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Aquatoon

Today's TDS 177
GH 5.6 (100ppm measured with Neutrafin Test Kit)
KH 0 (Neutrafin Test Kit registered 0 on addition of first drop)
Nitrates 0 (API Test Kit)

Pretty much what I expected though I'm reluctant to trust the test kits even though they correlate. Tank water at the beginning of this tank was straight tap which has a TDS of 30-50 out the faucet, typically super soft Edinburgh water but the super low tap TDS consists mainly of buffers and chlorine/chloramines with a KH less than 1 but more than 0. The buffers are confusing as they appear non persistent over time (? Plant uptake) hence change to re-mineralised RO to get stable pH and KH of 0. It's been running purely with re-mineralised RO for about 8 weeks+ slowly upping from a starting TDS of 90 (50% water change once every 4 weeks or so, RO top-up between). By the time I got back from holiday it had stabilised around TDS 150, I upped it slightly yesterday after manually extracting what I could of the resident snail population. Snails are breeding, RCS are breeding, Cyclops are breeding, substrate insuforia reduced due to increased mass of RCS population eating all the food and still no sign of any CRS berried (CRS are fed well and will jump on the food first and swim away with their portion to devour in peace, so no changes there). CRS males exhibit pheromone hunting behaviour on occasion when a female moults somewhere in the tank and have also personally witnessed coupling events between two CRS but still no offspring. The RCS would probably have started their breeding cycle when the tank TDS would have been about 120-150. The pH has been between 6.5 and 6 and only reduced slightly to 5.8 yesterday after adding a drop of Fulvo+ (Catappa bark and leaves in tank along with Alder cones and Guava leaves, substrate is FluvalSS so no buffers in the tank, 1 small Montmorillonite stone present, no carbon in the tank).

CRS purchased from local Fishkeeper (MHA) if that makes any difference, probably not seeing as the RCS were bought berried from there also.

Can't see what else to do with them at this point.

:(
 
Wow, everything looks perfect so you must be annoyed! I'm also soft scottish water but I do get them breeding in the tap water.
 
Aye, it's very annoying especially as it was a significant outlay to get a breeding colony to begin with, starting to worry that I need to feed them caviar and Cristal. Doubly annoying as I noticed earlier today that the RCS in my big tank (Tap and EI Ferts) have even managed to produce the goods and that's with having to contend with a hungry shoal in there.

I'm also at the point that if I move them over to the walled tank I may never see them again as they are hide and seek champions, usually I'm only ever able to count five at any one time but today I managed to see all 10 in one count or 11 if I count the escapee in the walled tank, (still in there somewhere behind an Anubia leaf). I had removed 90% of the Frogbit from the tank so it was easier to see in, I also chucked in a few pieces of the Ebi Dama Special that up till now everything avoids but on this occasion the tank went completely nuts for it devouring it from all sides including the bottom so that it was getting walked about the place, mental. Maybe the move may do them good.

Here's a couple of pics of the feeding frenzy.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3875/14594265289_cfcac8945e_k.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5557/14780588062_96077fc041_k.jpg

And while I was busy sorting out those pics to upload and had the camera in my hand, this walks out from under the fish tank cabinet and stops at my feet (7mm Grout gap!).

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5582/14594434537_dc048965ff_k.jpg

So I got down on my hands and knees to say hello!

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3915/14757947006_0f72b94525_k.jpg

:)
 
Haha I'm not looking at the last pic after getting a glimpse of the second last! I have a bit of a phobia re spiders and house are the worst along with the orange wood louse eating ones. Strangely I don't mind the little zebra hunting spiders or the ones that lug their eggs about on their backs (wolf spider?)
 
Re the crystals they may appreciate the move to another tank. Some people have noticed a drop off in breeding in crowded tanks with crs. Maybe you could try and sex them as you are moving them over? They may all be male and they have been reacting to a moulting cherry female if thats possible?
 
Aye it's a wolf spider, bold creatures, didn't try to intimidate it too much as the last one I saw that size reared up on its hind legs with fangs displayed at the ready and proceeded to play chicken with me even though I was 6ft away and standing. I love my 60mm Macro it's an adventure looking down that lens, I get totally lost in the moment and because it has a short close focusing distance you have to get really close with your subject, I was chasing the small stuff north of Cairns in Australia and I found a gorgeous black orb web spider with yellow and red markings that's leg span was about the size of my open hand that conveniently was at head height so naturally I end up taking extreme close ups, my hearts pumping and the adrenalin is flowing but I'm totally engrossed looking down that lens, a few exposures in and the mirror flips up followed by a scuttling noise and it's gone from the viewfinder, very scary moment, I had accidentally brushed passed its legs with the lens hood trying to get a good fang shot and if it weren't for the fact I was shooting it through its web I think it would have ended up jumping at my like a Facehugger from Alien. Kept my distance after that!

Re the CRS, they had the place to themselves for a couple of months or so but the correct breeding parameters might have been achieved outside this time and I've missed the window of opportunity, who knows, when I move the CRS over the RCS are going in the big tank to free up space except maybe for the blue and green variants.

:)
 
The wolf spiders here are tiny but so interesting. I used to have a polytunnel with a barkchip base. The wolf spiders loved it and the floor used to scatter when I walked across it. I started watching them and noticed the smaller males trying to woo the ladies. They waved their (palps?) Like some kind of semaphore. Really funny to watch.
 
Aye, they're wee ones but occasionally they're not so wee, like the one above. Biggest naturally occurring spider I have seen up this end is the Scottish Cave Spider and if you ever visit Arisaig make sure to visit or avoid (depending on the fear factor) Prince Charles Cave because it's full of them and they're big, tarantula big! Brrrrr I get the Heebie-jeebies just thinking about them. Take a torch and mind the skull cracker of a rock at the entrance both on the way in and out!
 
I have had an encounter with the cave spiders in the dungeons at dundonald castle. I noticed white teardrop shaped things hanging from the natural rock ceiling. They looked like weird light bulbs. I then noticed the spiders and realised that the hanging things must have been egg sacks. I made a sharp exit leaving my husband to explain... They were feckin huge!
 
Yep, that's the ones, egg sacs like giant gobstoppers, magic when you shine a torch and the ceiling is festooned with them, the monster I saw was at eye level and the egg sac looked way too big to hang so she just sat astride it all big black and shiny with eyes glowing in the reflected torch light. I just wish they would eat more of the midges!
 
Had two consecutive days of this pheromone hunting behaviour, the first day the cherries were flying around with the CRS lazily joining in but the next day as you can see in the vid below, the CRS are being very determined.



I added a couple of CBS into the mix to see what happens.



:)
 
Here's a few pics of the filter gubbins.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3879/14887033345_08508429f9_k.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3863/14700374750_702603ae71_k.jpg

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3878/14887042505_aa4e2c47b2_k.jpg

There's no sponge in the powered filter, it's just being used to move water into the main compartment via a short spraybar to create a little flow, I widened the holes on the spraybar to reduce the force of the output. I added some sponge between the walls to create a small barrier to prevent access to the filter box, this was mainly prompted by Geronimo disappearing between the walls last night and going for a wander amongst the roots, I saw him up near the spraybar output and he disappeared, I next saw him through the mesh. I was fair expecting to have to dismantle the wall this morning to fish him out but luckily he was back in the main compartment when I went through for a look. Hopefully I have prevented him from doing it again, I just don't want him to end up in the filter box and get chewed up in the filter. I have cut up and used a large 5mm thickness carbon pad to prevent access to the filter box through the mesh itself, I'd rather have a fine PPI reticulated foam doing the job but I don't have any and it's impossible to source locally how I want it.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3902/14887049955_357d5233be_k.jpg

:)
 
I moved my Nerite over from the other tank, he's much happier in here.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3856/14944557889_03bc3562a8_k.jpg

There's plenty of microscopic life colonising the substrate like nematode worms and cyclops and some pod creature that you can see next to the Nerite for a sense of scale.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3887/15128276001_c076aead88_k.jpg

Here's one next to a Nematode.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3900/15108253016_bfa507f8f1_k.jpg

Hanging out in the Cladophora.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3887/15128268931_8576496d59_h.jpg

On the glass amongst the substrate.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3835/14944548969_e2eed2a7bb_k.jpg

Some interesting colours in there!

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3865/14944550199_0c3ef1d9ec_b.jpg

:)
 
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