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First step in to this beautiful world
- Thread starter Musicmanryann
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Musicmanryann
Member
Well said. I've thought a lot about this today, and to be honest, I think this is exactly how I would feel if you had not already mentioned them a few days prior. I'd probably be freaking out and feeling like all my work up to this point was about to be ruined or buying ALL of the assassin snails prematurely...
However, since you did mention them, I was actually excited to have an "infestation", as like you said, I saved about $20, and i feel like these little buggers are a sign of a healthy ecosystem in the tank instead of an invader. So once again, thank you!So in other words, chill out. Heard.
For sure! I got a fancy Antler Nertie, a few Zebra nerite and Olive Nerites. I also got 10 Tangerine Tigers and 5 Amanos. We'll see how they get along.
I keep wondering about the drop checker, and how much I should be following it since I am monitoring the pH drop, and my kH is very low. The drop checker reagent is greenish yellow at ph 6.5 with a kH range of 2-7. Well my Kh is <1 and degassed water ph is 6.6. My drop I'm taking down to 5.38-5.5, so I guess I'm a little confused here??
Nevertheless, today, I dialed it back and I think I got it locked it right at between 1 and 1.15, whereas before it was overshooting to 1.25 or so during the few couple of the photoperiod while the plants 'warmed up". The drop checker definitely wasn't as yellow, but greenish yellow. which reagent says is above 6 when my ph is 5.5. I don't think the livestock will ship until after the weekend, so a few more days to get it in the "goldilocks zone".
Thanks! Went ahead and bought the airline tubing and valve today to make sure it was ready when they got here
Honored to have received your astute wisdom Darrel--thanks for the confirmation!
Oh I almost forgot, those light green shoots in your moss look a little bit like they may be Riccia fluitans to me. Was it added by you, or was your moss bought from a more casual source?
Dont be too alarmed, but I would consider if you want Riccia in your tank or not. It tends to be a bit invasive, and once its in a tank it can be hard to get rid of again, as any small fragment will be able to keep growing.
So if you dont want it then I would carefully remove any small bits that are now sprouting in your moss 😊
Dont get me wrong, many people intentionally use this plant in their tank for aquascaping and it can be quite decorative.
Its just that once you have it you really have it, and it might pop up where you dont want it as well
I might also be entirely wrong and its something else
I was wondering about this stuff!!! You guys are observant and perceptive! I did indeed purchase the Taiwan Mini Moss from an Etsy vendor as it was the only place on this continent I could find it for sale and I kinda had my heart set on trying it. The moss did have a good amount of what I now know to be mature Riccia leaves intermixed in, and I spent a lot of time picking it out when I was tying the moss. I didn't think I needed to worry about it, but it is now on my radar thanks to you guys. I went in and picked it all out today and will continue as I go.
I had some hope that posting my progress on here would be fun and helpful but you guys are blowing me away. Really feeling a ton of confidence and having more fun as a result. Cheers!
Musicmanryann
Member
All opinions and perspectives are welcome here! Thank you! Not sure if you read through the entire journal (don't blame you if you didn't, its super loooong)...But earlier I talked about this very thing and how i kept going back and forth about having the wood in there or not. In fact, I still am going back and forth. I think if you were just going by the pictures on here, I would probably already have it out of the tank, but there is a lot of depth to this I cant seem to make come to life with my phone camera. In person the experience is different and makes a more compelling argument, at least to my eye. That being said, where I am at now is that I am resolved to see the tank grow out according to my original design with the wood in it--I want to see the moss mature on the branches and the rotala canopy grow out in the back, and decide then. The wood is just placed in there and not glued on purpose to allow me to easily pull it out if I don't like it. So in other words, nothing is set in stone yet and time will tell. Thanks again and feel free to share your thoughts anytime!
Musicmanryann
Member
Turkey baster is procured. Gobble gobble gobble! 😛
I got some! They were out of regular honrred but I got what is called a special antlered Clithon. Also got some Zebra and Olive Nerites. Pumped to get them eating the fungus on the driftwood!
Cheers back at ya!
Hi all,
It really depends on how bothered you are by things you didn't plant (or <"aesthetics">). Personally I look on Riccia fluitans, <"Utricularia gibba"> and <"Lomariopsis lineata"> etc. as an unalloyed good thing.
I may not have purchased any of them, but they are happy to grow with extremely minimal intervention and I look on that as a win win situation.
cheers Darrel
It is <"useless as an epiphyte">, because all it wants to do is reach the waters surface, it isn't ever an issue otherwise, unless you want to <"totally remove it">.
It really depends on how bothered you are by things you didn't plant (or <"aesthetics">). Personally I look on Riccia fluitans, <"Utricularia gibba"> and <"Lomariopsis lineata"> etc. as an unalloyed good thing.
I may not have purchased any of them, but they are happy to grow with extremely minimal intervention and I look on that as a win win situation.
cheers Darrel
Musicmanryann
Member
2 weeks in photo update!
Lot's of good growth (I think) the past few days. The more this tank grows, the more I fall in love with it, and in turn, this hobby in general. At times it is hard not to spend just all of the time looking at it and playing with it, fixing little things here and there. Fighting my urges to leave "well enough alone" a place that has been a big trap for me in the past--I tend to do more harm than good. This is where I practice quiet patience, and let nature do its thing.
Water parameters holding rock steady.
pH at 6.5-6.6, --dropping to 5.4 at beginning of photoperiod, and stabilizes with at 5.5 after the first two hours
GH 7
GH <1.
3ml APT Complete Daily
Daily water changes still as ammonia is at 0.25 to trace.
0 Nitrite
<10 Nitrate
A different angle, and these snails grow fast!
Love the effect the ripples make on the photo here. Pretty trippy!
Several shoots of rotala are almost to the surface! Others are lagging much further behind. Not sure how to reconcile the difference to get them growing more "together" once it is time for trimming.
The snails grow SUPERFAST! Wow.
That's it for now. Have a great day!
Cheers,
Ryan
Lot's of good growth (I think) the past few days. The more this tank grows, the more I fall in love with it, and in turn, this hobby in general. At times it is hard not to spend just all of the time looking at it and playing with it, fixing little things here and there. Fighting my urges to leave "well enough alone" a place that has been a big trap for me in the past--I tend to do more harm than good. This is where I practice quiet patience, and let nature do its thing.
Water parameters holding rock steady.
pH at 6.5-6.6, --dropping to 5.4 at beginning of photoperiod, and stabilizes with at 5.5 after the first two hours
GH 7
GH <1.
3ml APT Complete Daily
Daily water changes still as ammonia is at 0.25 to trace.
0 Nitrite
<10 Nitrate
A different angle, and these snails grow fast!
Love the effect the ripples make on the photo here. Pretty trippy!
Several shoots of rotala are almost to the surface! Others are lagging much further behind. Not sure how to reconcile the difference to get them growing more "together" once it is time for trimming.
The snails grow SUPERFAST! Wow.
That's it for now. Have a great day!
Cheers,
Ryan
Looking good.
Plants look good, super healthy growth from what I can tell
The longest individual rotala stems you could gently uproot at this point (helps to gently bob them up, down and a bit sideways while working the roots out, to avoid making a big mess of soil) or snip off right around the substrate, shorten from the bottom and then plant them back into the group.
Sometimes while doing that I also snip off the tiny shoots coming off the main stem, if I want a group with mostly vertical shoots but the plant is trying to get creative.
Cutting all but the main one off sort of forces the plant to focus more on the main head. But that depends entirely on what you want of course 😃
If you wanted more of this particular stem, you might let the side shoots grow longer and once they are long enough to be fine on their own, snip them off, and now you have 6 new stems you can put wherever you like.
Aquatic gardening (especially dutch / garden style tanks with their relatively neatly arranged plant groups) is more or less the art of making an illusion that the plants are doing what you want them to do 😁
In actuality most of them want to do whatever they damn please, grow slanted, shadow over to their neighbors, grow at slightly different speeds in the group or at the very least certainly grow at a different speed than the neighboring variety of plant.
And the aquarist pulls them out or cuts them back for just long enough to take a photo and share with the internet, where everyone will go "wow look how perfect everything is there". But really its all smoke and mirrors
A little snapshot in time until the plants resume doing whatever they want again.
People who have the nicest tank pictures are the ones that are the best at this illusion 😁
This doesnt apply quite as much to something like a jungle style tank, but even there is the element of human intervention, carefully balanced with the impression of being left untouched. Controlled wildness in a way
Its good you're having fun wrangling the chaos, there will be a fair bit of that 😁
The longest individual rotala stems you could gently uproot at this point (helps to gently bob them up, down and a bit sideways while working the roots out, to avoid making a big mess of soil) or snip off right around the substrate, shorten from the bottom and then plant them back into the group.
Sometimes while doing that I also snip off the tiny shoots coming off the main stem, if I want a group with mostly vertical shoots but the plant is trying to get creative.
Cutting all but the main one off sort of forces the plant to focus more on the main head. But that depends entirely on what you want of course 😃
If you wanted more of this particular stem, you might let the side shoots grow longer and once they are long enough to be fine on their own, snip them off, and now you have 6 new stems you can put wherever you like.
Aquatic gardening (especially dutch / garden style tanks with their relatively neatly arranged plant groups) is more or less the art of making an illusion that the plants are doing what you want them to do 😁
In actuality most of them want to do whatever they damn please, grow slanted, shadow over to their neighbors, grow at slightly different speeds in the group or at the very least certainly grow at a different speed than the neighboring variety of plant.
And the aquarist pulls them out or cuts them back for just long enough to take a photo and share with the internet, where everyone will go "wow look how perfect everything is there". But really its all smoke and mirrors
A little snapshot in time until the plants resume doing whatever they want again.
People who have the nicest tank pictures are the ones that are the best at this illusion 😁
This doesnt apply quite as much to something like a jungle style tank, but even there is the element of human intervention, carefully balanced with the impression of being left untouched. Controlled wildness in a way
Its good you're having fun wrangling the chaos, there will be a fair bit of that 😁
MichaelJ
Member
That makes me feel much less embarrassed about posting pictures 🙂 I know my plants are healthy, my tanks are well maintained and all that, but the few pictures I’ve taken and posted are just not very exciting.
Cheers,
Michael
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Myrtle
Member
The Miniaturist
Member
I don't think I'm genetically programmed to keep an immaculate planted tank! I do enjoy seeing other folks endeavours & all the effort they put in but it doesn't inspire me to do the same.
I keep very basic nano tanks so chaos is inevitable when you can't resist buying "just one more plant"! 🌱😄
I keep very basic nano tanks so chaos is inevitable when you can't resist buying "just one more plant"! 🌱😄
Musicmanryann
Member
S&S DAY!!!!
What could be in here???? Well if you've been following along it's the awaited Shrimp and Snails! And omg they did not disappoint. I have never kept either animal and barely even seen them in real life so today was like being a kid again. Between getting them acclimated, getting the tank ready, getting them in the tank and watching them I have spend most of the day on this and have zero regrets. I wish i got more pictures for y'all, but by the time FedEx showed up I was up against some time constraints to get it all done in time for real life interruptions.
The snails came in a wet towel inside an airtight plastic bowl with lid. I put the bowl in the tank and every 15 minute added a little tank water. Once it was mostly full I placed them one by one in the tank. At first I thought most would be DOA as they didn't "grab" when I placed them, but slowly and surely they started moving slowly then sped up. This was especially the case with the Zebra Nerites. They move a lot faster than I thought they would, and oh boy are fun to watch.
I drip acclimated the shrimp over several hours, so much time was spent watching the snails waiting for the shrimps to be ready. Aquatic Arts only had Large Amanos and they weren't exaggerating, these suckers are LARGE. Especially compared to the size of the Tangerine Tigers, I'd say on average about 5:1 at least. What the tigers lack in size they make up for in cuteness, these buggers are about the most adorable little creatures I've ever seen. Sorry, just a proud new papa, lol.
There are about a dozen of these little guys and I I just can't even. 😍
The amanos are also cute, but in a less traditional way. I guess, mostly because their size. I mean one of them I think I may have eaten a distant cousin of his at Christmas, I'm not sure. They are more baddass than cute. The instant I added the six of them to the tank they were going at it cleaning and eating like machines. Just jumping from one side of the tank to the other, find all the places they wanted to go to for their feasting the next several weeks. The instructions said that the shrimp would be stressed and want to hide and chill once I added them, but that wasn't the case here, all of them were going around and around the tank exploring eating and thusly cleaning things. It was a great experience to behold all of it. All the planning and waiting, it seemed to finally be coming together, and all the worries about them not liking my tank or not making the trip, were behind me. The snails were happy, the shrimp were happy, the tank was happy, I, was happy...
And then later this evening, I was abruptly brought back down to earth. Let's back up a moment to yesterday. Every once in awhile I always tilt the biomaster from side to side to release trapped air inside. No idea why I do this, I think it might help the flow or something if air isn't trapped or whatever, but yesterday I did it and a big cloud of white murky water came gushing out the lily pipe and clouded up the tank, along with these very tiny squigly wormy things. Not wider than a hair and not much longer, but definitely squiggling on their own accord. I must've knocked something loose, I guess. I had to run for a bit and when I got home the tank was back to normal, thankfully. However, the episode did remind me I keep forgetting to add Purigen to the filter to get a good polish. During the dark start I obviously didn't care about this, so I decided i would wait to add the Purigen until I get the tank planted and I keep forgetting. Well tonite, for some reason i remembered and for some reason I was bound to make it happen. Once the lights turned off, I pulled open the biomaster and added in a bag of Purigen. Easy enough, I popped the lid back on and turned it all back on and got things flowing again, but once again Tilting the canister back and forth. While I was doing this I noticed out of the corner of my eye the Amanos started going nuts. Something was wrong. After some initial troubleshooting I pulled out my pH meter and even though an hour ago it was reading 5.85, it was now reading 4.45. What the actual f*&$😟. The first thing my mind went to was the Purigen. I quickly grabbed it back out the filter and got the filter running again. Then I decided to do a quick water change. This made the pH go up to 4.65. Not good enough. The amanos were still acting frantic, and the zebra snails had retreated to above the water line. Not good. After frantically trying to figure out what to do, (there wasn't time to come here and ask advice) I ended up just running fresh RO water (it is same temp as tank) into the tank while simultaneously draining the water, while simultaneously watching the pH meter go up. About five minutes later the pH was above 5.25 and I started getting worried about re-mineralizing the water, so I stopped and got the GH where it needed to be. By this time the shrimps had seem to calm down and the snails were retreating back into the water and back to cleaning the aquarium walls. I decided it was time to leave well enough alone. I am leaving the lights off for now, hoping everyone will calm down in there overnight. Without the light I cannot see if the Tangerine Tigers are ok or not. The Amanos seem fine. Time will tell I guess....?
What happened?? I have looked it up and seachem says Purigen doesn't alter water parameters. I currently have the bag of purigen sitting in a bowl of water that has a pH of 4.35. That same bowl of water was at 5.85 before I added the bad of Purigen. I feel like this has something to do with my low kH, but I really am at a loss Another thought I had was when i opened the filter there were pockets of anaerobic activity in there and introducing a bunch of air disrupted that releasing Hyrdogen sulfide (I did smell sulfur during my troubleshooting) . Here though, I am admittedly grasping at straws, and talking about things I don't know nearly enough about. Current parameters are Zero NH3, NO2, > 10 NO3. pH 5.25. I have an aerator stone going hoping to add in as much O2 and remove as much CO2 as possible, but no idea if that is stupid or pointless or both. All I know is whatever happened it caused a very fast and drastic change to my pH. Any thoughts about what may have happened, and or what I may do to prevent it in the future would be more than welcome. It was a bit of a stressful saga. Lol.
Overall, though, still a great day, even though it ended on a bit of a sour/mind-boggling head scratching note.
Cheers,
Ryan
What could be in here???? Well if you've been following along it's the awaited Shrimp and Snails! And omg they did not disappoint. I have never kept either animal and barely even seen them in real life so today was like being a kid again. Between getting them acclimated, getting the tank ready, getting them in the tank and watching them I have spend most of the day on this and have zero regrets. I wish i got more pictures for y'all, but by the time FedEx showed up I was up against some time constraints to get it all done in time for real life interruptions.
The snails came in a wet towel inside an airtight plastic bowl with lid. I put the bowl in the tank and every 15 minute added a little tank water. Once it was mostly full I placed them one by one in the tank. At first I thought most would be DOA as they didn't "grab" when I placed them, but slowly and surely they started moving slowly then sped up. This was especially the case with the Zebra Nerites. They move a lot faster than I thought they would, and oh boy are fun to watch.
I drip acclimated the shrimp over several hours, so much time was spent watching the snails waiting for the shrimps to be ready. Aquatic Arts only had Large Amanos and they weren't exaggerating, these suckers are LARGE. Especially compared to the size of the Tangerine Tigers, I'd say on average about 5:1 at least. What the tigers lack in size they make up for in cuteness, these buggers are about the most adorable little creatures I've ever seen. Sorry, just a proud new papa, lol.
There are about a dozen of these little guys and I I just can't even. 😍
The amanos are also cute, but in a less traditional way. I guess, mostly because their size. I mean one of them I think I may have eaten a distant cousin of his at Christmas, I'm not sure. They are more baddass than cute. The instant I added the six of them to the tank they were going at it cleaning and eating like machines. Just jumping from one side of the tank to the other, find all the places they wanted to go to for their feasting the next several weeks. The instructions said that the shrimp would be stressed and want to hide and chill once I added them, but that wasn't the case here, all of them were going around and around the tank exploring eating and thusly cleaning things. It was a great experience to behold all of it. All the planning and waiting, it seemed to finally be coming together, and all the worries about them not liking my tank or not making the trip, were behind me. The snails were happy, the shrimp were happy, the tank was happy, I, was happy...
And then later this evening, I was abruptly brought back down to earth. Let's back up a moment to yesterday. Every once in awhile I always tilt the biomaster from side to side to release trapped air inside. No idea why I do this, I think it might help the flow or something if air isn't trapped or whatever, but yesterday I did it and a big cloud of white murky water came gushing out the lily pipe and clouded up the tank, along with these very tiny squigly wormy things. Not wider than a hair and not much longer, but definitely squiggling on their own accord. I must've knocked something loose, I guess. I had to run for a bit and when I got home the tank was back to normal, thankfully. However, the episode did remind me I keep forgetting to add Purigen to the filter to get a good polish. During the dark start I obviously didn't care about this, so I decided i would wait to add the Purigen until I get the tank planted and I keep forgetting. Well tonite, for some reason i remembered and for some reason I was bound to make it happen. Once the lights turned off, I pulled open the biomaster and added in a bag of Purigen. Easy enough, I popped the lid back on and turned it all back on and got things flowing again, but once again Tilting the canister back and forth. While I was doing this I noticed out of the corner of my eye the Amanos started going nuts. Something was wrong. After some initial troubleshooting I pulled out my pH meter and even though an hour ago it was reading 5.85, it was now reading 4.45. What the actual f*&$😟. The first thing my mind went to was the Purigen. I quickly grabbed it back out the filter and got the filter running again. Then I decided to do a quick water change. This made the pH go up to 4.65. Not good enough. The amanos were still acting frantic, and the zebra snails had retreated to above the water line. Not good. After frantically trying to figure out what to do, (there wasn't time to come here and ask advice) I ended up just running fresh RO water (it is same temp as tank) into the tank while simultaneously draining the water, while simultaneously watching the pH meter go up. About five minutes later the pH was above 5.25 and I started getting worried about re-mineralizing the water, so I stopped and got the GH where it needed to be. By this time the shrimps had seem to calm down and the snails were retreating back into the water and back to cleaning the aquarium walls. I decided it was time to leave well enough alone. I am leaving the lights off for now, hoping everyone will calm down in there overnight. Without the light I cannot see if the Tangerine Tigers are ok or not. The Amanos seem fine. Time will tell I guess....?
What happened?? I have looked it up and seachem says Purigen doesn't alter water parameters. I currently have the bag of purigen sitting in a bowl of water that has a pH of 4.35. That same bowl of water was at 5.85 before I added the bad of Purigen. I feel like this has something to do with my low kH, but I really am at a loss Another thought I had was when i opened the filter there were pockets of anaerobic activity in there and introducing a bunch of air disrupted that releasing Hyrdogen sulfide (I did smell sulfur during my troubleshooting) . Here though, I am admittedly grasping at straws, and talking about things I don't know nearly enough about. Current parameters are Zero NH3, NO2, > 10 NO3. pH 5.25. I have an aerator stone going hoping to add in as much O2 and remove as much CO2 as possible, but no idea if that is stupid or pointless or both. All I know is whatever happened it caused a very fast and drastic change to my pH. Any thoughts about what may have happened, and or what I may do to prevent it in the future would be more than welcome. It was a bit of a stressful saga. Lol.
Overall, though, still a great day, even though it ended on a bit of a sour/mind-boggling head scratching note.
Cheers,
Ryan
Myrtle
Member
I can't help with the cause, but good save there!
Musicmanryann
Member
No worries! Your encouraging words are very helpful, also! 🙂
Hows everything going @Musicmanryann ? 🙂
G
Guest
Guest
Hi all,
I don't have a huge amount of Utricularia gibba either in the tanks at present, and again I'm not entirely sure why it has declined.
cheers Darrel
That is very kind of you, but I still have some left, so I could probably bulk it up in harder water with more nutrients if i wanted to.
I don't have a huge amount of Utricularia gibba either in the tanks at present, and again I'm not entirely sure why it has declined.
cheers Darrel
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