Recent content by shantyt

Ground up alfalfa works great as a food. I mean ground though, like put it in a coffee grinder. They scoop it up off the bottom. Just take a 5 gallon bucket, fill it with old tank water, throw in some powdered alfalfa every 2-3 days, and harvest daily.

The "water fleas" Bluetangclan is talking can't be daphnia. Daphnia aren't going to kill any snails or otherwise do any damage to anything, they are totally harmless. I think he has some predatory copeopods, like he said in his mail. I don't know much about these guys, but I would try adding a...

Talking about dirt cheap filter media, my DIY canister is filled with perlite. I bought a huge bag (4 cubic feet) for about 10 bucks for potting up carnivorous plants awile back. Seems to work great so far, and I think that the amount I need to fill my canister cost me about $.12

It should be fine for plants. Epsom salts are MgSO4, we actually use as a magnesium source in our hydroponic plant nutrient solution at work. Unless you are putting a TON in, it should not harm your plants. The effect of Epsom salt on fish depends on the type of fish you have. Adding epsom...

The only time bubbles are bad for CO2 levels is when you artificially increasing the concentration of CO2 in the water with CO2 supplementation. If you cause a lot of surface agitation/bubbling, you allow the artificially high CO2 levels in the water to equilibriate with lower CO2 levels in the...

If your plants are actively growing, this is true. If you don't provide your plants with enough light, they'll senesce and begin dropping leaves and other organic bits into your tank which rot, providing a net nutrient gain to the algae. I'd say that the majority of problems that people have...

Sorry man, but the cotyledons are not part of the seed coat, they serve as nutrient storage organs in the seed (in dicots at least), and proto-leaves and and a nutrient source in the seedling. The seed coat is most frequently formed from the integument, and is an independent structure.

The first set of leaves is called the cotyledons. I also agree, that's almost certainly a terrestrial plant. The one you pulled out probably died because it hadn't developed the proper vascular system to deal with water stress. If you want to pull another out, make sure that you a)Keep the soil...

I have the same problem with a male guppy. I would love to know what it is as well! He seems fine in every other respect. But the red line looks bad. He's had it for about a month and hasn't looked bad other than that, so I kinda stopped worrying about it.

The shrimp discussed there is probably not be the same species as the one sold in a aquarium stores as "ghost shrimp". I've never seen one larger than 3cm or so. A 10cm ghost would be one seriously hulking shrimp! Also, check out these quotes: "When of adult size the males will be approximately...

I purchsed some flake food from Ken's fish last week and got it yesterday. MAN, what a great deal. Has anyone else tried this stuff out yet? For 10 bucks I have enough food to last a year, assuming it maintains it's nutrition in the freezer. Anyway, I'm not affiliated with Ken's fish at all, I...

Cool. Yeah, my algae problems have been coming under control lately with the combination of those hungry little dudes (mollies), 50% weekly water changes, and the addition of CO2 to the system. I have part of the tank sectioned off for baby fry, and that area maintains a lot of cyanobacterial...

Well, the problem is that at night, plants stop photosynthesizing and start respiring, so they actually draw down oxygen levels. I think you'll be fine, I don't know your tank situation but you'd need a lot of fish and plants to drop down O2 levels to the point where the fish are suffering...

I had a lot of problems with cyanobacteria covering everything. I have a little school of 9 baby mollies that have recently taken it down to almost zero. They're always hungry, and really effective at removing a lot of algae. I know you have no room for more fish, but it's worth remembering for...

Yeah, yeast is very responsive to higher temperatures. You can look up this paper: Effects of fermentation temperature on the strain population of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Torija MJ, Rozes N, Poblet M, Guillamon JM, Mas A. Int J Food Microbiol. 2003 Jan 15;80(1):47-53. I copied a link from...