nabokovfan87

Hello @daft welcome to the forums! 🙂 I have replaced substrate many times and you should have a reliable filtration in place to avoid any issues. Things like hardscape, filtration, and the tank glass will all house bacteria in addition to the substrate. I have probably changed substrate something like 10-15 times and I have never crashed a tank when doing so. Let's focus moreso on your filtration setup, then I can be more confident in saying yes or no to the question though. Can you share some details on the setup and how the filter itself is setup as well?

cc @Mmiller2001 help us out! Yeah, CO2 can be a bit fickle and getting things mathematically sound is pretty frustrating. It's something I deal with on my own. A few key steps: 1. Make sure the diffuser is working and not blowing out large bubbles 2. Makee sure those bubbles are being blown around the aquarium via circulation and not being diffused directly to the surface. 3. Keep an eye out for things like localized algae growth based on where the co2 is being diffused and try to avoid things like BBA as a result of co2 use. So.... the PH thing. The main point here is that CO2 will impact PH. KH plays a role in understanding what PH value makes sense, but the big takeaway here is that you want to see a PH drop while you're diffusing CO2. That drop correlates to the amount of impact the CO2 is having on the system. The Barr chart is basically using KH (closely tied to PH values) and trying to mathematically measure the CO2 amount given known values (KH and PH). In that case, you're not necessarily looking for a shift, but you're trying to read and calculate based on the chart. Use one method, not both. I'm sure everyone has their preference on which is easiest to understand as well.

Cory has mentioned a few times v2.0 is in work.

it's a red algae that is commonly called black beard algae or black brush algae. Looks like this:

The flow decreasing to a noticeable amount like that is going to be a concern. You'd likely want to verify the pump is working. I would also recommend 20-30% WC as opposed to 10%. You may be dealing with this syndrome, among other issues. What foods are you feeding, how often, etc? Maybe they might not be getting the nutrients or minerals to breed. I think the loaches might like shrimp snacks too and that definitely isn't helping. to @Guppysnail's point. Floating plants might help or using that basket even as a nursery for the shrimp. (add a bunch of moss to it). Is there any way to put a fine strainer on the intake or something like the marineland prefilter sponges?

What you're looking at to me looks like BBA.

You just have to change up the technique a little bit. Angels are notorious for eating shrimp. Have a tank to the side, get a colony going, then add in your cull shrimp over time. Once you see them doing alright, then you can add in more, but they have to have a foothold. Starting with 5, you lose 2-3 and you might not have any females left. If you have them in a side tank, grow the colony for a few months, then you'll have 50+. The angels will always go after them though. Even amanos can be angel toys, unfortunately.

Let's say it's an open line (no airstone). The ziss things usually come with hard plastic style airstones in their stuff, but let's just say something like this is your air diffuser: This thing above does actually clog due to things going through it as well as calcium building up on the sharp edges where the air and water meet. I've seen videos of someone using a pushpin to crunch off the stuck on minerals. Over time, let's just say that diameter of the hole gets smaller and smaller. That means there is pressure (back pressure) building up on that line over time. The same thing happens with sponge filters, with or without an airstone. The diffusers can get gunked up and those get debris clogging the air, restricting flow. What I was mentioning in my post quoted above was simply that an airstone does have a certain amount restriction on the airflow. It is much less than something where you're using a valve to control the pressure in the line. You're not using a bleed valve, so the pump may notice some backpressure over time. BUT, generally speaking in pretty much every instance mentioned, the line is "open". There's an example from school that fits your description though that can better indicate what's going on. A. How easily is it to move the air from point A to point B in that system? How much does the fluid (air) itself resist movement in that line? B. How far does it have to go. Using those 2-3 characteristics you can run all the physics calculations on the system and get some insight, but that's not really the purpose. Think of it like a person standing at a wall switch looking up at a light. They flick the switch, there is a delay, and the light turns on. The electron has to go from one segment of the wire all the way to the light for that light to receive the energy and turn on. So yes.... the shorter an airline, the less resistance, the less back pressure. I don't think it matter, with this pump, realistically, if it's mounted above of below the waterline with all things equal though.

Location wouldn't change it being a back pressure issue. It also has been recorded as a material selection issue in that original thread.

That's really unfortunate! I hope that things improve for you. Given the issues you've experienced at the LFS I wanted to mention 2 things. Essentially what you could be running into is just a major acclimation issue. It can be present if the water from the tank is very different from the water at the local store. If that is the case, it's normally best to go ahead and run a very slow acclimation process: -Setup a container (preferably a bucket) where you can add a good amount of water over time. -Add a portable airstone to that container -Add in the fish, store water, and 1-2 drops of dechlorinator to that bucket. -Using an airline and valve you can slowly add in water from the tank over ~30-90 minutes. (this is going to be very similar to the way neocaridina or sensitive species are acclimated) -Once you are ready giving the fish time to acclimate to tank conditions, you would net them out and add them to the tank. Don't add that water back into your tank as it could be contaminated. The second thing, even on a young tank, could speak to a bit about what you're seeing. This is where you would look at your maintenance routine, schedule, and how much water your changing. The second half of this video has a secondary explanation about how this can occur and might be what you're dealing with.

Yes you can totally trim roots on any plant. Leave a good 1/2"-3/4" of roots remaining though. For epiphytes like ferns and anubias, if you see a section of rhizome that is having issues, cut that part off to protect the rest (this also applies to roots!).

Can you please share all of your water parameters as well as temperature? I would suggest for right now, feeding a good quality powder sized food (or crush something to powder) to try to feed them. Getting them some nutrition, making sure water quality is great, all of those things should help boost their immune response to acclimation.

I use two of these. I won't use anything else. AP 150 = single outlet. AP 300 = same thing, dual outlet. I recommend the singles because if you lose one pump on the dual you end up having to replace everything. I've tried replacing diaphragms on pumps and never gotten it done successfully on any other air pump. I don't know why, maybe the kits sit or I'm doing the repair incorrectly. These are rated for "deep tanks" which is a bit of a wonky marketing thing, but trust me on this.... Nothing works as well as them for my use. You can likely run your 75G on one as well as all of your 10's on another. Should work well. It is SUCH a workhorse.

Just checking in on the shrimp and this very dark (probably molting today or tomorrow) female is trying to hide away from this pesky male. Color is ruby red.

Agreed. They are very good for hooking up to USB power sources, those little battery banks for charging tablets and a pump can last several days in an emergency. Let us know how the piezo testing goes.

You're looking at it. A journal is a great way to keep notes for me. Especially those moments when you can look back and re-inform yourself of some of the notes you've taken and lessons learned. 🙂 One of them is commonly called snowball shrimp, but it's actually a new type of neocarodina (with it's own wild form 🙂 ) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocaridina Neocaridina cf. zhangjiajiensis is one of them. Neocaridina Palmata is the most common secondary color line I've seen. It looks so much like the Australian line of amano shrimp. We still gotta get you your own Gojira (giant amano for your shrimpy colony).

It's not a great answer, but I just don't know what would be the go-to here. Amanos will snatch food right away during feeding, but I hardly see them work as "cleaners" apart from plants, wood, sponge, or hardscape. Oto and pleco generally have a hard time eating if it's not a surface larger than their head. I haven't kept a ton of plecos, but it's just something to note. More often than not they'd be on big plants, wood, or glass. If they are on the substrate, it's usually because of caves or wood. Loaches though, I've seen them run around like little vacuums. They lift their head and gulp in folds. I would think the mouth shape is better suited compared to all of the above towards a species that would go after food on the substrate. It's been a few years, but that's what I remember from them. They did spend a lot of time on the glass and just all over the place. Something like a ram even, would be one that also goes around and gulps off the substrate (depending what it is).

Very good news to see that you were able to get the puffer eating. Well done!

@Goldie Blue Potentially some things available that you're interested in as well. 🙂

There is also the newer neocaridina species to try out too! 😉 interesting! We'll have to see how it goes.

Well, let's dive in. (get it 😂 ) I have to start by saying that this was a lot more difficult for me to watch this time around than I previously remember. The intro ~30 minutes or so just were so brutal to me. The vivid red splashes and the technicolor type of coloration made things very pronounced, the tighter focal lengths with the older cameras, something about the vintage style and the barbaric nature of things hit me really hard. I couldn't get through the movie the first time just because of needing to take a break and revisit it. I was having trouble focusing on the narration as a result of that stuff. In all, the people in this film were all new to me. I hadn't known the story behind the scenes in jaws as much as I had no clue about the ties of gender inequality and other issues presented in the film either. As we all know it was a very different time and place back when those things happened and some of those attitudes were the norm. I can only imagine that seeing someone literally "playing with sharks" and having that be this fearless woman was more profound than people realized in that moment. I could only imagine the impact she would've had if she was doing her thing in the spirit of a Steve Irwin shouting "how beaaaauuuutiful" on kids TV. Blue Water, White Death leading to inspiring the author who wrote Jaws (the novel) which lead to the infamous movie. Even the verbiage on the poster is so intense and pushing those tropes, understandably. 😞 The wonderful thing they did what that they learned and showed the world how to interact with the sharks. The "bump them back on the nose" was advice given for so many decades as a result of their notes and commentary. We know so much more than we did back then about their behavior and interaction with sharks. It is refreshing to go back to "simpler times" so to speak with sharks and when the ocean is seemingly full of them. I am sure there are places you still can visit to this day with that quantity of sharks around you, but it's something I do keep in the back of my mind when watching the older movies and scenes. Seeing the same places over and over and trying to note what has changed or how different the atmosphere looks. One of the first use of shark suits as we know them today, talk about trusting your product for testing. Here is the photo from the original article with Valerie.... what a shot. https://nationalgeographicbackissues.com/product/national-geographic-may-1981/ I think it's a pretty poetic little documentary. It's hidden, buried under all of these short nature "documentaries" on the app, but it's one that I wish a lot of people would give a chance to. It's a great story and hearing her tell it, as mentioned above... she's a very profound person. Her way of explaining, remembering, and cherishing those moments is something special and I am thankful that the story of herself and her husband were able to be shared in such an elegant fashion. Her admiration and eventual efforts to protect nurse sharks is something I truly admire. They are absolutely one of my favorite species. As a fishkeeper, it seems like such a simple thought.... sharks have their own personalities. Thankfully that little bit of detail changed the conversation around them. My hope is that we don't need to have movies like this about the fear of sharks one day and the beauty and awe of an animal can speak for itself. The data already does. The tropes that are constantly used in the conservation side of things have their place, but I would hope that in 5, 10, or 15 years we aren't still trying to get past this notion of sharks being man eaters and the primal fear humans have of them. That moment in the end of the documentary was really cool to see. Seeing her back in her element with her friends just able to make that trip one more time.

Here's a great article by Eric Bodrock and it has photos of male vs. female. https://www.loaches.com/articles/sewellia-lineolata-the-reticulated-hillstream-loach-easy-to-spawn-or-a-whole-lot-of-luck

Thank you for the kind words, it means a lot. I was so intimidated by neos and the information overload starting out. Oh I definitely want some wilds for fun. I really dig the look of them. Right now I have the BMs and I think I can get a line of red rili going with the culls, but we'll see. Right now I don't have a ton of space, but one day... for sure I'll have a few tanks for shrimp. 🙂 Very, very, very strange! I can see it and I did see something similar for the first day or so. they were just a bit confused. You wouldn't believe the pile of shrimp on the food nowadays though. I would have to imagine there is more to the setup/story as for why they don't go for it. Maybe there's just a lot of other food options? Hard to say, but very interesting reaction to the food for sure. I just read a research paper that said they can go ~14 days with no food without issues long term. I would hold back any food for 2 days, try it out, hold food for 3-4 days, try it out and just see what happens. Maybe someone local can give you a few sticks to get them to go for it.

As I was in your shoes with this one there's a few things I did to try to help. 1. Salt the tank, might help, might do nothing. It won't harm the fish or amano shrimp, but can be harmful to snails and plants. 2. Cut back dramatically on how much food you're feeding. It's very likely you're overfeeding. 3. Daily (or very often) deep cleaning via siphon on the substrate. Move hardscape, make sure you clean thoroughly!

Congratulations! so awesome.