The Compelling Argument for Architects to ALWAYS Include a Fishroom

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/16/2022 at 9:19 PM, Torrey said:

 

On 4/16/2022 at 9:19 PM, Torrey said:

Such an amazing tank.  I love the separation of the two styles at the waterline and how the contrast to highlight the other. Very nice work and I'm looking forward to see where you take it. 

Are you slowly working to remove the duckweed or embracing it?

[Torrey]

I love watching the lights turn back on, and fish are happily swimming around... almost as much as I enjoy seeing plants pearling after the lights have been on a while. 

I still have a bit of algae that grows in response to the light between the two tanks.

It's taken almost a month to get this much algae on the tank wall, though. I feel like I am getting things in balance with the microdosing.

I need iron and magnesium separate, and looking at this windelov leaf, I am 70% confident the leaf was damaged like this when I got it?

But I am not 100% sure.

I may have a deficiency I haven't identified yet....

On 4/30/2022 at 1:25 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Are you slowly working to remove the duckweed or embracing it?

I am too old to fight a plant like duckweed. Plus, we use it in stirfry and it's a staple for the turtle, so I just move it to the turtle pond, or wash it and leave it in a bowl for a week and then we eat it anytime it overtakes the surface of a tank.

Hoping to set up the newest tank with out it, we shall see🤷‍♂️

Thank you for your encouragement!

[Tihshho]

Based on the title of this thread I just wanted to say that homes of a certain era had these already in mind. They were always labeled with the generic name "utility room" but that always translated to me as "fish room". Key things being enough space, water feeds for both hot and cold, drain and the icing being a utility sink. 

[Torrey]

On 5/7/2022 at 2:47 PM, Tihshho said:

Based on the title of this thread I just wanted to say that homes of a certain era had these already in mind. They were always labeled with the generic name "utility room" but that always translated to me as "fish room". Key things being enough space, water feeds for both hot and cold, drain and the icing being a utility sink. 

ORD 😍

I grew up in one of those homes. My mom grew up in an even better era home: pre-colonial, with a dedicated piano room (great acoustics), enclosed solarium, a dedicated sewing room, and I have no idea what the insulated addition to the solarium was originally designed for, but it had double hung, poured glass (complete with the bubbles and waves poured window glass is known for) "glazing" and both the outside glass and the inside glass opened independently of one another. My grandfather eventually added screens to keep bugs out, and it had been converted to his fish room long before I was born.

[Atitagain]

On 5/8/2022 at 12:35 AM, Torrey said:

My grandfather eventually added screens to keep bugs out, and it had been converted to his fish room long before I was born.

That’s awesome, was this a reason you were inspired to start the hobby?

I hope my fishroom inspires some of my family. My 2nd oldest son I gave him a 20G and he set it up a couple weeks ago. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Torrey]

On 5/8/2022 at 5:52 AM, Atitagain said:

That’s awesome, was this a reason you were inspired to start the hobby?

I hope my fishroom inspires some of my family. My 2nd oldest son I gave him a 20G and he set it up a couple weeks ago. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I grew up with my GrandRed (my mom's da) teaching me how to build ponds with concrete and rocks, and how to use vinegar to treat the concrete so it wouldn't leach lime.... 

How to care for goldfish, how to catch catfish at Kerr Lake, how to catch minnows and crawdads at the creek. My parents got their first fish tank when my mom got pregnant to explain where babies came from. A few guppies, a trio of Swords, and a trio of black mollies taught me that babies make the belly get big, and make moms bigger than dads🤣

I learned a gonopodium was necessary to get them pregnant.

And when my mom brought my baby sister home, my parents (and aunts, uncles, grandparents, neighborhood friends) learned that the fish taught me to expect multiples, which shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone since my Auntie had given birth to twins.

My greeting to my baby sister was a hard stare at my mom and dad, and: "where are the rest of them?"😅😲🤣

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

On 5/7/2022 at 1:47 PM, Tihshho said:

Based on the title of this thread I just wanted to say that homes of a certain era had these already in mind. They were always labeled with the generic name "utility room" but that always translated to me as "fish room". Key things being enough space, water feeds for both hot and cold, drain and the icing being a utility sink. 

I always felt that's what a recreation room was for but people put in bars..... 

[Torrey]

So, I caught the shrimp unplanting a few of the recently planted trimmings...

Apparently, the shrimp like more floating plants to hang on to, while grabbing things out of the uplift tube for the UGF.

 

[Torrey]

Tonight, I decided to offer a flake of Xtreme Krill, to see what happened.

A few minutes later, I had 2 shrimp plus the Radix auricularia  sharing a flake. Struggled to get a good closeup, but here's Princeling Flappy with the blue dreams!

You can see the very red flake between them, which was devoured in just under 4 minutes. I tried to get video, but the focus wasn't co-operating.

I don't have enough shrimp yet, for them to do serious damage to the green beans, carrots or baby squash strips I put in. However..... The shrimp in the middle (and mostly covered with the red flake of food) appears to be getting rather thick under the tail.... you can actually see the flake of food is not as wide as the shrimp tail.... 

So maybe shrimplettes are in my future?

 

[Torrey]

Last week we received a notice that our housing program needed a full inspection that included access to all windows, closets, and edge of carpets, as well as electrical outlets😲

Sadly, the pandemic had meant the apartment complex had not kept up on all the maintenance to maintain housing certifications, so everyone on the housing program needs to have a full inspection (and everything be repaired/brought up to standard) before the program will renew leases. Not a big deal, except I've been waiting on a new shelving unit before moving/rearranging my bedroom/fish room.

The notice said they would be in the apartment the next day.😅

So.... I am still putting things back together after pulling shelves away from the wall (which meant draining tanks first, which meant playing musical tanks, which meant...)

I have two tanks redone: my bedside fry grow out tank (no plans for dedicated breeding this spring) and my spouse's T4' tank.

No picture's of the spouse's tank yet.... here's how I did my bedside tank!

 

Last year, it was bare bottom with moss balls

and then hornwort was added.... and duckweed, and a floating island of bacopa

and finally a floating tube of plants (mosses, etc).

Once I learned I didn't have a regular request for my longfin zebra danios any longer, I decided I really didn't want the stress of a bare bottom tank. So....

I drained, cleared everything away from the window and the electrical outlets for the inspection, and the fish spent the night in a bucket with their sponge filters.

Once the inspection for water damage (the irony, right???), electrical shorts, mold, bugs, functional windows and closet doors, fans, and smoke/fire/CO2/radon alarms was complete, I put in a UGF and covered with leftover gravel I had on hand along with some crushed lava rock.

 

Then I cut egg crate light diffuser to fit the top, covered an [established] internal HOB type filter with a sock to protect the motor, planted the tank with milfoil, hornwort, frogbit, bacopa carolinia, and put the plastic aquarium gems around the old fry sponge filter.

Collected the endler & blue guppy fry from various buckets and put them in a mesh breeder box suspended from bamboo skewers at the top of the tank. Trimmed the egg crate to accommodate the breeder box, the airlines, the pothos, and the internal filter.

Attached submersible LED lights to accommodate all of the above. Bright white lights went under the eggcrate.

Put cling wrap/saran wrap over the two ends, and wrapped the cling wrap over the edges to create a splash/drip seal and reduce water evaporation.

Placed the color changing LED submersible strip on top of the egg crate to cover some dark spots in the aquarium (not my favorite LED light, but it was a gift).

Used zip ties to attach lights under the crate/on top of the crate, and plugged into timers.

Tested water before each time to feed (skipped feeding for one day) and an hour after I fed LIGHTLY (next 72 hours), and now, 4 days later, I am not getting any ammonia or nitrite readings an hour after I feed so I think we are in the clear. did 4 water changes since Friday, last one was Sunday night. ammonia and nitrites never got over 0.25 due to close observation/testing and light feeding.

I did use Prime every day, Thurs - Sunday, and FritzZyme in the filter 2 hours after each water change.

By Sunday evening, fish were back to normal activity levels and the danio are spawning. Endler males thing the roe is delicious. I discovered my assassin snail had babies that I was unaware of, only 2 survived but I now know why I kept getting a protein film: 3 assassins eat a lot of snails!!!  

 

oh, and the shrimp are doing fabulously in the SFS tank!

Finally, the assassin snail baby tried to imitate the ramshorns, and wanted to learn how to surf. At first, I thought the assassin was so starved it was hunting ineffectively because they normally hide during the day.

After watching it for 3 hours, I am 99.9% confident that this is *play*

 Hope everyone has a great week, I have a lot of work left to do, lol!

[Torrey]

@Seattle_Aquarist I have a nutrient question......

Please ignore the floating plants, the snails (variety) and shrimp (3 Blue dream & possibly some shrimplettes) pick a plant each week that needs to be dug up, well cleaned, and then I am allowed to replant it and it grows a bit better until they decide to relandscape.

Since this is a new experience for me (and I've been watching, they only eat damaged foliage... but that is making it hard for me to identify what's wrong...) and in the past I haven't cared as much about how plants were doing....

I'm at a loss.

I overdid it for the various housing inspections, and it took a few weeks to recuperate. So I anticipated some plant loss, followed by recuperation. I got new growth, but it looks a little cupped on the new leaves? AR leaves are a bit curled, and plenty of roots at every node, snails removed the damaged growth already (no pinholes I could see, mostly melt from the initial transition on lowest leaves followed by 4 weeks of growth with insufficient ferts, followed by shorter internodal length after I lengthened the photoperiods, but snails still eating older leaves and leaving newer, curled leaves alone).

This is a 2.5 gallon tank, 3 shrimp (and I think some shrimplettes, but everyone hid today when I tried to do a head count). I siphon any waste I find on the substrate off every other day-ish (chronic pain is not my friend right now), which results in about a 16 to 20 oz water change every other day. Plants were looking great until the flare mid-May. Once I got back into every other day maintenance, I saw new growth last week. Snails and shrimp wipe out a 1/4" length of green bean, or shaving of carrot, every other day. They also polish off Bug Bites shrimp pellets on the days in between, have a penchant for an Xtreme flake, and get frozen food 2x/week. I only allow algae on the uplift tube for the UGF and one area on the back wall. Up ntil my flare I was cleaning algae 2x/month, what you see in the tank currently is less than I had before my flare, so may need to feed more (shrimp eat flakes and pellets out of my hand now, so I can minimize waste in the tank).

I add 1 cc of Easy Green with each water change (why I expected my plants to not do well thanks to my flare) and SeaChem (for the iron) 2x/week, temp is 68 F, nitrates are 15 to 20 ppm after ferts, 0 to 10 ppm the morning before the water change. 0 ppm nitrites and 0 ppm ammonia, 150 ppm GH, 40 ppm KH, pH fluctuates over the course of the day from 6.8 to 7.2. No CO2, fairly low tech.

Water changes are 50% ZeroWater/ 50% tap (end result matches above parameters) until I get more Salty Shrimp for the neos.

Planted back in February, and was seeing new growth that looked the best out of all my tanks until I flared in May.

 

Crushed black lava and a black gravel for substrate on top of a DIY UGF, which has been running since the first summer of the pandemic?

When I wasn't able to stay on top of the water changes and had to rely on the pellets and flakes (minus the every other day vegetables) is when the snails and shrimp started a concerted effort at unplanting *everything* in the tank. @Guppysnail they haven't stopped even though they are regularly getting vegetables again now. They only nom on already damaged or melted leaves, so technically they are still doing their jobs... just a bit more aggressively and Roy, I suspect this is because the plants are as healthy. My brain and my heart say something is out of balance, I just don't know what. I really thought returning to my microdose schedule would do the trick. Now, the rest of the tanks are looking better.🙄

Lights are the Walmart submersible I've posted pictures of somewhere. 4 hours on/ 4 hours off/ and I upped the second 2 light periods for a total of 10 hours/ 24 hour period. (4/3/3 with a double siesta) wondering if I didn't have enough light, and now the moss & pearlweed require trimming weekly... but my AR rose isn't looking very good and neither is my pogostemon. Cyperus helferi is growing and populated enough plugs to plant a second tank, but ever since I divided them, the snails and shrimp dig them up.

Do I just have a tank full of willful teenagers? Or have I really messed up this tank?

 

[Guppysnail]

So you already know I can’t help with individual plant nutrients but I may be able to shed some light on the digging up.  

Just so I know I read this correctly (have not finished morning coffee, caffeine deficiency in me shows signs by often causing comprehension issues 🤣)

When you were not able to keep up on siphoning up excess the plants were not being dug up, now with regular maintenance they are? Also with regular maintenance your cleanup crew is more efficient at taking down dying leaves prior to you being able to see the deficiency with renewed maintenance?
 

Here is what I learned with my new adventure into ugf filters.

My maintenance is fairly regular (barring bursitis attacks)  my bladder snail population was always very stable  I would see approx. 10 throughout the day in each of my tanks but seldom all at one time and rarely on the front glass since it’s the only panel I keep clean there is no food there unless something was wrong.  I love these guys  they know before I do there is an issue with tanks and plants  🥰 

The day after I put in the UGFs on each I would see most of them and the following week things seemed normal.  Then I started seeing 20 -30 throughout the week and 5-10 on the front glass.   It was alarming because I thought I had snail explosions in all my tanks.

Typical me fashion I watched for another week without interference to see what was going on.  My tanks all have plecos.  They get between 1-4 whole green beans in each tank depending on number of plecos and mystery snails (or equivalent variety veg GB just are good size visuals) every day.  I was keeping to the same maintenance schedule.  Those veggies are left in the tanks for 24 hours then removed and replaced with new. I steam mine firm and shrimp and snails do not eat them until the following morning when they soften  this let’s the plecos eat when they are firm in peace without tiny terrorist disturbance. Come morning I was starting to have no trace of veggies left at the 12 hour mark where usually the green bean skin was left to remove at the 24 hour mark.  I chalked this up to my supposed snail explosion and watched for another week.   

I started seeing only 1-2 bladder snails a day. Now too few what the heck.  I also should have had an increase in algae from so much tank disruption but oddly was seeing a decrease in what I feel was a healthy amount of algae. More worry. I always allow algae to coat hard scape and back walls because it’s Mother Natures helping hand in balancing my ecosystem.  If it is there it needs to be there and is also a great warning something is off.  Did I mention I hate, hate, hate running full tests? LAZY 🤣 I usually don’t, I just spot check the big three.  Things in my tanks over the years alert me to different parameters being off.  
 

About a week later I was alarmed in the morning to find about 2-7 snails stuck inside each the uplift tubes of most tanks behind the grate of the outflow.  After releasing them I looked under my tanks since most I can see the bottom.  Hmm snail city.

Here is what was happening.

Previously my very thin layer of gravel even with vacuuming would collect excess debris like crazy.  Installing the ugf made those solids break down faster but some would lay on the glass under the ugf where the siphon did not reach. My snails were no longer getting enough to eat because of the new efficiency.  They stripped out the upper portion on my 2 inch gravel of edibles so went deep gravel diving and found what collected on the floor and grew to large in body size to resurface through the grates and were laying eggs on the glass bottom next to the food source. Luckily I had cut the grating out beneath the uplift tubes and they tried to resurface there. Because nothing was breaking down to release vitamins an nutrients because the snails consumed and used them I had nothing for my algae to eat and that’s why my algae did not progress with the disruption of adding the ugf. 
 

I increased veggie servings slowly until I had the same amount left at 24 hours as I did previously and now things are back to normal with snail sightings and behaviors.  
 

Long story short.  Your snails are most likely now uprooting your plants because they are hungry and digging deeper disturbing the roots and portions that are not so firmly rooted are floating away.  You may have had an increase in population when debris removal was not regular allowing this increase.  Now you are back on track so there is not enough to feed all the new ones.  This could also be why your leaves are showing signs because the snails are using up most of the trace nutrients rather than the plants.  
 

I hope that conveys what I’m visualizing based on my experience and your description.  

Okay now that I am a novelist I NEED a second cuppa-joe 🤣

 

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @Torrey

Water parameters always help when trying to diagnose a nutrient related issue since the availability of many nutrients for plants are effected by pH.  Also hardness information which provides basic information on overall calcium and magnesium levels.  Lastly nitrate levels (in ppm) help when dealing with growth issues.

Can you provide information on the following please?
pH =
dKH =
dGH =
nitrates (ppm) =
 -Roy

[Torrey]

On 6/8/2022 at 9:13 AM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @Torrey

Water parameters always help when trying to diagnose a nutrient related issue since the availability of many nutrients for plants are effected by pH.  Also hardness information which provides basic information on overall calcium and magnesium levels.  Lastly nitrate levels (in ppm) help when dealing with growth issues.

Can you provide information on the following please?
pH =
dKH =
dGH =
nitrates (ppm) =
 -Roy

I am now out of the API drops to test dGH & dKH, so here's the Co-op test strips results. Co-op test srips on ammonia, nitrites & nitrates match my API measurements

 0 ppm nitrites and 0 ppm ammonia

150 ppm GH

40 ppm KH

pH fluctuates over the course of the day from 6.8 to 7.2. No CO2, fairly low tech.

@Seattle_Aquarist our tap water is so high in calcium it causes kidney stones in people and animals. Hence mixing with ZeroWater. You helped me identify a magnesium deficiency before, which was resolved by adding 1/4 tsp pure epsom salts/gallon of water to the ZeroWater component, each water change. Obviously I don't use an entire gallon on a 2.5 gallon tank, I just replace what I take out with 1/2 ZeroWater & 1/2 tap water filtered through the Pur filter (keeping costs down, disability payments aren't matching cost of living increase).

[Seattle_Aquarist]

On 6/8/2022 at 8:01 PM, Torrey said:

I am now out of the API drops to test dGH & dKH, so here's the Co-op test strips results. Co-op test srips on ammonia, nitrites & nitrates match my API measurements

 0 ppm nitrites and 0 ppm ammonia

150 ppm GH

40 ppm KH

pH fluctuates over the course of the day from 6.8 to 7.2. No CO2, fairly low tech.

@Seattle_Aquarist our tap water is so high in calcium it causes kidney stones in people and animals. Hence mixing with ZeroWater. You helped me identify a magnesium deficiency before, which was resolved by adding 1/4 tsp pure epsom salts/gallon of water to the ZeroWater component, each water change. Obviously I don't use an entire gallon on a 2.5 gallon tank, I just replace what I take out with 1/2 ZeroWater & 1/2 tap water filtered through the Pur filter (keeping costs down, disability payments aren't matching cost of living increase).

Hi @Torrey, did I miss the nitrates ppm?  -Roy

[Torrey]

On 6/8/2022 at 10:04 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @Torrey, did I miss the nitrates ppm?  -Roy

My nitrates are still fluctuating, apparently in response to feeding the shrimp. Mornings after green beans nitrates will be at 10 ppm

After the small water change and ferts, nitrates hit 20 ppm and drop overnight. I think I am underfeeding the entire system😅

[Torrey]

Roy;

Here's tank around April

During April and the first half of May I was doing weekly trims and moving red plants to other tanks (which haven't had enough light and they failed to thrive). The tank on the right kept growing more and more of the AR roseaefolia, as long as I kept adding ferts. I pulled the water sprite out, because it grew faster than I wanted to trim. 

I didn't stay on top of the ferts for most of May, got back to daily microdosing since Memorial Day weekend.

Based on how everyone attacked the green bean last night, I'm going to say I am severely underfeeding.

Big Mama swarmed the green bean the second it hit the water.

Less than 2 minutes and the other two shrimp, plus the snails, were making a bee line.

Not even 6 hours later, it was decimated.

This is what the tank looks like right this minute. 

ammonia: 0 ppm

nitrites: 0 ppm

nitrates: 10 ppm

GH: 150 ppm

KH: 40 ppm

pH: 6.8

Temp: 70 F at 5 pm, has dropped back down to 68 F over 5 hours (we had temps over 100 F today with 6% humidity.

I will be doing another water change in the morning to clean up the bottom, and I am now on week 3 of microdosing ferts daily. The pogostemon, Cyperus helferi (uprooted), and flame moss are growing quickly. My AR roseaefolia seems to be deteriorating more rapidly. Maybe it's just not a good fit with my water/available lighting and I have to accept that? It grows great, as long as I leave it floating at the top. It grew great from January until I got sick mid-May. Now, I can't get it to recuperate....

On 6/8/2022 at 6:17 AM, Guppysnail said:

About a week later I was alarmed in the morning to find about 2-7 snails stuck inside each the uplift tubes of most tanks behind the grate of the outflow.  After releasing them I looked under my tanks since most I can see the bottom.  Hmm snail city.

@Guppysnailthis is the same UGF that has been running in this tank since the first summer of the pandemic, if that makes a difference. I looked yesterday, and a few snails in the uplift tube, but they can easily get out of the UGF via the outlift tube because I made my own (I discovered TopFin and another brand don't have this option, and I can see babies getting stuck).

This morning, after eating an entire green bean last night, a shrimp was in the tube.🙄

I'm thinking over the winter, everything needed less fodd, because the warmest the tank got was 68 F. Today when I got home from the docs at 5 pm, tank was 70 F and everyone was super active.... so probably need more food.

@Seattle_Aquarist I wonder if leftover flake food/waste from the flake of Xtreme I fed every other day supplied a nutrient that I don't have enough of in my water/ ferts (ACO Easy Green and SeaChem Flourish)? And since I wasn't well enough to watch them eat the flake, I had switched to primarily veggies lightly blanched on a bamboo skewer, so I could remove leftovers daily, and maybe the plants suffered from not getting flake food?

I was out of fresh green beans to blanch yesterday, and fed all the tanks a canned green bean. Then most of the tanks got a second canned green bean, and the T4' tank ended up with 6 green beans consumed between 5:30 pm (evening lights on) and 10 pm (lights out). So... everybody is hungry? But I got rid of the algae....🤦🏼‍♂️

(Pardon my long post, I'm thinking out loud, trying to learn, and sharing my thought process)

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @Torrey

Are you dosing the recommended amount of ACO Easy Green weekly even if you are doing micro-dosing....what is the total amount of Easy Green you are dosing weekly?  The tank in 4 gallons? -Roy

[Torrey]

On 6/10/2022 at 10:41 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @Torrey

Are you dosing the recommended amount of ACO Easy Green weekly even if you are doing micro-dosing....what is the total amount of Easy Green you are dosing weekly?  The tank in 4 gallons? -Roy

I'm actually dosing twice the amount on the directions Roy, to get the nitrates up to 20 ppm.

It's a 2.5 gallon tank and I am dosing 0.1 mL daily again. (thank goodness for medicine syringes)

[Seattle_Aquarist]

Hi @Torrey

Folks sometimes say that snails won't eat healthy plants but I don't believe that to true having seen too many plants where a 'snail track' goes across a healthy leaf.  I believe it they are hungry enough they will eat whatever is available.  All my tanks are snail free but if you have snails cutting back on the snail population is a good start.  You are dosing 0.7 ml of Easy Green a week (a little over the equivalent of 2X per week dosing) but your nitrates stay low?  Are you using test strips or liquid to check you nitrate ppm levels?

[Torrey]

On 6/11/2022 at 11:02 AM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Hi @Torrey

Folks sometimes say that snails won't eat healthy plants but I don't believe that to true having seen too many plants where a 'snail track' goes across a healthy leaf.  I believe it they are hungry enough they will eat whatever is available.  All my tanks are snail free but if you have snails cutting back on the snail population is a good start.  You are dosing 0.7 ml of Easy Green a week (a little over the equivalent of 2X per week dosing) but your nitrates stay low?  Are you using test strips or liquid to check you nitrate ppm levels?

I have used both, to verify the results. 

Last fall I got to low nitrates by going down to microdosing the ferts.... only the T4' has consistently had zero nitrates (it's a miracle of the plants). Now, after htis last flare, all tanks are low nitrates and shrimp tank is consistently zero nitrates except the 4 hour window of light right after I dose ferts. Looking at what you have posted elsewhere, I am thinking the cupped/furled new growth indicates magnesium deficiency? And shrimp and snails digging everything up indicates they are hungry. So I am first full week into feeding the shrimp and snails every day instead of every other day, and nitrates this morning *before* I dosed ferts were 5 ppm. 0 ammonia and nitrites still. API validated Co-op strips.

[Seattle_Aquarist]

hI @Torrey

Yes, one of the symptoms of insufficient available magnesium is 'cupping' of leaves with leaf margins curling either upward or downward.  -Roy

[Torrey]

On 6/15/2022 at 8:19 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

hI @Torrey

Yes, one of the symptoms of insufficient available magnesium is 'cupping' of leaves with leaf margins curling either upward or downward.  -Roy

Then my guess is, insufficient magnesium did initial damage, which was magnified by my underfeeding that probably started when I brought the shrimp home from their QT.

I just put a blanched cucumber wedge and blanched carrot chunk in the tank.

Less than 15 minutes later, and all 8 snails, plus 3 shrimp, are munching on the veggies.

Last week everyone stayed on the veggie kabob until it was gone, so I kept increasing size portion.

Tomorrow morning I will remove whatever is left, and replace tomorrow night. 

Nitrates are at 10 ppm now, at the end of the day. Light water change tomorrow. 

I'm premixing magnesium (100% pure Epsom salt) in a gallon jug for water changes. Will continue with new feeding schedule, plus the added magnesium, and see what new growth looks like next few weeks. 

Am looking at giving plants an overnight bath in seltzer water, followed by 30 minute oxygenated bath in freshwater, to accelerate the melt process of damaged foliage and stimulate new growth. 

Sitting here watching shrimp and snails eat, I see fresh growth on pogostemon, uprooted cyperus helferi, and the AR rosaeafolia might have some new leaves, too. My eyes are old, lol

Twenty minutes of eating, I am down to half the cucumber chunk.

[Atitagain]

Your shrimp look wonderful. I’m gonna start a new colony of them and I’m thinking blue. I have a lot of cherry shrimp, they seem to do very well in my water. But they are scattered throughout a bunch of tanks. With the new ones I think it will be a species only tank with probably some small snails. 

[Guppysnail]

On 6/11/2022 at 1:02 PM, Seattle_Aquarist said:

Folks sometimes say that snails won't eat healthy plants but I don't believe that to true having seen too many plants where a 'snail track' goes across a healthy leaf.  I believe it they are hungry enough they will eat whatever is available. 

I experience this exact thing with my bladder snails. Any creature will consume anything they can rather than face starvation. As long as an appropriate yet not too much amount of food is available mine do not damage leaves. If I cut feedings back to far I am guaranteed plant consumption.