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Showing results for tags 'ecosystem'.
Found 17 results
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For the last 2 1/2 weeks I’ve been waiting for my heavily planted guppy grass 5 gallon aquarium with some small pearl weed and dwarf grass & moss (no filter) so far the guppy grass is exploding like crazy and producing enough oxygen aswell as removing many bad elements. I added 2 ghost shrimp to start eating some algae. I haven’t done any water changes more or less adding water every week from evaporation. I plan to add very very few maybe 2-3 nano fish in this tank within the next two weeks. My ammonia and nitrite levels are zero nitrate is between 20-30(I think less now) ph I believe is 6.0-6.4. I talked to my local fish store they told me just to give it 2 weeks or a week 1/2 and add the 3 nano fish then I don’t plan to add anymore than that due to the ecosystem adapting to that bio load. This tank was mainly done outta experimentation because usually for my self sustaining setups I do have a filter in the beginning later on take it out once it’s heavily planted and thriving. So my question should I add the nano fish with the next week or so?
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How much flow do planted tanks need?
Jacob Hill-Legion Aquatics posted a topic in General Discussion
How much flow do planted tanks need? I've seen many different ways of doing planted tanks and I was wondering how much flow/circulation do planted tanks actually need? I see lots of people who have planted tanks with big canister filters adding tons of flow and the have success but I also see people with very little flow like a sponge filter or sometimes just an airstone like Ocean Aquarium San Francisco or The Secret History Living in Your Aquarium what has your experience been? what works better for you? I want to create a low maintenance natural aquarium but I don't know what kind of filtration would be good in this situation? -
I'm starting a fun experiment today and thought I'd share. I'm setting up six pods of dwarf hairgrass using three common plant substrates either with or without root tabs. All of the pods will share the same column-fertilized water, the same (hopefully even) lighting, and I will be infusing CO2. At intervals I will rotate the outer pods to the inside to try to remove disparate lighting as a variable. My goals are to find out how much DHG benefits from root fertilization, which of these substrates it grows best in, and also how quickly a carpet can fill out when given optimal conditions. I'm excited to see how this goes.
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Hi! I just realized that a colony of tiny white little creatures (that look like mites) living in a piece of driftwood in my aquarium. I was wondering if somebody can help me to identify if this should be taken care of. Or, if it is part of the ecosystem. It is a 7 gallon aquarium with a HOB, a few pieces of driftwood, river rocks, and a few aquatic plants like java fern, tiger lotus and anubias. I would provide pictures but at this moment can't. I'll post them if somebody answers. Thanks! -
Since my life requires that I sometimes unexpectedly ditch my tanks for a week, I'm trying to have all the components of a stable ecosystem. Please see if you're aware of anything I'm missing: inert gravel substrate (for stability) 2 sponge filters bacteria micro crustaceans snails: 3 small species neocaridina (will start breeding soon) breeding endlers 1 angelfish plants: planted in substrate, epithytes, floating, pothos My thinking is that if I'm suddenly gone, all the animals have some other animal (or detritus) that they can eat. Even if the angel died, every other species would teamwork to "clean it up." Plants would help with water quality. Am I missing a link in the food chain? Or in the "water quality chain?"
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I will cut to the chase. How do you deal with all the waste a pleco produces? When I was treating my tank for ich, I actually sort of enjoyed it because the daily water changes meant I could gravel val and clean up the poop for the day. There is lots of poop. Maybe I am putting the blame on the plecos when it's a combination of everyone in the tank (but the poop all looks like it came from the pleco who leaves droppings in all his favorite places to hang out). But goodness gracious me, there is so much poop. My 29 gallon tank with more fish doesn't look this poopy between my weekly water changes. This 75 looks very poopy and I last gravel vaccd on Wednesday. If there a trick to dealing with it? Or am I just going to have to let go and deal with it?
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I started up a new 5g tank about three weeks ago (fishless cycle planted tank) and in the last few days have noticed tons of tiny white microorganisms flittering around. I can tell some are cyclops but I can't tell what the rest are. With my excitement comes a few questions: What are the most common types? Is this a good sign? What do they eat? Is there a point at which I should worry about the population?
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In the Aquarium Co-Op email I received last night, it included a link to Cory's video that he made last month discussing the invasion of zebra mussels in marimo moss balls. I'd seen it before, but just yesterday, I watched another yootoobles creator advising a scorched earth approach (Bleach your tank, bleach the ball!). It scared the bejeebles out of me and made me feel irresponsible for allowing my recently purchased moss ball to exist. (I'd purchased one in January and was concerned it might have the evil critters in it.) So, I listened to Cory's video again. He advised to not put your tank water in the sewer, which I don't do, anyway, for two reasons. 1. Are my snails possibly unwanted in my state's waterways? 2. My tank water is awesome fertilizer for my plants and gardens. Why would I flush that resource down the drain??? So, I gave a sigh of relief and stopped the self-flagellation for which I excel. Thanks, Cory for this and for all you do for the hobby. It is refreshing in this day and age to see a business exercise good corporate citizenship and I will support your efforts because of it.
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- marimo moss ball
- zebra mussels
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I have seen quite a few threads concerning a wide variety of algae, namely black beard algae (bba) and green spot algae (gsa). So i wanted to open up a discussion of algae, what are the positives and negatives of having algae in your tank. Why is bba and gsa so hard to get rid of. What causes and cures it. In my opinion algae is sorta like a bonus critter, akin to pest snails ( who wouldnt want a free, bonus algae eating invertebrate that tagged along for the ride when purchasing an aquarium plant ). Or the lowly yet somewhat disgusting detritus worms squiggling around the bucket from your water change. They are a bonus critter completely harmless to fish and plants that eat detritus, that stuff you spend time sucking up and out of your tank. I see them as a bonus, just like algae, all of these so called pests help complete and maintain your ecosystem in a box. Which is what an aquarium actually is, a small self contained ecosystem. If however you are set to fight the good fight against algae, or curb the growth of a particular strain of algae. The best to pieces of general advice i can give is #1 dont panic. Algae is a natural organism that helps remove nitrates and other organic waste in your ecosystem. It will not directly harm fish or plants, but if left unchecked can indirectly harm plants by covering leaves to the point of not receiving light. Basically do not go so far as to harm your existing ecosystem of fish and plants in an attempt to rid yourself of it. Algae is a part of life in an aquarium. #2 when combating algae be patient. As you apply treatments and make adjustments to your water chemistries it will take time to see results. Dont expect 24 hour miracles. I have fought with a bba explosion before, and it took nearly 2 weeks to see the results from some of the adjustments i made. The stuff grows quickly it seems, but dies very slowly. Give time for treatments to work before you decide it isnt working and move on to more extreme measures that could harm your ecosystem. Those are my thoughts, please add content to this thread to help everyone enjoy this wonderful hobby, instead of fretting the sometimes unavoidable but curable factors involved. Thank you for you time.
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- algae bloom
- algae control
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Hi all, I am a newbie and still cycling my planted tank , (no more ammonia but nitrite still high ) The thing is that I go some algae in the process... with the algae I started to see other creatures appear (hitchhikers form the plants) I am guessing . I see baby snails and I know that these are good , I also see very skinny and long worms, they almost look like white hair until you notice them crawling and eating the algae . I also see tinny little creatures looking like small bugs or fleas ? I know that some worms are and some creatures are good and some can be very bad I going not find on google a worm that looks like the one I have and I want to make sure nothing bad is going on before adding fish after the cycling . I tried to take a picture but these are very small things we are talking about so it blurry Thank you
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Does anyone know of chemicals that will kill all these terrible little detritus worms, cyclops, paramecium, and Vorticella in my aquarium. You can see all of this 'stuff' swimming around in the video I just shot below. The pygmy sunfish fry is eating some of it, but he will never get all it. Ugh, what am I doing wrong? Plus I think I saw a hydra eating a flatworm or leech or something. 😒
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A few days ago, I went to a local creek with an empty 2 liter bottle. I took mud from the bottom, and algae covered stick, and the creek water. It is amazing to see the life inside one of these. I see hydra and many tiny organisms flitting about. I even see some kind of worm stirring in the bottom. These jars can last years without you even having to open them. It’s a great chance to look at your local water ecosystem and see the micro but important level. Everyone should go and do this. It takes but five minutes to create an amazing ecosphere from your backyard.
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Just out of curiosity do you still eat fish/shrimp/snails after starting to become involved with fish keeping? I for one still really love fish/aquatic animals (as food and friends.) Although seeing something like a whole fish live fish in one of the tanks in the grocery store is slightly off putting now, especially when it looks horribly overstocked... (Although fish are tasty though 🙂 )
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Hello all. I'd appreciate some insight: I started this hobby with livebearers early this year (5 Balloon Mollies and 3 Platies...1 Male in each group), in a 20 gallon. As you can probably guess, these 8 "rabbits" forced a tank upgrade twice. I went to a 40 Long, and am now at at 75 gallon. Now the 8 adults are alongside approximately 60+ children. None of them are yet full grown, but a batch is getting close. I feel like the tank walls are closing in. Ultimately I plan to get a 125, but don't have room for anything larger than that. As it is, I let nature take its course. With so many babies around, constant food, and cover...the babies are thriving. (Deep down, I am actually glad for that.) I do have a local fish store that said they'd take any I didn't want, but to be honest, their livebearer tanks don't look so great, and I just don't feel good about bringing the fish to a sub-par environment. - At what point would you say a 75 is too small? How bout at 125? I have been on top of maintenance/water changes, have good filtration, and plan to stay on top of that. My ultimate goal is to just let a tank "be", and not have to worry about if each batch of fry is going to put it over the edge, stocking level-wise. And to be honest, I really like keeping the babies, seeing them grow, and am not too keen on giving them away. Any suggestions, advice, or empathy appreciated. 🙂 Thanks.
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- stocking advice
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Another article for your consideration. I grew up in the Great Lakes region and found this article very interesting. Talks about the food web essentially and how even a tiny invader can really mess things up. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2020/12/invasive-water-fleas-decimating-plankton-in-great-lakes/
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- news
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Hey aquarium people I have a question about hydra, specifically green hydra. As someone newer to planted aquariums I have come to find my first tank that has a large number of green hydra in it. As with many other things, the internet will tell me that they must be pure evil and to get them out ASAP. But I have learned from Cory’s videos that many of these small creatures in our tanks might not be that bad and could be good for the ecosystem. So what’s your opinion or experience with hydra? At this time they don’t bother me I just want to learn more about them. A little about the tank. 20g guppy breeding tank with lots of fry, snails, and two amano shrimp. Dirt with sand cap, planted and a small amount of wood. Tested weekly with no issues and water changed as needed every week to ten days. I also feed baby brine shrimp multiple times a week which I have come to learn the hydra love to eat too.
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Just notice this today. Moving on my fish tank glass ,scrunching up to move across the glass. What is it and how do I get rid of it?
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