Nano Tank Journal - 20 long

[Sherry]

Here are photos of my plants and aquariums. Apparently I have a bloom of some sort. I looked at the water under my microscope and found some very active single cell organisms.

I have tried several different plants but have settled on ones I can keep alive, although the Cyanobacteria tried to do some of those in — the Windelov Java Fern struggled and put out a bunch of babies, and I finally soaked my Java Moss in straight hydrogen peroxide to get rid of the BGA running along every branch. 😖

The problem was that when the BGA first showed up I thought it was a useful algae. When I realized my mistake it was everywhere. I used Maracyn and that killed most of it, but not all.

This is my quarantine tank - now snail nursery.

[Sherry]

And here is my 20L. I have three different anubias, Java moss, dwarf Sagittaria, Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus and Windelov Java Fern. I trimmed the fern way back. Any plants that need to be in soil are in little containers with soil topped with gravel.

[Guppysnail]

Looking forward to seeing the 20L grow up. I love the rock formation 

[Sherry]

I just got back from a 10 day trip to Arizona with three of my granddaughters…

I left green beans, a bottom wafer, and a chunk of Repashy in each tank. The 10 gallon is combination Mystery Snail nursery and quarantine.

I stayed with one of my sons after coming in to MSP (Minneapolis/St. Paul) and the next morning went to a close by fish store. One hundred dollars later I head north toward home with five more Pygmy Corydoras and eight White Cloud Mountain Minnows.

When I got home, I found everyone fine… and the water in my 20L was much clearer! I must be over feeding. Now the new fish are settling in.

[Sherry]

My brother sent me home with a chunk of coral he got decades ago when he was stationed in Hawaii. He thought I could use it as decoration in my aquarium. Is that a good idea? I only want freshwater tanks.

If yes, what will I need to do to clean it?

[nabokovfan87]

On 12/20/2023 at 1:25 PM, Sherry said:

My brother sent me home with a chunk of coral he got decades ago when he was stationed in Hawaii. He thought I could use it as decoration in my aquarium. Is that a good idea? I only want freshwater tanks.

Definitely great decor for around the tank, just not in it. 🙂

[Sherry]

On 12/20/2023 at 8:32 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Definitely great decor for around the tank, just not in it. 🙂

That’s what I suspected. Thanks

[Sherry]

Dear Friends,

I am baffled. My quarantine tank has also been my snail grow out tank. Everything has been going good until one day last week when I saw many of the babies lined up at the water line. I checked ammonia - zero. No nitrites, about 10 PPM nitrates.

I did a small water change. The next day, all the same. Then they started shutting down - floating! I took them out and put them in fresh dechlorinated water in a vase, and did a massive water change.

I was sure I had killed them, but when I smelled the vase, I couldn’t smell the “death” smell. I put them back in the tank. This morning I saw the biggest baby stick a tentacle out. 🤷🏻‍♀️ The funny part is that one is floating now, but the rest are just laying on the gravel.

Leading up to this episode I had fed them Hikari Crab Cuisine and some Repashy Snello, so I thought I had given them something bad, but couldn’t figure out what.

Has anyone had an experience like this?

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea

@Guppysnail

Edited January 22 by Sherry
To Tag

[Guppysnail]

What type of dechlorinator? Also this time of year line flushes on municipal water is done often. They flush with lots of stuff and crazy high chlorine. Do you treat the water before it goes in the tank.

also have you checked your temperature lately and airflow?  
 

What medications have ever been used to treat the qt?

[Sherry]

I live in a small town; our water comes from a well.

Dechlorinator - I use Fritz Complete. I treat the water in a bucket before I add it to the aquarium

Temperature - I am aiming for tanks with no heaters. I keep my apartment thermostat at 72F. My thermometers register around that, sometimes closer to 73.

I use Ich-x, API Erythromycin, Paracleanse, and in early December I treated for Cyanobacteria with Chemiclean.

The last treatment of anything was Paracleanse on January 4th.

 

[Guppysnail]

@Sherry thought I cannot be sure I would think some combination of all those meds built up and adhered to surfaces. Im not familiar with chemiclean. As the babies ingest more and more it eventually became too much. Though I would not have expected all to rush to the surface simultaneously. 
That is guess 1.

 

Guess 2

73 is a bit to low for mystery snails. I found below 74 I had no luck with babies. Perhaps they are gravitating to the light as a potential heat source?

Maybe a combination of both  add some extra air and check to be sure your filtration is flowing.

I do not see anything definitive however them all at the surface something in that tank is causing discomfort and stress  

when my mysteries git to low temp they retract in their shell and are barely or not at all active  

 

 

[Sherry]

Thank you.

So strange… temperature-wise, this is the same since they were born. The filter is a sponge filter. I have seen three start to wake up and then go back to sleep. I’ll test my water again.

I’ve had one of the offspring in my 20 for some time. When I started to panic, I took the two parents and that last baby that was still active at that time. They are acting normal.

[Sherry]

No ammonia detected.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

One time I did a water change and all my baby mystery snails burrowed in the sand. I thought maybe it’s because I forgot to check the temperature of the water going in or something. But @Guppysnail told me to watch for a growth spurt when they emerge. And sure enough, they came back out and had the little spikes along their shell edges and were growing new shell. So maybe that could be what’s happening @Sherry

Also do you actually see them eat the food? If too young they will ignore food and go for biofilm or algae.

Edited January 26 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

Also I remember a video Cory made about dechlorinators. They reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water so they CAN be overdosed. Take care to follow instructions on the bottle. Some you should dose for full tank volume and some you should dose only in the new water. Best to increase aeration if possible.

Edited January 23 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Sherry]

On 1/22/2024 at 7:45 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Also do you actually see them eat the food?

I feed them canned green beans and they climb on them and nibble. I also give them an algae wafer occasionally. Recently I made Snello with Repashy and ground calcium. I used a glass dish to hold it along with the Hikari Crab Cuisine. I wanted to know it was being eaten - not rotting. I saw the snails crawl in to eat, and I think I saw a variety over two days. It was when the food was gone that they started acting different. Maybe they are getting ready for a growth spurt. That would be awesome.

My filter is a sponge one, but I added an air stone to the tank.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 1/22/2024 at 6:50 PM, Sherry said:

No ammonia detected.

These multi strips do not test for ammonia. Ammonia is a separate test.  I would suggest getting the API liquid ammonia test. I did not have accurate readings with ammonia strips. I have tried several brands. Re: strips - Cory had made a video or livestream where he explains when having the ammonia test on a multi strip, it doesn’t work right, so it had to be its own product.

Remind me what size the quarantine tank is and how many snails you have. When snails get to a certain size there will be ammonia no matter what you do, and they have to be adopted out. I had about 35-40 in a 10 gallon and when they were about chickpea size I had ammonia always. I water changed twice a day using Prime until the snails were adopted and I had no losses to parameter issues, as I was testing for ammonia every day since their birth. 

On 1/22/2024 at 10:57 PM, Sherry said:

I wanted to know it was being eaten - not rotting

I remove uneaten commercial foods in an hour with turkey baster, with the exception of veggies or Repashy which can be left for 24 hr.

Edited January 23 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[Sherry]

It was my intention to take the young snails to the closest fish store (Detroit Lakes, MN) before now, but it is roughly 50 miles away and the weather turned to normal winter weather! The roads are clear now, but this past Sunday was the first day above zero in awhile.

I have test strips for ammonia only, but I don’t have any liquid testing kits.

My quarantine tank is 10 gallons.

I’ll change water again today, and go from there.

Thank you, everyone, for your help.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 1/23/2024 at 5:25 AM, Sherry said:

It was my intention to take the young snails to the closest fish store (Detroit Lakes, MN) before now, but it is roughly 50 miles away and the weather turned to normal winter weather! The roads are clear now, but this past Sunday was the first day above zero in awhile.

I have test strips for ammonia only, but I don’t have any liquid testing kits.

My quarantine tank is 10 gallons.

I’ll change water again today, and go from there.

Thank you, everyone, for your help.

When you do transport the snails, do so in a cooler for temperature stability.

Use the strips you have already and see if there is any reading.

On 1/22/2024 at 6:03 PM, Guppysnail said:

however them all at the surface something in that tank is causing discomfort and stress

I would agree with @Guppysnail here. My snails burrowed for growth spurt, but at the water line snails are usually wanting air or relief from whatever else it may be. I hope we can figure out what it is. It’s frustrating not knowing the cause.

Side note- Did you know that water temp affects snail shell development? Ie: fast growth vs slow growth, and thick shell vs thin shell, at certain temps.

[Sherry]

On 1/23/2024 at 5:03 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Did you know that water temp affects snail shell development? Ie: fast growth vs slow growth, and thick shell vs thin shell, at certain temps.

I just learned something about that. It was my intention to keep an unheated tank - if I had known Mystery snails needed warmer temps I wouldn’t have bought them. I researched, but every source has a different temperature range.

[Sherry]

My water tests look good so I’m going to wait on the water change.

I thought about what you said about temps. My 20 gallon is just under 72, but my 10 gallon is at 70, which I understand is the lower edge of comfort for my snails. I put a heater in the 10. I set it at 74 degrees F. Is that what you guys use?

20 gallon:

10 gallon:

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I’ve kept them between 74 and 78, depending on what other animals were in with them.

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/23/2024 at 8:16 AM, Sherry said:

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.
 

 

[Sherry]

On 1/23/2024 at 4:09 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

If it means you have really high KH, that's good for the snails.

I hope my KH is good - I use Wondershell and recently dropped in a mesh bag half full of crushed coral to hopefully slowly eliminate the need to buy Wondershell.

Thank you for the video. I will watch it now.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 1/23/2024 at 5:09 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

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.
 

 

Thats a great share @nabokovfan87. 
I like to lay my strips on a paper towel, which I labeled with the tanks before I start dipping strips. I lay the strip above the tank label (ie: S for shrimp tank, Q1 for quarantine 1, Q2 for Quarantine 2, B for betta, and 29 for the community tank.

i use the same procedure with vials, laying the vial holders on top of the labeled paper towel.