Whitecloud09’s 10 gallon planted aquarium journal

[Whitecloud09]

Let’s go!

 

Hmmmm, Olivia or Sarah. So hard to decide! I am still thinking……😉

Edited July 22 by Whitecloud09

[Whitecloud09]

Package just came! But sadly my pics are black, working on that. They won’t show up…

[Whitecloud09]

Here we go!!!

[Yoshi]

I ADORE the look of your tank!! 😍

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/22/2024 at 8:42 PM, Yoshi said:

I ADORE the look of your tank!! 😍

Thank you! It is a little bit of a work in progress, the red flame sword will go soon, i might add one val from my 20 soon. @Yoshi

[JS Fish]

This tank is looking great just your 20 gallon long! 

Good luck with all the new plants 👍

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/23/2024 at 8:16 AM, JS Fish said:

This tank is looking great just your 20 gallon long! 

Good luck with all the new plants 👍

Thank you @JS Fish! Here is a picture of the tank now, I added a background!!! It looks a lot better now….

[Whitecloud09]

Mini update: 

I have sadly not seen my nerite snail in days. I mean like 4-5 days. It is odd, he might be in the little brown cave but I have not checked, so that is what I am thinking, I am still wondering what is the best food for my WCMMs besides the main foods like pellets and flakes etc. Would they like bloodworms maybe? Idk.

My water parameters are great and very consistent too so that is good. Ya a mini update indeed lol. 
The main Q here, got any options as far as what to feed, like what frozen and freeze dried foods maybe? I feed bug bites, micro pellets, krill flakes, and occasionally freeze dried BBS. 

[Whitecloud09]

My nerite is missing, idk where he is. Looked under each cave, and decor and plant… thoughts if where he might be @Guupy42? @EricksonAquatics

[Whitecloud09]

Been missing for 2  weeks now btw 

[Guupy42]

On 7/29/2024 at 12:33 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

My nerite is missing, idk where he is. Looked under each cave, and decor and plant… thoughts if where he might be @Guupy42? @EricksonAquatics

They will bury themselves in the substrate sometimes, maybe check there, if you really want to find her. Or not, because by digging you might stress her out more. If there is not enough food, they will hide until there is enough again. When my snail is inactive, I drop in an algae wafer, which reintroduces algae into the tank, and starts natural growth. No evidence that this works, though. They will also occasionally become still for a few days sometimes. Hopefully you will see her again soon, though.

[Whitecloud09]

 

On 7/29/2024 at 3:10 PM, Guupy42 said:

They will bury themselves in the substrate sometimes, maybe check there, if you really want to find her. Or not, because by digging you might stress her out more. If there is not enough food, they will hide until there is enough again. When my snail is inactive, I drop in an algae wafer, which reintroduces algae into the tank, and starts natural growth. No evidence that this works, though. They will also occasionally become still for a few days sometimes. Hopefully you will see her again soon, though.

Yes I looked down in the substrate, not deep but I looked pretty much everywhere……

She is usually always our every day or at least every other day to eat some algae, usually after the lights off since, you know they are nocturnal. Yes I know they will bury themselves, but she must’ve buried herself pretty deep, idk might wait another day or two. Might add a algae wafer tonight to see if she eats some maybe. I still have a lot of good and different types of algae they like in the tank tho. Odd. Thanks for your very helpful advice! @Guupy42.

[JS Fish]

I might be worth it to check outside the tank. I once kept a mystery snail that dissapeared one day. I found it outside the tank days later.

[Guupy42]

On 7/29/2024 at 6:21 PM, JS Fish said:

I might be worth it to check outside the tank. I once kept a mystery snail that dissapeared one day. I found it outside the tank days later.

Mine has never escaped before, but it could be worth a try. When my Nerite went missing about a week ago, I checked the outside of the tank, too. Turns out he was probably buried deep, I found him in a log decoration the one morning.

What are your water parameters? There might be something causing stress. Nerites like harder water, I believe.

Edited July 30 by Guupy42

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:45 PM, Guupy42 said:

Mine has never escaped before, but it could be worth a try. When my Nerite went missing about a week ago, I checked the outside of the tank, too. Turns out he was probably buried deep, I found him in a log decoration the one morning.

What are your water parameters? There might be something causing stress. Nerites like harder water, I believe.

Haven’t checked in one week. But when I did, they were this.

Nitrite, 0 ppm.

nitrates. 5 ppm. 
khin ppm. 40.

gh is 60 ppm.

I have crushed coral in the filter.

On 7/29/2024 at 7:21 PM, JS Fish said:

I might be worth it to check outside the tank. I once kept a mystery snail that dissapeared one day. I found it outside the tank days later.

Yes I did. No sign sadly.

[Guupy42]

On 7/29/2024 at 7:59 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

Haven’t checked in one week. But when I did, they were this.

Nitrite, 0 ppm.

nitrates. 5 ppm. 
khin ppm. 40.

gh is 60 ppm.

I have crushed coral in the filter.

In my opinion, 60ppm and 40ppm seem kind of soft, @Tony s was able to help me with my water condition problems, he can probably help you, too.

The Crushed Coral should help increase KH, GH, and pH. I don't have any experience with White Cloud Mountain Minnows, so I don't know if they thrive in hard or soft water, though. But on the Aquarium Coop care guide, it says they are hardy fish, so they might be able to still live in harder water. That's up to you, though, you know more about WCMMs than I do.

[Tony s]

@Whitecloud09 yeah, that’s really soft water. Which is okay. But too soft for snails. But I’m guessing since you haven’t seen her for awhile, she’s probably escaped a while ago. My mystery snails used to do that all the time. You’d find them sort of dried out and think they were dead. I’d throw them back in and they’d be okay. White clouds are very tough and will adapt just fine to snail water. Ideally you’d want around 200ppm gh and at least 100ppm kh. If she would have passed you’d have found her shell at least. But a couple of weeks out of water and she’d be gone anyway. Especially if the dog found her first. 
 

for soft water like that you could try a clown Pleco. They get a little bigger at 3 inches, but are not really active swimmers. Or increase the hardness for snails. 

[EricksonAquatics]

I would check all over outside the tank again just in case. Two weeks is a long time for a snail to be missing inside the tank. Have you checked the lid or anything? I mean time will tell - she might just pop up in the next couple of days or might not 😞 Hard to know in these kinds of situations.

But with soft ish water like that she very well may have been trying to escape the water to find harder water and just took a trip outside the tank. Do you have a long gap in the back of your lid?

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/29/2024 at 10:48 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

I would check all over outside the tank again just in case. Two weeks is a long time for a snail to be missing inside the tank. Have you checked the lid or anything? I mean time will tell - she might just pop up in the next couple of days or might not 😞 Hard to know in these kinds of situations.

But with soft ish water like that she very well may have been trying to escape the water to find harder water and just took a trip outside the tank. Do you have a long gap in the back of your lid?

A tiny gap, not to big tho.

On 7/29/2024 at 9:27 PM, Guupy42 said:

In my opinion, 60ppm and 40ppm seem kind of soft, @Tony s was able to help me with my water condition problems, he can probably help you, too.

The Crushed Coral should help increase KH, GH, and pH. I don't have any experience with White Cloud Mountain Minnows, so I don't know if they thrive in hard or soft water, though. But on the Aquarium Coop care guide, it says they are hardy fish, so they might be able to still live in harder water. That's up to you, though, you know more about WCMMs than I do.

Yes they are really hardy. Thank you!!! 

 

On 7/29/2024 at 9:52 PM, Tony s said:

@Whitecloud09 yeah, that’s really soft water. Which is okay. But too soft for snails. But I’m guessing since you haven’t seen her for awhile, she’s probably escaped a while ago. My mystery snails used to do that all the time. You’d find them sort of dried out and think they were dead. I’d throw them back in and they’d be okay. White clouds are very tough and will adapt just fine to snail water. Ideally you’d want around 200ppm gh and at least 100ppm kh. If she would have passed you’d have found her shell at least. But a couple of weeks out of water and she’d be gone anyway. Especially if the dog found her first. 
 

for soft water like that you could try a clown Pleco. They get a little bigger at 3 inches, but are not really active swimmers. Or increase the hardness for snails. 

Thank you! How would I make water harder? Also 1 pleco would be fine? Yeah will check again…. 😔

Hopefully she is still alive. Oh well….

[EricksonAquatics]

On 7/30/2024 at 6:30 AM, Whitecloud09 said:

How would I make water harder?

Get some Wonder Shells or Seachem Equilibrium to pop in there. That’s what I do since my water is also incredibly soft.

I didn’t think plecos would do ok in a 10g but I’ve never kept one, so can’t for sure say.

[Guupy42]

On 7/30/2024 at 7:30 AM, Whitecloud09 said:

How would I make water harder?

I use a cuttlebone, they should sell them at PetSmart. 

The crushed coral will probably help, but might take a while. When did you add it?

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/30/2024 at 12:30 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

Get some Wonder Shells or Seachem Equilibrium to pop in there. That’s what I do since my water is also incredibly soft.

I didn’t think plecos would do ok in a 10g but I’ve never kept one, so can’t for sure say.

Thank you. I will! 

 

On 7/30/2024 at 1:10 PM, Guupy42 said:

I use a cuttlebone, they should sell them at PetSmart. 

The crushed coral will probably help, but might take a while. When did you add it?

Added it about one month ago I think @Guupy42.

[Tony s]

On 7/30/2024 at 12:30 PM, EricksonAquatics said:

I didn’t think plecos would do ok in a 10g

plecos are sort of big, but clowns are the smallest at about 3 inches. and while active, they don't really use a lot of horizontal swimming space. but it has to be a clown pleco. absolutely everything else is too big. And tbh, clowns are borderline too big as well.

@Whitecloud09 but you can always go get another nerite or 2 😁

[Whitecloud09]

On 7/30/2024 at 3:18 PM, Tony s said:

plecos are sort of big, but clowns are the smallest at about 3 inches. and while active, they don't really use a lot of horizontal swimming space. but it has to be a clown pleco. absolutely everything else is too big. And tbh, clowns are borderline too big as well.

@Whitecloud09 but you can always go get another nerite or 2 😁

Ya, watched a vid, they say it adds tons to the bio load and adds ammonia quickly 😜. Do ya might wanna try my luck and get two more nerites this weekend as I am making a Petsmart stop Friday. Thank you!! @Tony s 

[Tony s]

On 7/30/2024 at 3:28 PM, Whitecloud09 said:

Ya, watched a vid, they say it adds tons to the bio load and adds ammonia quickly

Yeah, I hear that, but honestly, it's a load of garbage. There is no animal in the world that will poop out more than what it eats. They just don't really have any idea how much it's actually eating. Jason uses bristlenose plecos in almost every tank he has, just for its ability to clear surface algae. And I usually trust what he has to say. I actually have my first one now. it's young and in a 20g. When it's older, I'll move it to a larger tank.