All hail the cube!

[Connswater]

looking at both snails IDs on a site

For a new member I have to say you have embraced the spirit of this site with gusto. I learn, get things wrong, get things right, share knowledge, experience, mistakes but above all, my passion. Where else does one go to find folks properly interested, fascinated even in love, with the tiny creatures in our indoor little micro climates? In due course I look forward to perhaps some chili rasboras or ember tetras, or celestial danios or and pygmy corydoras in your cube, the latter I find just 'adorable', obviously not all these fish species in your small cube. Enjoy.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

and what I think is the Wandering Pond snail,

They have a much bigger initial shell whorl <"Identifying British freshwater snails: Radix balthica | The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland">.

I've ever had the 'bigger' 'British' snails, that is a true species of native pond snail in my tropical tank

They come in from outside sometimes, they live in the water butts and <"Asellus buckets">, as well as the pond. Mine are mainly <"Marsh Snail agg. | NatureSpot"> apparently.

Currently I have small snails, slightly lighter/more translucent shells which I assumed/guessed meant they were bladder snails (short whirl on the end of the shell?) and Malaysian trumpet snails (long thin more conch like shell and basically nocturnal).

That sounds right.

I keep hoping for red rams hornsnails to appear but plants are now so sterile from the big growers, so no such luck.

You are more than welcome to some of mine, although <"they all have eroded shells"> and <"never get very big">.

Certainly I have no evidence at all of snail damage to plants,

That is usually how I know they are present, <"damage to the "floats"> of Amazon Frogbit (Limnobium (Hydrocharis) laevigatum).

cheers Darrel

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I think on looking at both snails IDs on a site, it's more likely to be a bladder snail, thinner long tentacles instead of the flatter ones I recognise on pond snails, but he is VERY TINY so honestly, I'm unsure.

I think it is probably a "Pond Snail", the tentacles of Tadpole Snails are really thin and thread like.

cheers Darrel

 

[sophlearnspatience]

Hi all,

I think it is probably a "Pond Snail", the tentacles of Tadpole Snails are really thin and thread like.

cheers Darrel

I could watch them for hours, and tbh, ive caught myself doing just that haha - They are thin and thread like to me! I wish I could upload a video here, see if you can tell on some of the stills from a zoomed in video and see if im right? - they're slightly bigger now and THREE OF THEM. I predict many more! 2 the same size, one so small I doubt I'll see it again until its bigger.

So I've ID'd them as bladder snails, FOR NOW, for a few reasons -

+Tentacles are long and flowing, not dog earred or triangular like a pond puppy. They flow about the nearer they are to the filter and its quite funny to see them wind swept.
+Shell is semi-translucent with metallic looking blotches all over, from what I can see pond snails tend to seem to have slight ridges and lines as part of their shell formation and are quite monotoned from various staged pics - these snails are patchworked with markings and are very glossy with no lines or ridges on the shell.
+I can see the air bubble circulating the shell as they move, even as theyve gotten bigger and their colouring has become more obvious theyre still see-through enough to see it.
+The spiral seems to go the other way compared to the pond snails but this I am less confident on.
+Definitely not eating my plants, but of course this could be due to their little rasps not being as effective at this size.... they have made a brilliant job of eating the biofilm though.






In other news, I have ordered some new floating plants (frogbit... i changed my mind for a more dramatic root network) and a few other plants because now I have a problem, thanks for warning me this gets addictive, guys.... Trimmed some stems that were already poking out the top of the tank and and they have ALREADY started growing leaves at the cut point (I should have trimmed much lower 🥲).



Ammonia is reading zero since friday - woo! Nitrites (between 2-5ppm) and nitrates (40ppm-ish) are still high but I expect the bacteria is building. Still no water change and wondering when its a good idea to do one... thats a lot of nitrates?

Everything is doing remarkably well already! The red plants are nice and red, green plants very green. Water is clear, biofilm is slowly being munched. Tannins have built up a little so the water is pretty tea stained but I actually love black water tanks (although this one isnt one) so I dont mind in the interim at all.

I will take some new pictures of the cube soon! All hail.

 

[G H Nelson]

Hi @sophlearnspatience

Water changes will reduce the Nitrite reading. I would replace 50% of the water every 3 or 4 days until the Nitrite reading is zero, at this point, you can replace 25% of the water once a week!
This will help reduce the scum/film on the surface.

 

[sophlearnspatience]

Hi @sophlearnspatience

Water changes will reduce the Nitrite reading. I would replace 50% of the water every 3 or 4 days until the Nitrite reading is zero, at this point, you can replace 25% of the water once a week!
This will help reduce the scum/film on the surface.

Exciting!! Can't wait to get water all over the place doing this for the first time haha!

Thank you, I'll do one later today as ive kept water prepped for when I might need it.

Random thought, the water I replace it with is going to be a vastly different temperature this time of year than whats in the tank - is that going to shock the snails in there? Or at a later date, the shrimp when I have them? I know at 25% it wont be too bad, but 50% might create quite the difference... should I get a second heater for my prep bucket for the future

Many thanks!

 

[G H Nelson]

Hi
There are various methods of replacing water!
Mixer tapwater is okay, mix to roughly similar aquarium temperature.....use a water conditioner if you have fish/shrimp.
You can draw water into a container and leave it overnight to reach room temperature.
You can use a Kettle to increase the water temperature in a container.
Snails are hardy so won't be that fussed about temperature swings.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

They are thin and thread like to me!

Bladder Snails (Physella acuta) they are then.

Still no water change and wondering when its a good idea to do one... thats a lot of nitrates?

Water changes will reduce the Nitrite reading. I would replace 50% of the water every 3 or 4 days until the Nitrite reading is zero, at this point, you can replace 25% of the water once a week!
This will help reduce the scum/film on the surface.

Same for me. I don't ever see water changes as a bad thing.

cheers Darrel

 

[sophlearnspatience]

Cube-date! 2 and a half weeks in? Maybe?


So we are still cycling away, nitrites keep creeping up the following day, then levels out just above zero a few hours after each water change and creeps back up, ammonia hasn't shown up on any tests since before my last post. Nitrates remain at about 20-40. So the bacteria colony is still establishing I guess! I did a 50%ish change the first day, then small changes about 20-25%. As I haven't added any bacteria or ammonia to start this, I am prepared to take my time with it, but was also wondering whether adding beneficial bacteria is a good idea or just carry on? What's healthiest, I guess.

...Have an ugly shot of the cubes first water change - I know, I know, its a little humiliating to show her in this state of undress but, its a little like those photos we have as kids with the bad bowl haircut and grubby jam faces our parents insisted on putting in the photo album. It's a rite of passage. (P.s im not using the liquid co2 booster I bought, ignore it)




TDS meter arrived and I wasnt hugely surprised that in the tank it reads 399-400 on almost every reading. And 280-300 directly out of the tap. Not sure whether this will be a problem because of course I have no idea what the actual dissolvable solids are - I'm aware the TDS meter is measuring the conductivity of the water. Should I find out what is exactly going on in there? I've seen mixed advice on keeping neocaridina in these conditions, some say they thrive others say it must be lower - I can imagine that would still likely depend on what the content is. But as my intention is to keep shrimp.... I am slightly hoping that other invertebrates thriving will translate that its probably ok, but I know these habitats can be more complex than that.

Snails are THRIVING, wow, there is a boom about to happen, I have about 7 at different sizes and have seen a lot of "sword fighting" in the last day, have removed an egg sack so you know there will be a thousand more... Prepare for the incoming baby boom. I don't mind, they will level out as im not intentionally feeding them, and I love watching them.



I have a healthily developing tribe of Copepods that have appeared, they seem shy of me if I appear by the tank but dart about between coverage and feed on the glass when I sit and watch for a while. I was surprised to find that some people dont like them? I was so thrilled to see more life appear in my tank!



There is a little melt on a couple of plants since the big water change - meh - that feels understandable. It's not bothering me. One plant I thought was burning under the light or melting and then 2 snails went over it and like magic it was fine, so I'm guessing that was some ugly looking brown algae! There is definitely some algae happening and some fuzziness to parts of the wood, nothing mad and all interesting and tasty to the Cubian citizens.

I added frogbit, it arrived quite yellow so I held my breath a little, but it is already spreading out its roots and greening back up. The snails have been quickly going to work on the biofilm build up in the non-flow portal. I'm already seeing I will need to put a bigger portal in soon as they settle and hopefully grow, it's already crowded.



Red root floaters are currently living in a large jar of aquarium water with a grow light and some ferts. The jar is intended for some cold water plants to see how well they grow in a more neglected condition but the floaters are occupying it until my friend arrives with some of his plants... So, I pulled a terrestrial light over the top in hope of encouraging surface growth - they started throwing up new leaves in the cube which was amazing but with every water change it they'd end up submerged and more of them were looking raggedy. They were just too immature to stay afloat with any water disturbance at all - but if they survive and those little leaves stabalise them better, I have another place for them - I suspect they wont like their cold temporary accommodation though... oh well, I'm learning.



Ta-da!!

Im thoroughly loving this whole process.

Thanks everyone!

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

TDS meter arrived and I wasnt hugely surprised that in the tank it reads 399-400 on almost every reading. And 280-300 directly out of the tap.

So the additional ppm TDS value, above the tap water value, are ions etc. from fertilisers etc.

The tap water value just tells you that you have hard, alkaline tap water <"GH,KH, water report and Chatgpt">. Have a look at <"Some handy facts about water">

Not sure whether this will be a problem because of course I have no idea what the actual dissolvable solids are - I'm aware the TDS meter is measuring the conductivity of the water.

A "dissolved solid" is a chemical compound (like "table salt" sodium chloride (NaCl)) that dissolves to form charged particles, in this case the ions Na+ and Cl-.

We can them measure how many ions there are by how much electricity they conduct. Conductivity is a linear relationship, all the way from DI water at ~0 micro S to seawater at 50,000 micro S (50 milli Siemen).

The "ppm TDS" estimation is just the conductivity value multiplied by a conversion factor. This conversion factor is 0.5 if we think the ions are monovalent (Na+, Cl- etc), and 0.64 if we suspect that we mainly have ions of higher valency (like calcium (Ca++)).

You can also get dissolved solids that don't conduct electricity (like the sugar in your tea), but these are more <"difficult to measure">.

cheers Darrel

 

[sophlearnspatience]

Quick Cubedate :


The Cube is over a month old!



I bought a new heater, replacing the 25w with a 50w and slow increased the temp of the tank by a degree each day from 17-18 to 22-23°c and wow, what a difference. The spare heater is now being used to bring new water up to a similar temp before changes. The evaporation is a lot more noticeable now, but I like an open top.

The stem plants all shot up to the surface and beyond so they've been trimmed back down and replanted to thicken up again. I've been really lucky with melt, it's been minimal - ive been popping in leaf zone once a week but have read that this may not be sufficient long term? Any suggestions? Root tabs in the substrate will run out at somepoint in the future too wont they...

I've added some moss and a java fern in the cave areas in the wood, I thought it would make some nice extra refuge areas for shrimp.


My friend gave me a mini monstera and I have shoved that in the top and it's doing well transitioning its roots and has terrestrial lights around it so hopefully it's happy for now.

The snail population BOOMED. They're everywhere. And wow do they love to sword fight. But I am not feeding the cube right now at all so the population will level out. They create a lot of waste, I dont know why I was so surprised - I'll be doing a clean on the tank later today.

Copepods had babies too, heaps of the little guys darting all around. Such brave little creatures making a dash up to the frogbit roots and back.

I have discovered a tiny hydra (2mm max) on my glass and I'm unsure if it's good or not? But I figured there is no harm having a small predator in there to control the copepod population until I know more. I love that they're related to anenomes. Any advice is welcome!


I have also seen about 20 tiny glass like worms smoothly travelling along the glass and they have appeared over night. Barely noticeable unless I'm sitting on the floor and I cant get them on camera. They dont really have anything identifiable about them, they almost look like sentient seethrough fine roots of a plant.

I had a panic that my new frogbit was being savaged by an army of baby making bladder snails but I quickly got over it and thought what will be will be and they've actually done me a favour and eaten all the struggling leaves and roots. If anything the plants looking great and I love the long roots coming down. Occasionally I see a snail doing a mission impossible down the fine hairs.



The red root floaters didnt survive in the other jar, but the marimo balls and java moss in there are doing great and we have a mini ramshorn somehow coping in there! Who, what, where, why and how are all these critters appearing! I love it.



Finally, I THINK the cube is very nearly cycled!! Three days and nitrites have been 0. Ammonia 0. Nitrates bounce between 20-30 and lower. I think its fair to assume the new water temperature has created a much better environment for life to flourish including bacteria.

I will wait longer to be sure that the tank is happy and then debate the next tribe to settle in the cube... also, guys, I may have another empty cube downstairs... what am I becoming...

All hail!

 

[richardcunliffe]

Looking nice @sophlearnspatience

 

[keone]

I love your journal. It puts a smile on my face 🙂

 

[Someoldguy]

Of course you have another cube ..... have to have someplace to put the marimo ball and java moss 🙂! MTS begins .....

 

[sophlearnspatience]

Well, cube-date time!

I think I've made my first big mistake!
I bought a KH & GH test kit, just an API drop test. The GH seems to be different every test I take so that seems duff. But the KH was reading 5 when the test arrived, I think Tuesday or Wednesday.

TDS hadn't much changed since my first measurements I took... maybe by about 10.

Other parameters have been great and still remain great. Zero ammonia and nitrites, nitrates have remained below 10 since my last update.

So Friday I added some neocaridina, 12 of them, 10 bloody mary, 2 black. I know! I said I'd wait longer! But my parameters seemed ok and stable. The journey home was a little rough, my lift home was derailed and I had to walk them home in the freezing rain - one was shocked in transit and I seperated him to acclimate them.



I spent a good 4 hours temp matching and drip acclimating them and the little dude in shock didnt make it, I understood that. Then another died and I did a small water change with water I had left out, treated and brought to temperature... I have since seen molting behaviour and 3 more have died, including one of the really pretty black ones.



I assumed either I have acclimated them wrong, there is something toxic or something was up with my water parameters so I checked again - pH is still at 7.5, all ammonia, nitrite, nitrates are fine, but KH has gone up to 8 or 9 and the TDS just read 639! What could have happened? The GH is still giving me different results so I have no idea...I can put the same amount of drops in several test tubes and get different results. I'll show picture of the GH done twice with the exact same amount of drops so you can see it's not helpful.


I'm pretty certain the rocks ive added aren't leaching anything but I am suspicious now. So if you spot any you recognise as a potential issue in any of my pics, tell me and I'll whip it out and launch it out the window.

Now there seems to be a divide in behaviour, some seem absolutely fine, grazing along, some seem more stationary and this doesn't seem great. I can currently see two grazing on something with a few snails, a tasty broken down leaf. Ive also seen a shrimp eating out of a hatching snail egg sack which I didnt know they did (thank the cube lords! The snails are breeding a lot!) One of the females is berried I think and has gotten darker and more stationary, and I am worried she is going to fail a molt and die in her precarious position. Not much I can do immediately but any advice is welcome!



I figure I can purchase some RO water to top off the cube - I didnt really want to do this but hey ho, I also dont like spending money at the vets but if my dog needs it, she needs it! Hopefully I don't lose all the shrimp.

I thought about adding tannins back in to the water too prehaps?

On the plus side, my frogbit no longer needs its corral to stay safe from the filter... small wins!

 

[Connswater]

8 or 9 and the TDS just read 639!

That is weird, agreed, by the way most of us have lost new livestock, sometimes we are to blame but more often we are not. Your tank looks the part, I'd probably just let it run for a month and then think about some new small fish/shrimps. Time is a great healer in aquariums, topping up with distilled water works a treat, for a small tank a supermarket litre or two of deionised water will not 'break the bank', £2 for 2 litres or so, last time I looked in the UK's biggest retailer.

 

[sophlearnspatience]

That is weird, agreed, by the way most of us have lost new livestock, sometimes we are to blame but more often we are not. Your tank looks the part, I'd probably just let it run for a month and then think about some new small fish/shrimps. Time is a great healer in aquariums, topping up with distilled water works a treat, for a small tank a supermarket litre or two of deionised water will not 'break the bank', £2 for 2 litres or so, last time I looked in the UK's biggest retailer.

Very weird indeed! I can't think what has caused it to go up so fast, I wondered if they had knocked any fertiliser from the substrate scrabbling but root tabs should be deeper than that.. and would that cause only those to go up? And by that much? Hmm.. not convinced, but I am a novice.

I guess at least I already have some potential solutions for it! I will grab some extra special save the shrimps water tomorrow, hopefully they're the tougher of the bunch left and make it through. Thank you!

 

[hypnogogia]

Shrimp can be quite sensitive to changes in TDS.

some neocaridina, 12 of them, 10 bloody mary, 2 black

If they are both neocaridina, then they will breed with each other and you’ll loose the colouration of both in subsequent generations.

 

[sophlearnspatience]

Yes, I thought it rocketing up like that cant have helped anything, poor little guys. I can pick up some ro or ro/di water tomorrow and start mixing that into top up water see if I can steadily bring it down without shocking them with a swing the other way.

I don't mind them breeding, I happen to love the wild types they revert into. The bloody marys are a rather deep stunning red though. But there is also only one black one left so if he survives.... I'll just wait and see. I feel like genetic diversity is probably good for health even if they lose their parents colours, but im not sure how much that matters in the world of shrimp genetics!

 

[bazz]

TDS meter arrived and I wasnt hugely surprised that in the tank it reads 399-400 on almost every reading. And 280-300 directly out of the tap.

TDS just read 639!

Hi,
639 seems exorbitant to me. Are you doing water changes and topping off with RO, DI or rain water? 300 from the tap sounds about right for hard water areas so the TDS meter is good. I suppose it is possible the root tabs could be leaching into the water column. As such, I would be tempted to do daily water changes of 10 to 15% to get it back down to acceptable levels for now, and then daily TDS testing to try and track down what is happening.
Cheers!