nabokovfan87

Definitely would seem like that but the way shrimp food works is a little different. One example is the sera o-nip tabs. They used to have a certain starch in it that allowed them to slowly loosen over time. They would stick to the glass or could be fed as a bottom wafer and would be fine for an hour or lets say ~4 hours. They didn't usually last that long, but just in general terms they could hold structure pretty decently. Same way repashy can puff up, but still hold its shape. With their modified version of those food, whatever that starch/binder was it visually looks like the same food, but it absolutely doesn't hold its shape as well. It will puff up and absorb the water and then sort of "explode" in place and turn into a pile of powder pretty easily. What used to be ~4 hours of the food holding shape is now more like 45 minutes of the food holding shape. If the food is in a feeding dish, that's not really a concern at all. If the substrate itself is compacted in such a way to hold the fine particles on the surface, again that not really a concern. The issue is when the filtration is such that it pushes the food up into the water column (or the food is so light) and then it ends up going right into the filter. The other downfall is something Mark highlighted and shows how your substrate choice can lead to some pretty detrimental feeding capabilities by the shrimp. So in essence, there's a lot to the problem. The nice thing with shrimp is that we can use sand, we can use feeding dishes, and we have very easy flowing filtration in most setups that won't really push that food up into the column easily. One of the more interesting food designs is the one made out of soybean husks, snowflake food. It blooms like tea does almost and all the flakes will separate out as the shrimp find the food. They can pull a little piece off pretty easily and it's fun to see. Bee pollen is another one where it's really soft granules, but very easily turns into a fine powder once the shrimp get a hold of it. Then it comes down to how the shrimp anatomy is designed, whether it's more of a claw shape or a fan shape on the arms of the shrimp and how the food choice can be best suited for them.

Could be. Just keep an eye on feeding time. Sprinkle in a little bit of food for the main group and then find the little fish and try to target feed that one to make sure it does have a chance at the food.

Best I can think of is trying a toothbrush. What a hassle! I don't believe there is an easy way to unsnap (nor should you) the black protective housing.

Cory discussed this on a live stream. Due to shipping issues, orders are currently on hold for the time being. Once USPS shipping times improve and it is safe to ship the item, then they can resume sales.

On the back of a tank, I haven't found a single drawback. On the side of the tank it just means there is a little bit of view restriction. Beyond that, the fish usually enjoy having the back/side blocked off as need be to reduce stress from traffic around the tank. Shrimp tank: back and right wall blocked off, wall is near a doorway. 75G just the back is blocked off. 29G by the window I have just the back, but would like to block the side due to ambient light bleed. 10G(QT tank) I have both sides and the back blocked off to minimize stress as much as possible.

20G tank or larger, I would think you have a decent chance of things being ok. Have like of sight breaks, etc.

Almost every day if I could. Yes.

Agreed, it all makes sense. Maybe I can send you thoughts in a DM or something if you wish. Ultimately I am trying to get all the data in front of me and just really understand what is going on with each recipe. There's always verbiage sometimes and it was enlightening when I saw a video where the details were broken down for me. As with anything, my view is simply my opinion / perspective and I think I keep shrimp very differently than most people would. It's not to say it's the best way, that it's easier, better, or anything like that. The health of the animal is a priority for me and that's the guiding concern for every choice I make with my colony. Switching foods has been the latest little decision in the line of many and it's nice to be able to dive into something. There are probably many of the foods listed that work well, I do definitely have my own preferences though and some that are major red flags. One thing I am keeping in mind for my own shrimp is how easily they can "chew" the food. Something like my corydoras have issues with this too and it's a characteristic where I need to be observant and understand the fish (or invert) needs. Sometimes the fish get frustrated after a few attempts to chew the food and then they won't eat it in future. It's an unfortunate thing, but it is something I have seen with various products over the years. Heck, I've even seen it with the same recipe but pellet vs. wafer. They ignored the wafer completely and only would touch the pellets.... small and easier to chew. Just for fun... (I swear he has a video for everything)

I haven't used it. Honestly, it's not as complete as other foods with things that the shrimp need. Beta glucans being a big omission among other things. It's a seemingly very natural food and it's pretty straightforward which I appreciate. For a "daily food" I don't think spinach as a base is the right choice.

There's two versions. One is "the egg looking one" and I had that filter. It broke on me the first time I tried to clean out the sponge. There is a newer version which looks like this. https://us.sicce.com/en/products/filters/shark-pro.html Marineland also has their magnum filters. https://www.marineland.com/products/filtration-and-water-circulation/magnum-polishing-internal-canister-filter.aspx

Mine ignored the alder cones for about a week or two until it really broke down a bit. Just long term food.

Aragonite is definitely not inert. It's used in many cases to buffer up PH by raising KH.

hello @xoHoneyBunny welcome to the forums. Air filtration is definitely your friend if you want to have slower filtration. Simple method would be to just have a good size airpump (I highly recommend the Tetra AP150 pump, designed for deeper tanks) and you can run 2-4 drops on that tank without issue. I have two tanks right now setup this way, one is running two tanks while the other is running my shrimp colony with 2 sponges and an airstone. Ultimately, there's 2-3 ways to view your filtration: movement, mechanically, and surface movement. Movement, or better stated circulation, is about having all of the water in the tank move around and be involved in that filtration process. If you see large piles of debris on one side of the tank, it's an indication that you are lacking in some circulation. Mechanically viewing your filtration is asking yourself how "clean" does the tank look visually. Is the water clear and do you see debris in the tank or is it being moved into the filtration and easily removed? The goal with filtration at pretty much every scenario is to be able to remove waste and then to be able to easily remove that waste with maintenance. For surface movement what you're looking for is ripples and waves across the surface of the water. This allows gas exchange, oxygenation, and will help to off-gas some things out of the tank as well. Ultimately, you can have the best filtration in the world, but if it doesn't allow for proper oxygenation (gas exchange) then you will run into health issues in the livestock. ....and yes, I know that "no filter aquariums" are a thing. Plants provide gas exchange and it's always going to be recommended to at minimum have an airstone in anything holding livestock. If I was setting up a 37G aquarium with slow flow in mind, I would have 2 of the biggest sponge filters I could buy on either corner of the tank and an airstone (or bubble wall) in the middle-back of the tank. Use a 3-way gang valve of of the pump above mentioned and you should have a very easy time adjusting the flow as you need to. Set the sponges to the desired flowrate and then any remaining air pressure from the pump can simply be released through that airstone. Just a note. Stress coat is a dechlorinator as well as prime, so make sure you're not "doubling up". Dechlorinator will remove oxygen from the water and adding too much can cause issues. It is almost always save to use ~5x a normal dose, but it's just something to keep in mind. Stability and FritzZyme also both are bacterial starters. You'd only really need to use one. Especially on a 10G tank it's pretty easy to do larger water volume changes. Don't be afraid to pull a 5G bucket of water when you do change your water. It won't ruin the cycle in any way. If you ever do have any concerns you can add some of the bacterial products following your water change and it would help out to keep the cycle going. Ultimately, if you're showing ammonia like you were, you'd want to do ~30-50% volume water changes when you do them. If you don't change enough water you can run into something called Old Tank Syndrome where you aren't able to remove waste fast enough and it will keep building over and over. There's definitely a lot of bioload on the tank. Ultimately you just want to verify things. You can take a water sample to the store and have them confirm your water test results. The goal (regardless of seeing nitrate) is that you don't see ammonia or nitrite. Once you see ammonia / nitrite it does point towards stocking issues as well as not having enough biological filtration. I would just keep testing daily and monitoring your ammonia, nitrite, nitrates. After about 7-10 days you should see some sort of a trend with what is going on. I don't think the plants would cause a PH to spike like that. I'm not sure why it did. It could be due to added bioload and oxygenation issues. (PH is tied to CO2 in the water as well). The frogbit and floating plants can do wonders when it comes to using up nitrate (and ammonia). So just keep monitoring the bad things and you should be doing just fine. As long as you have that surface movement via an airstone (or your filtration) then you should be ok. Given the stocking, adding an airstone is probably the move here to make sure you have enough oxygenation. As a sidenote, it's often recommended to buy the "next size up" when it comes to your filtration. The 10G you'd want to use the quietflow 20, etc. There is a variety of reasons for this, but it's just a note for any future use when you decide which filter for the tank in question. Making sure the filter has enough circulation is key.

I've been back and forth on schedules a lot of late. I'm not sure why it changes so much for me, but plants do have a cycle and a "season" where they can push growth a lot more than usual. That being said, I like the note of what plants are in play here because plant placement, setup, and growth rates all come into play here. So.... right now I have 4 tanks up and running, 2 of which I will can planted, with a 3rd and 4th that are much more temporary with susswassertang. Main tank: Staurogyne repens, Hygrophila Pinnatifida, Taiwan moss (recently died), pennywort. (note: the actual plant load is very minimal, the tank is deep and it is a bit difficult to really get the plants quality light energy) Secondary tank: assorted annubias species, a fern that I am pretty sure isn't able to grow submerged, and taiwan moss. (note: moss can take a lot more light than people think. Everything else here is extremely low demand) I water change the tanks every other week. I clean the filtration weekly. One of the main notes here is that I use GH and KH additives in addition to my planted tank fertilizer for the sake of having the right mineral levels for the plants (and species in the tank). I dose once a week, the recommended dose of easy green per week. I dose in an iron supplement as well at that same time. I will then check on GH/KH and add any additives as need be. I will usually dose in the afternoon or after I do the filter cleanings. sidenote, my nitrates are always extremely low and I track the need to add ferts by simply testing nitrates. Low nitrates, it's very easy to see "yep, need to add more in" if you test mid-week.

She definitely looks like she's got a bit more color hidden, waiting to develop in. 🙂 Very beautiful green hue though, lovely betta.

You have a very high powered filtration setup. Now would be the time to spend $15-30 on some decent quality ceramic media. Someone like Sicce or other have a variety of suitable, affordable options that won't break the bank. Eheim has the substrat pro. There's the classic biorings as well. I am all for saving money, but you may thank yourself by having at least one tray of ceramic media. Ceramic media (biological): mechanical filtration media (base of the canister). Pondguru has a lot of videos on how to use this type of media.

Easy mode: -add your ceramic media into the canister filter mixed in with the new ceramic media provided. -squeeze out the sponge material into the tank after you setup the new filtration and let that bacteria and "gunk" go into the new filtration setup to seed it. -use stability (seachem) or another bacterial starter product if you run into issues. Advanced mode: -hook up the canister filter doing all of the above methods, let them both run simultaneously for 1-2 weeks as you see fit. -test your water parameters daily so you can monitor ammonia or nitrite issues -Once you're set to clean out the prefilters on the Oase filter, then you should be set to remove the HoB.

Welcome to the forums, happy to have you here! I wouldn't mind that exact setup one bit. I love a good pleco, amano shrimp setup. They are such interesting things to watch and it'll be a very easy to enjoy setup. Awesome! I'm sure we all can't wait to see your tanks when you're ready to show them. 🙂

Definitely unplug / remove the heater if you wish. If it's that hot day to day, you likely don't need one until the air temp drops into 76 degrees or so. Highs and lows are natural. The way I manage is that I pull heaters and I have the actual tank itself try to retain as much cold as possible. During the evenings, trying to lower the temp as much as possible will help to keep the tank cooler, longer. I run a fan on a timer in the room with the tanks to vent out the warm air during the hottest parts of the day as well. You can keep the lid open to give the tank a bit of airspace which will also help keep things cool. The final "trick" people use is by actually attacking an aquarium fan to the tank itself at the water surface. More movement, more evaporation, keeps the tank cooler.

Found the back of the package. 🙂

I'll update the OP, but I have one more food I should've added to the mix. Of the foods I know of, especially in the US, this is one of the foods from a major seller that is often recommended and used. Food #6:

If the air can't escape the middle, drill some 1/4" holes in the base. A lot of times when you buy driftwood this step is done before it arrives to us as a preventative measure to floating. As long as the void in the wood isn't stuck holding air, drilling holes should let it sink. Shove it in a bucket with a weight on top and give it ~2 weeks. If you don't see any progress by then.... stick it permanently to a weight or just cut it in half. You'll end up with two caves at that point.

Looks great! That leaf in the back-middle is gigantic!

That's awesome! It is that time of year where we all should be seeing a bit more shrimplets. What is that plant in the basket?

Crap.... Hopefully things work out.