nabokovfan87

Going off the plant issues I wanted to look up the specs from flowgrow for the Hygrophila species. I hope that sheds some light on what you experienced. Maybe it's just a pH/CO2/Lighting thing.

To the hand, 78+ feels "warm" while normal temps for shrimp will feel slightly warm / room temperature. Not cold, just sort of comfortable Is how I would describe it. Yeah, based on what you're testing, you have the two, probe and temp meter that are giving you the same value, so that should confirm what you're actual values are. What does the heater say the temp is running?

The KH being blue might be a mixed test? (some of the other pads got into the KH are and mixed up the colors) Here's a video on a practice I've used to try to prevent this. If it means you have really high KH, that's good for the snails. I've just never seen that KH test color before.

I think it's worth treating. Fin rot can linger and you go from things improving to severe body rot pretty quickly. It's all related. The rest / recovery helping is a good sign though.

You want to see the algae that is there not grow, if it remains the same, that's a win. If it grows, something is encouraging it to rapidly spread. Remove rotten leaves, look for new growth, yes. You want to see and continue to see the algae slow down/stop/recede and then you want to see the plants growing at a faster rate than the algae itself. This is a Mark's shrimp tanks question and his last 4-5 videos are all basically on this series or questions. You want to see green algae on decor. You want to see a tank with "life" and you want to see plants thriving. Adding shrimp in the middle of hectic issues and algae chemical treatments might not be a fruitful idea, if things go that way. The main thing I add for shrimp is wood. For a colony setup, minimum 15 shrimp is about right and give you room for some losses. Water in = water out. So you want to be treating the tank as if it's a shrimp tank for about a month before you actually add shrimp. Yes and no. Yes weekly water changes help. Weekly 50% water changes is one of the only ways to change enough water for the sake of removing BBA spores. There's a link that was posted for an "effective water change calculator" which showed the difference of something like 50% water changes compared to 30% water changes over a month. In terms of the statement above regarding treating it like a shrimp tank for about a month.... The awesome thing here is that treating the tank like a shrimp tank also means treating it like a planted tank. Verify you parameters are good. Keep it clean, change water to keep things thriving, etc. GH and KH buffers are normal if you're using RO. If you're using tap water then you'd want to verify that water is acceptable. GH:KH ratio should be setup for the shrimp (also works for plants) and you'll want to have the method and routine dialed in. One thing that can be beneficial is having a way to drop water back into the tank for water change as opposed to dumping a whole bucket in at once. It may not be required, but can be beneficial. Always have to verify things with 2-3 sources. Your TDS meter could be off as well as your thermometer. Basically I would trust the TDS meter a bit more. I use the side stick on fluval thermometers and I have the floating type from marina. I just get an extra one so I can. Verify things. I have the heater itself visually telling me the temp on the LCD display, I can measure it with the stick on thermometer, and I have a floating one if I need it. I also have a thermometer for the kitchen I could use in a pinch. Heaters can have a tolerance range of +/-2 degrees usually, but there are some that are +/-0.5 degrees. The stick on thermometers I would expecr the range to be pretty high. Anything external to the tank, I also expect that, even with some of the ones I have in use. With the floating ones, the little paper inside can shift and move slightly. It's a good idea to run a test with a known temp so you can verify accuracy and use that information moving forward.

Carbon Rili!!!! Now you have all of the things.

Hello Everyone, I currently have 2 plecos, some rainbowfish (boesemani), and some barbs in QT tank right now. They got in with a little bit of some ammonia burn on the gills, but they have been given salt, botanicals, and water changes to clear up that damage. They are behaving normally and seem healthy. What is the right move here with rainbowfish? Do they need to be treated for anything in particular before I move them to the main display tank? Many thanks. Here's some photos. You can see the redness by the gills.

For reference @VioletT The way I handle salt... Others method's might vary slightly, but this makes it easy for me to keep track. When I add in the kanaplex, then I add in the salt. I go through the treatment, once I have done about 4-5 water changes, then I would add in more salt. The level stays where you want it through treatment, which is about 1 week, then you do your water changes to lower the level back to normal. With what you're dealing with, you'll likely be doing back to back treatments of kanaplex. So, right now, just focus on water changes, daily, no salt. max 50% volume being changed. You can also track down indian almond leaves for the sake of added benefit and leave those in the tank if you would like too. Organic rooibos tea is another option. After about 3-7 days of rest + water changes, maybe the fish improves, but you'll have the old meds removed and be able to proceed with the next step.

Is it installed on the back wall of the tank or the side of the tank? I don't recall how much work it would take to get it setup on the side of the tank. I have bits and pieces of mine cut to the width I need. You can see it here on the tank. Basically what this does by side-mounting is make sure that you're pushing the flow across the tank, circle back, into the intake area. There's a thing you have to check on the python itself to fix the suction. But, yes.... use a bucket / hand siphon to siphon so the sand doesn't go down the drain. Then use the python itself for the actual water movement. Check the gap here... it often will loosen up as you tighten it to the faucet / hose.

H. M. ! I'm definitely not eating the bugs though.

@Markp2483 Nice work. I wonder what you're using this for.... What tank is it on permanently if any? 🤔

Shrimp do that just fine by themselves. Another plus for the all one gender setup is that you can mix all the colors you want, no issues.

It's probably a lot more than you think. My general advice for the sake of enjoyment is to use all one gender of neocaridina shrimp in a smaller tank. I would tend to use amanos though. 3-5 is fine.

The nice one is aquavitro.... So can't buy it online. 😩

Woke up and they were swarming, meaning want food or breeding behavior. I dropped in food and Riddick decided to sit in one of the food dishes. 😂 So many shrimp....

Fritz zyme 7 or seachem stability. They all work. I've used tetra, aqueon, a bunch of them. Just make sure you check the date on the bottle.

I would grab some of the aquaclear sponge from the local big box store if you can to remove the need for using the cartridges. There is also stuff like a pre filter sponge you could use that would keep the betta fins from getting too close to the intake and add that mechanical filtration. You can also add in a little bag of ceramic media to the container, if you haven't. Yeah, the infection slowing could've been the result of the salt too! But I want to keep things simple and easy. It always took at least 2 treatments for me with fin rot. The method of daily water changes when cycling is a tried and true strategy that does a few things. It works and is basically the go-to method if someone gets in a fish in cycle situation. You remove the water, removing the ammonia and nitrite, lowering those levels to a safe range. Then, you dose in your dechlorinator and it binds the ammonia and reduces the risk of nitrites causing issues for at least 24 hours. (Some say up to 48 hours). Then, you add in your bacteria after that water change is completed and wait 24 hours.for the bacteria to take hold on the media in the filter. Rinse and repeat that until the cycle takes hold. I just had.to do this recently, tank was cycled in 3-4 days.

That's the nice thing..... Less bends in the pipe, so flow is improved. They have shrimp intakes which are fine mesh. I have a pre filter sponge as well if I need it. I take the tube cleaning brush and jam it into the pipes and I can clean them really easily now. The ribbed tubing is fragile and holds a lot of gunk. So it would attract shrimp. Having the sponge on there also attracts them. I can see in the tubing now and can add that to the maintenance routine. It takes a minute if that, very easy to handle. @Guppysnail had mentioned issues with the intake on the x07 breaking off as well, so there's that. With the 75G rim there's just not much holding it on and it was a situation of need it to be secured more than anything. I'll shatter glass, so I didn't trust myself there. Steel it is. Eheim has green tubing to try to hide things like algae, but it's visually very bright. They do have solid black tubing, which would have the same impact as the ribbed tubing, but remove the algae internally.... At least the photosensitive stuff. With the BBA in there, I was waiting months for the smoke tubing to come back in stock just so it wasn't as clear, but also not as visually distracting. I can also just easily see if there's a leak, so that's another plus too. I checked this morning and the CO2 flow seems pretty good. The drop checker "looks right", but I'm not measuring CO2 with a test kit. The kelp is blowing towards the intake, which is the first time I've ever seen the intake do anything like that. It would be interesting to test the flow differential between the two setups. I'll say it now, but we'll see years.from now. I am pretty certain the new fluval canister version, x08 maybe, series would eventually switch the tubing for something else.

Ironically, the way that PFS is designed as a filter is also why it "always" will get dirty, "It" meaning sand. We were talking about it in that last shrimp journal post about how stuff like mulm, botanicals, and those "fines" will mix in the sand and make that substrate more bioactive by feeding copepods and all of the little meiofauna. ... always learning something new. Here is today's tidbit. "There are several size groups of organisms that live in or on the sediment: microfauna (< 63 μm in size), usually bacteria or protists that live attached to sand-sized (0.125–2 mm) grains or larger particles; meiofauna (63–500 μm) that are about the same size as the sediment mineral grains amongst which they are living." At some point it could be cleaned, rinsed, but there is a point of no return. With a lot of people using sand, it's about how to handle it, accepting that it does change over time. With blackwater setups in particular it is absolutely part of the process and it takes a while for the substrate to adjust. It's interesting, it's a unique little part of the hobby I didn't realize, but it makes sense.

If it says to do a WC on that med, that's perfect then. My apologies for the mix-up! If it says to do a WC and you do more than 25% that is perfectly fine as well and won't cause issues. It's just meaning, minimum of 25% water volume to be changed out. What is the filter you're running, how is it setup?

Co-op sells one called ultimate from hikari that fits the bill. I've used prime. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/water-care/products/ultimate-16oz

you should always have the filter running, especially when treating with meds. The only thing you'd do is remove carbon (or the cartridge) inside the filter. Preferably there is sponge in there and some biological media. If the filter is off, that explains the issue of water parameters. Awesome. The directions say to dose daily, basically you have to build up the levels of the meds in the water over a week. I don't know if doing a water change messes that up.

It's definitely not a thing of "that's just how sand is." I understand the frustration and I get it. A lot of people will avoid sand for the fear of not being able to keep it clean. Aquascapers will keep a bag of sand handy, siphon the old sand, then put a layer of bright fresh new sand. I just tend to siphon it really well and go from there. I have had the sand you're using and I was able to keep it really clean for a long time. I have 3-5 plecos in the tank and a lot of corydoras. One thing to note here is that the 407 doesn't have the best intake suction in the world. It probably is intended for a 3 foot tank, not a 4 foot tank (I am running one on a 75G) and basically you're just dealing with a few things here. I mention it because I don't want you to assume that all of the waste/debris on the sand will end up getting sucked into the canister. It has to be in the water column for that to happen. You can take something like a chopstick, hand, siphon, or pinsettes and get the debris into the water column to help the filter out. As far as how to siphon sand, that sand in particular is pretty easy to suck up and it will get into your pumps. Keep that in mind too with the 407. I would recommend spot cleaning the sand, start in one area one week, then do another the next week, etc. if you find yourself with too much to clean at once. Have you ever tried the spraybar kit?

I LOVE that I got this stuff so fast. I think SF --> Here took about 36 hours. I am excited, because they have some cool stuff and it's nice to have options. Plastic parts removed, ribbed tubing removed. Smoke tubing added, new inlet/outlet added. I have no idea how much or how drastically this will impact the tank overall, but there is less surface tension and there is a single output (pointed diagonally towards the opposite corner of the tank). I am less than impressed with canister filters. They are a bit of a hassle and they do take some getting used to. I hope this all works great long term and it not gives me the ability to do in-line CO2. Whenever that time comes it'll be fun to have it. I am hoping that removing the spraybar actually helps, but this setup is such a way where if I need to I can add that bit back in. The intake itself is slightly shorter than I would like. I couldn't even tell you what size tank this is designed for, but the trend continues that it's not meant for a 75G. As far as "how" one thing I saw / copied was this method. using suction cups to hold things in place isn't optimal, but it works. I have the intake on the back glass with suction cups inside the tank to hold that in place. I have the outlet pipe held externally. It'll be a lot easier to maintain for me now that it's on the floor as well. (...and yeah, I am trying really hard to save that ZZ plant, but it's not working too well. It is still alive, wintering, but it's not growing or thriving in any sense of the word. The empty pot has a bulb. Might be rotted, might sprout leaves, so I've just left it for the time being.)

PrimeTime Aquatics has a tour / video of a barb breeder as well as Dan's fish with an expert (highly tuned/advanced) setup for breeding barbs, egg scattering fish. I JUST got these as a rescue from a local and I'm in a bit of awe with them. Females are less bright red, males are like tomatoes. Cooler temps then tetras, but the main thing is always going to be oxygenation. They don't mind flow, don't need a ton of it, but don't mind it at all. Excited to see what you do with them! If they have 6 more, I would snag em. I think the way barbs are, the more the merrier and keeps things calmer with aggression. I'll reiterate, I haven't bred them, but the females get pestered a lot with barbs. These guys are slightly more chill than others I've kept.