lmsmith

Hmm. It's possible the pH is much higher than I thought, but I doubt it. Might grab a pH test kit tomorrow and see what it is just for interest's sake. I'm hopefully going to get them to grow a bit bigger before fish get in here. They can hunt them down!

Alright. Possibly the worst pic ever of BBS. iphone pic, but I've had the filter off for an hour or so so the eggs could settle. Those floaties are the BBS. The brownish lump in the background is a baby ramshorn about 2mm long.

Gosh. Ok. I'll see if I take pics of them. They're pretty teeny!

I really have no idea, actually. I've had them for at least 3 years!

Shouldn't be particularly hard. I haven't pH tested but this area is usually just above 7, and the tank is planted and has dw so I would imagine it's slightly soft and acidic. I really wasn't imagining anything happening, but I though a few dead eggs would at least turn into ferts for the plants if nothing else! Also hatched some in salt water (1.026sg) and they were in the dark with no water movement - this one wasn't intentional, my bubbler died and the cat almost knocked over the bottle they were in, so bf put them in the pantry to keep them safe. Of course, the hatch rates aren't good as usual but seeing as I expected zero, it's kind of amazing.

?

I have a FW tank that's currently waiting on fish and put about 1/4 ts of brine shrimp eggs into there, just to see what would happen. I wasn't really expecting much because brine shrimp need SW to hatch, but now I have a whole bunch of brine shrimp in my FW tank. Will they survive long term, or will the FW kill them?

I vote a new thread. Lets have every single off topic thread about cats. LETS START A NEW CATS ONLY SUBFORUM.

I've usually kept BN with cichlids. I like them for their usefulness in keeping the bottom cleaner. Welcome!

I love the idea myself and will definitely be getting one when I have the spare cash. In my current marine I do waterchanges right out of the sump, and I used to do them on my FW tank straight out of the filter. This means the bottom isn't ever being vac'd which isn't ideal. This means I could gravel vac every day and not worry about collecting hundreds of litres of salt water.

Usually they are, or they come with a voucher (so you pay for it as part of the package)

There's a cat photo thread? BRB, getting my internet kitty pics fix.

Mmm, this is a good point. I thought it ammonia was contributing it could help both, but you're right if it's just a dissolved o2 issue.

Your filter has been off? For how long? If it's been very long you could contribute to an ammonia issue if you have dieoff in your filter. If it's your airstone that's off, turn it on. The plants won't mind.

I'd say oxygen too. Ammonia could be contributing. I would do a water change and make sure you disturb the surface when you pour the new water in. If you have a filter that has a return that can be aimed at the surface or across the surface, move it so that there's movement.

Weird. I've had over 10 second hand tanks and the only break I've had is dropping 1.5kg of lead on one side of a tank. That was a bit tragic. I lost 2 years of line bred guppies

I would recommend doing some serious planning before building something custom. You do pay a premium by the time you include making a stand and stuff, so you want to make sure it's perfect for what you want. If you get something second hand, you're more likely to forgive those little things that aren't perfect.

Wow. Their eyes are amazing!

There are lots of people who do DIY CO2 or cheap CO2 setups, so it is possible to do it much cheaper than the fluval plug in and go ones. It is possible to get beautiful planted tanks the low-tech way - check out the aquatic plants subforum, there are heaps of people there who are happy to share lots of helpful info! I've got no advice re the gf - maybe get her to do ALL the feeding but pretend you feed them also? Otherwise, you really might have to take the food to work!

Give some to meeeeee!

Take pics of it every day so you can see the changes over time. If you're anything like me, I'm CONVINCED nothing's changing, then suddenly I'm like 'oh, that's a pretty tank some aliens dropped into my house!'

I would never run UV unless I had some serious parasite going on. I believe in dealing with the cause of the problem, not the symptoms. If you get rid of the cause, the symptoms will go away too. Clear water doens't mean your problem is solved, though it does look pretty. My advice would be to do a big water change and manually remove as much of the algae as you can. Reduce your lighting period - If the algae is bad I'd do a lights off for a few days. Explain to your gf what's causing the overfeeding, and make sure she understands not to feed the fish. Take the fish food to work if you have to. Once you've got everything under control, you can look into ferts and co2 like alan suggested, though if you're wanting a low maintance tank, I'd possibly not do co2. Ferts are pretty low maintenance though. Algae needs light, nutrients and oxygen. If you take away one of those things, it will go away. If you take away or greatly reduce 2 (light and nutrients) it will stop growing very quickly, then you can build back up to a level that you tank can handle while keeping algae growth to a minimum. Regarding your new tank, if you're after cheap, get a second hand one - there are some great quality tanks out there for next to nothing, and besides, it's just a box to store your water in, right? Good luck!

I thought killies would be a great option considering they're known to be jumpers - the tank is like a box of water, and there's only a small opening. While it makes for a pain to aquascape, it's very safe for jumpers!

All these baby animals make me so happy.

I might actually grab a few more of them and use them somehow on my fluval edge. It needs a tiny bit more side lighting and this is maybe the way to go.