Recent content by TheMacInnis

Thanks for the quick reply. I have been using the soil substrate for five years, and I'd say the strange plant growth began about 18 months ago. In particular, the broad variety of plants I kept, like dwarf baby tears, a variety of crypts, and anubias have taken over. (I said crypts in the...

Hey, everyone- It's time for me to retire my five-year-old tank setup and start something new. The soil is depleted, and the plants have become something of a crypto monoculture. But the tank is otherwise very healthy, and I have some wonderful fish who have been with me for most of those...

Hi- I have kept a 50g tank for years without issue. I decided to spin up a 10g tank as an experimental tank. I planted it, and after it cycled, I introduced fish and shrimp. All the fish except one have been fine, but the shrimp have ALL died. Three. Times. Most are dead within 24 hours. Some...

Thanks, Mebbid. The Siamese will be graduated to my 55g once he gets there. It might not be long; he's feasting on shrimp carcass. :facepalm: I think you're right re: sourcing locally. In the past, I have not had this problem, so I am thinking (1) get shrimp that are alive and well in San...

Could the near-zero KH be enough to kill them that quickly? It's the only parameter I can find that's off.

Hi folks, I'm bumping this thread up. I'm sad. All the shrimp ultimately died, so I decided to check all parameters, and try again. This time, I ordered 10 ghost shrimp and 6 cherry shrimp from LiveAquaria.com, which shipped overnight. When they arrived, most were alive (some were dead)...

Hmm. I did a temperature acclimation (sealed bag-in-water for 30 minutes), but I did not do the water-mix acclimation. I was surprised and happy to see that, actually, a number of the cherry shrimp are alive, they were hiding. I have removed the other dead shrimp. Perhaps it was indeed shock...

I just skimmed this: Petshrimp.com -- All about shrimp Unless there's sudden copper in my water (San Francisco), I don't think it's heavy metals. However... I did add a half teaspoon of Alkaline Buffer to the water yesterday when I realized the pH had dropped to 6.0; I failed to ensure it was...

Hey, everyone- I have a new 10g tank that I set up, and it was cycled (no nitrite, no ammonia). I planted it, and everything is growing nicely (including brown algae), so I stocked it yesterday with some chili rasboras, a siamese algae eater (he has plenty to chow on), and a collection of...

Metric solves this problem: 77F = 25C 78F = ~25C :)

@trennamw, I can't believe you wrote that on your iPhone. :) Subway ride or something? Boring meeting?

Thanks, guys. Based on some other threads, I upped my CO2 dose to 4 bubbles per second. After a day at this setting, the pH now drops to about 6.8 toward the end of the day. That seems like a stronger reaction to the CO2. Is this about what should be expected? Google is my friend! I chased a...

Assuming you have manually removed as much algae as possible first,... Halve this for a week or two. Fish will survive on a tiny amount of food; I'd recommend that if there's any risk you've overfed, that you cut their feeding back dramatically. Skip a day a week, and do only two small...

I'd advise: Anything you're carrying from the old tank to the new tank, carefully rinse under tap water and pick out any snails Rub the undersides of plants that may have gelly-like snail eggs; easy to feel with your fingers Introduce assassin snails as soon as the new tank is cycled; they're...

Hey, everyone- I've kept a beautiful 50g tank for over five years, and it feels like the tank has run its course. While the fish are healthy, the plants have become something of a monoculture of broad-leafed crypts (C. pontederiifolia or similar), and the introduction of additional species...