Recent content by monsteridea

Well, the statement of diatoms feeding on silica IS solid and confirmed. Sure, it's maybe a nuisance to some, but algae and other microbugs do 'clean' the water. It's still open for debate, in my opinion. There may be anecdotal evidence for using the larger pieces of quartz in this way, but it...

Maybe I was wrong to use the word 'purify.' Those articles are NOT all specifically talking about water purification (which, I mentioned, was probably the wrong term for it), but rather a process/catalyst/effect that quartz has on its environment. I tried to explain that in the post with the...

Yeah, upon a simple Google search you do get the sites that pay to be first and not extremely scientific. Of course, I'm not talking about some "magical" property, but the components of the rock itself. It's been studied in geology, mineralogy, radiology, etc. Preparation and characterization...

Does anyone have any experience with putting quartz crystals in your planted tanks? I know that there is research on how it purifies the water... Just want to wait a couple weeks with the Fluval before putting anything live (other than plants) in there, to make sure the plants are well...

I love Marimo! They're super easy to care for. Yeah, they can float around for a bit when you squeeze/rinse them out. They will sometimes stay at the top regardless, if they need more oxygen. I currently have 2, one is hanging in my 2.5g fluval and the other is in a vase. I definitely want more...

As some have said... I loved Duckweed when I had it in my first planted tank. It does very well with keeping the tank clean. It does, however, grow A LOT. And fast. You will be scooping some out every once in a while... Still need to find some for my little tank. I loved watching the shrimp hang...

Update :) Added a marimo and some water wisteria. Even had a small pearl on the wisteria today! Bought a small apple snail for it, but it's chewing on the algae in my 40 gal for the moment. I don't want to crash the lil' tank too soon if I can help it...

Still looking into maybe putting a fish/couple fish in... Looking at very small ones. Anyone have experience with Native Fish? I'm doing research on the Least Killi and Pygmy Sunfish at the moment... I think they would still require live or frozen foods, though. Supposedly they can be kept in a...

Update: Got it set up (for now) - I will probably end up adding a couple more plants. But this is what it looks like so far. Also, I've read a bit about the scarlet badis. They seem really cool, but I'm a bit worried about how picky of eaters they seem to be. Not to mention that they supposedly...

Thanks! I will look into the scarlet badis. I'm in the process of set-up right now, kept with low-light plants: a few java ferns, anubias nana, and a luttea crypt. I just want to make sure the plants do awesome before putting any critters in there. The LFS I went to get the plants have quite the...

Meh. I broke down and bought a Fluval Spec III for my office space. Now I'm just sitting here looking at it, trying to figure out what to put in there. Since it does come with an LED light, I thought I'd ask the peanut gallery if that would still be considered "low-light" or would I be able to...

Update!! This tank has been up now for a few months, and everything is awesome. It's amazing how the water quality is perfect! There was some great amount of pearling, too. Really fantastic. I've stocked it with 12 red cherry shrimp, and some accidental hitch hikers. Namely, pond snails and...

Oh man... used to work at PetSmart. Three different stores on and off for some years. The last store I had the unfortunate luck to work at: Everyone was on a different page. The managers didn't care enough to get all associates on the same page with knowledge, and would be petty and hide or...

My 5.5G Walstad planted is doing great so far. I picked up 12 RCS from one of the fish specific stores in my area. Lucky enough, they just bought a bunch of shrimp the day I was looking for them! I got a deal by taking the whole tank. I might want to pick up the Yellow Neo's too, as long as...

Update! Removed the grassy plant, just in case it was mondo. Added 5 more crypts. For a total of 6, I -think- they are 5 C. Ciliata, and 1 C. wendtii. I know I probably have room for a couple more plants though! A couple more pictures: I just did a 50% water change to remove some more of...