cory's method of adding a root tab to a potted plant while it adjusts to your water. The moss in my tanks was TC, it's clearly doing well. The other one I had that was TC was some S.Repens, doing awesome, and then some Hygro Pinnatifida, all doing well. Specifically Hygro Pinnatifida is one I recommend you spend for the TC version because you are guaranteeing that you're not buying from a source contributing to soil erosion issues in the wild. Just imagine if that was fancy salad herbs and the back room of an Italian kitchen. 😍 I'm sure it's a list, but what plants are in the tank this is going into that is doing well? Placement might be key for the moss, beyond that maybe the light was too low? Totally intrigued by this one.

Be careful with that if they have fins. I had a batch of fry eat 20+ fry that were laid about 3-4 days later. Not fun. I'm excited for the 20L conversion. I don't think (or can't imagine) that the shrimp will do well under 6.5 PH, so just be careful with that on the Neo side of things. The cool thing is you might be able to get some really nice species you've never kept before that have a very differen't way of being, supposedly much more sensitive. I am intrigued to see how you approach blackwater given what I'm doing on my side of things with the "budget blackwater" setup for the bloody mary shrimp. It'll be interesting to see how far down the PH shifts for you and just what you decide to put in there when all said and done!

2nd generation of fry found this week. probably 4th or 5th in the past few months. They spawned yesterday. They were showing activity prior to me doing anything today (maintenance day) and were chasing the females when the water started being removed from the tank while the filters were being cleaned. I'm guessing I have 3 littles ones in there, one is what I would call "big enough" 5-6 weeks old. The new one looks to be about two weeks old. They laid eggs crazy yesterday (all hidden) and then went ahead and are going to spawn again tonight. Feed your corydoras repashy at night. Enough said.

I approve of the barb being there. On the list. I vote glowlight. Off the list. Green neons or silvertip tetras. Barbs... I mean. Green tigers.

I'd say remove a good amount at least. Dry it out. Bag it. Depends on how high of a PH you're shooting for. 2lbs per 10G is not unheard of if you have basically RO from the tap.

Interesting.... so 20L tanks. You're looking at normally 2 lbs and running 7-8. I'm surprised the KH is reading low, but fully expect it to shoot up.

Manual removal. I'd leave it personally. A lot of the brown dust and green dust algae is what fish like to eat on. I'd keep dosing the lean amount and see how things change.

I often have the same dilemma trying to read them. I'm always trying to find a good lighting in the dark room that gives me a decent light.

Normal recommendation for Crushed Coral is 1 lb per 10 Gallons. Not sure how many bags were added, but I am intrigued if you have any idea.

This is an interesting result to me. Could easily be read on a test strip as 40-50 KH and your PH could vary a bit. Just an interesting result here that the KH dropped pretty significantly, but PH continued to climb.

Could this be caused by a water softener?

My apologies, late to see this. 40G tank. I'd run a 200W heater. You don't need it on 24/7, but in terms of that volume of water it gives you the most wiggle room and will be off/on pretty quickly. A 75W should work for a few degress, but it would simply run for longer to do the same job. You can always try it out, see if it works well enough, or if you're just using too much power to maintain temp.

I am not saying "do this" or that "this is the one way to do it"! I post this as a resource, just a method on how to set one up. If you're using the pillow stuffing type of filter floss then I would just put it at the bottom of the second try. Then put the ceramic on top of that (cutting a piece of quilting nylon/plastic mesh is useful above the floss to serve as a grate to distribute load). Then you'd have the entire top tray basically empty. You can split the ceramics, add more to the top, or just add carbon to the top tray if you wish to use that amount of carbon. I tend to run the "bumpy" / Reticulated foams as well as using a course-medium-fine because I don't enjoy dealing with the floss. It works well, but it's "extra fine" so to speak and the fine foams do plenty of polishing to clarify water for everyday use. For canister too, Sicce has the bioker/mech type of hard rings that work well too. I recommend those in the base if there is room. As shown in the video, for a canister, it's helpful.

Awesome. Should be enough to give him a place to go! I must've missed it when looking at the tank photos. Oh whale. Totally see it now. 😞

What is your parameters for the tank and for the tap. Please specifically test for ammonia and PH among whatever else you can test for. Likely culprit is missing dechlorinator, especially with this rapidness to the deaths. Second culprit is probably temperature. Third, less likely, could be issues with water parameters in your tap changing (especially something you can't test for).

Black corydoras going in there. Yes. Planning to. Give him time to adjust. At least a few days. Then decide to remove them. He may actually feel safer, difficult to say. Most fish would. The other thing you can do is setup a ceramic pot for him as a type of cover / cave for him.

Which canister? Can you fit the floss in the section with the foams?

Definitely an interesting one. Method worked well, nicely done. Are you planning to setup something for WCs or why add the bulkhead? Sounds like a sump/refugium is in the works. 🙂

Sounds like Gepetto and Grace would have fun if they could tolerate one another. Pandas were spawning again, even saw the black corydoras doing their thing yesterday. Had a massive dust storm, but probably just food related. Hopefully the little guy keeps having good days. Even if the pouty face is hilarious or adorable some days. Feel better G-man.

Typically last. First is mechanical (foam then floss). Then biological (ceramic) and then chemical (carbon).

Hm. Emperor tetras and green neons? If only they had a purple pleco, but I think that's down to plants. Red Lily, deep red plants.

Given location, yeah, makes sense.... Also pretty clear the foam seal didn't seal all the way.

I'd check the label on paracleanse. It should be shrimp safe. You should also use aquarium salt.

Pretty please can they have a 20L. It's so much easier to work in!!!!! Alright, stocking. hm. Cooler temp: -otos, corydoras, rasbora, white clouds, danio, barbs, clown pleco, amano shrimp Warmer temp: -bolivian ram! tetra, dwarf rainbow, gourami. clown pleco and Otos would be perfect. oto would be out a bit more. What are their favorite colors?