Recent content by ciantarah

Welcome to AA from another Oregonian :) I bet those bass were awesome pets, even if they were very murderous.

Huh, I had no idea any crayfish weren't little destroying angels. I'll be looking those up :)

Bamboo shrimp are really cool. Vampire shrimp (aka giant african fan shrimp) are also neat. They are blue-grey in color and have little hooks like fangs on their front feet (hence the name). But they are peaceful filter feeders just like bamboo shrimp (here's a link to a picture and some...

Good to know... and here I had been worried that lots of plants wouldn't be enough to fix the issue :P I'm a bit worried about lighting, too, and whether my one 6700K florescent bulb is up to the task of a densely planted tank... but that's probably for another thread in another forum :)

OK, that was really helpful! Thanks. I knew I'd still have to do pwc :) I had noticed that the sand made planting easier, and am relieved to know it's not a bad thing. Any suggestions on how to add more without making the water all cloudy for a bit? (I did rinse it beforehand, but it took...

Like many people, I always wanted a fishtank when I was a kid. My mom never let me have one. When I was a teenager, I actually raised about 100 tilapia along with lettuce in an integrated aquaculture/hydroponics system... I went to the International Science and Engineering Fair three years in...

I apologize in advance for a very lengthy post... I have a lot of questions. I have a 29 gal freshwater community tank, lightly planted. I'm using the Aqueon QuietFlow 30 (200gph) HOB filter that was included with the tank when I bought it. I have been using the same filter cartridge since I...

Definitely an apple snail. These guys are pretty opportunistic feeders. They like algae... if you don't have any in your tank, dropping an algae pellet in every few days would be good. You can also parboil vegetables and then drop in the tank for greens (I have never done this). He (or she)...

I am by no means an expert... but I've had a lightly planted tank with live plants for about 7 months now and have made many, many mistakes along the way! You might know everything I do about live plants already, but here's what I've learned so far, anyway. 1) Don't buy the plants in tubes at...

Invertebrates and nitrate levels You're right... I do have high nitrate levels in my tank. 60 PPM right now... I wasn't too worried because my fish, my ADF and my snail are all fine. After talking to some more folks I'm pretty sure that the shrimp was far more affected by this... poor little...

Well, I got home this morning to find my poor little shrimp lying on her side, totally motionless. Yes, upon further examination I found that she was completely dead. I guess she crawled out from where she was hiding just to die. I am so sad.. and I feel like I've done something wrong... but...

I am glad to hear that brown is OK... I thought they were supposed to be blue. It could be... I work from 3-midnight and so I'm around during the late night as well as the day. I figured I would have seen her before now... but very happy she is alive! thanks again :)

So I bought a vampire shrimp about 6 weeks ago. As soon as I put her in the tank, she disappeared. She resurfaced last night for the first time ever... but now she is brown in color and hasn't moved more than a few inches that I have seen. She's sort of hiding out in a corner of the big...

Thanks for the input :) I did, in fact, rinse in tap water. I'll use tank water for a gentle rinse next time! Many thanks.

I have a 29 gal tank that is about 6 months old with live plants. Whenever I test, there's no ammonia and no nitrites, and the nitrates are under 40 ppm. I do PWC's every 1-2 weeks. However, I have never bought a new filter cartridge for my tank. I washed the cartridge and the filter out a...