timbruun

Will doing it right in the tank not spread the algae more? I have too many rocks to do it in the tank anyways. They are stacked quite a bit.

Well since I'm robbing this thread already.... I tested a few of my waters that I have. KH and GH is in drops.

In my snail/shrimp tank KH 40, GH 0, pH around 8.5.

Distilled water that I have KH 2, GH 0, pH 6 or less.

Tap from somewhere else, not my house, KH 32, GH 0, pH around 8.5.

My tap KH 38, GH 0, pH around 8.2.

What's my best option and what will work and won't work?

What do snails need to maintain shells, GH or KH?

I seem to be slowly losing cherries and green shrimp lately.. all the other water parameters, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, are perfect.

That's what I was wondering. Will there be alot of aggression? Will it be ok for a few days?

So how should I be keeping it soft but not too soft for snails? I don't have any CRS as of right now. I'll probably just stick with the cherry and dark green for now. But I would like them to be reproducing which I'm pretty sure they aren't right now. Is pH that big of a factor?

I do have cuttlebone for calcium in the tank for the snails and they seem to be doing ok. My water goes through a water conditionner/softener already. I'll have to double check the KH and GH but I'm pretty sure they were low as is. At least the GH is. I thought about CO2 but I'd only go with DIY setup and I'm looking for a small powerhead so it doesn't go all night. I'd rather not use CO2 in all honesty. Don't think the plants need it in there. If I mixed distilled with my tap water would the pH regulate somewhere in between then?

What are the odds of causing a mini cycle? I was thinking of cleaning with hot water to make it easier. I'm not sure if I even have a pail/tub big enough that doesn't leak to hold all the rocks. Not including the bathtub which I'm not going to use.

I tried snails in there. Not Nerites but I had ramshorns, mts and trapdoor. As far as I can see the mts and ramshorn and all eaten and the trapdoor I took out because it was getting picked on too much.

Plus if I'm taking all the rockwork out anyways, the glass is easy to clean. The snails wont' get the rockwork that well.

Is there a benefit to doing it that way? What will distilled be improving?

It's only a 5.5 gallon tank.

Fish are yellow labs, demasoni, leleupi, petricolas. I was thinking of using the razor. Then a couple water changes to make sure it's all gone.

My pH is around 8.5. Not sure on alkalinity. I've been doing 20% water changes every couple days. I don't do bigger changes since my tank water is at 8.5 and my tap is at 7.5. So I have a 1 gallon pail sitting for 2 days to let the pH come up.

Is it a bad idea to use distilled water? I can get ahold of that pretty easily. Not in large amounts, but enough to do my shrimp/snail tank.

I haven't actually seen anything longer really. Most are just round globs. At least the ones that I can find.

I'm debating on removing all my rockwork in my african tank so I can give it a good cleaning and redo it. I would like to leave the rocks out for a week or so, so I can do a couple water changes after cleaning up the tank also. Will this be too stressful on the fish? Is there a better way to get everything clean? The algae on the back wall seems like its starting to get hard and won't come off easily.

I do have the eggs. Just not sure from which snail. I've got mts, ramshorn and i think they are pond snails all together. I can see the mts are reproducing and pretty sure the pond snails are also. I'll keep waiting and see.

Will cherries or green shrimp not breed if the pH is too high? Or what other factors will prevent them from breeding?

How long does it take ramshorns to reproduce? I've had them for a bit and I can't seem to find any young ones. And how fast to they reproduce?

can take some of the ramshorn off your hands if you like. I'd love some cherries also

It doesn't say anything about saltwater on there. Says it's good for cichlids, angelfish, etc...

They are both carib sea. One is instant aquarium and the other is super naturals. It's freshwater. I'm just adding to my 90gal that already has black sand in it. Otherwise it's a bit too expensive.

That's the thing. The one with added crap is cheaper...

Before I open the bag here. Is this instant aquarium sand the same as the super naturals sand? The instant is actually $1 cheaper for some reason. Both are 20lbs.

That's kinda what I figured. I don't need anything in the water since it's goign in an established tank anyways. So I was goign to rinse. Just wanted to hear opinions.

Thanks

I didn't see any bags without the water. In black sand that is. I could get the fluorite black sand or this...

So I just picked up some expensive black sand. Only needed the one bag so it's not too bad I guess. It's the Carib Sea Tahitian Moon sand. It comes in water in the bag and says it's instant aquarium and no rinsing. Should I still rinse it? Or just add it to the rest of the black sand in my tank.

If you friend has any bio media from any of their tanks that you could get would greatly speed up your cycle process.

Only problem with putting the rocks on top of the sand is if the fish start digging. Mine dig under everything that they can. They even pull the sand up from the egg crate