Znaika

TNT Aquatica in Edmonton sells daphnia culture. Disclaimer: I never bought any cultures from them, but I bought plants and it worked out OK.

How about not adding this "bacteria supplement"? I have heard from a few people that they don't work and you make yet another one. Personally I do not understand how adding propylene glycol can speed up cycling and yet it is a component of this "bacteria supplement". Nor I will believe that any bacteria can survive in propylene glycol solution until I see it with my own eyes.

Ammonia cannot rise because of water change, unless your water supply is really crappy. You either introduced more food (or other organics) or disturbed useful bacteria colonies. Make sure you do not wash filter medium, especially in tap water. When cycling my tanks, I also observed that nitrites tend to stay up for longer than ammonia does. I guess it is because the nitrite consuming bacteria colonies take longer to develop. You need to monitor the level of nitrites and to do a 50% or even 70% water change if it goes above 2 ppm. Anyways, if you are past the peak of ammonia, It should be alright, don't worry.

Thanks guys. I'll pm Antonio when they are ready.

Wow! Krazy glue and other similar glues are essentially ethyl cyanoacrilate - a pretty toxic substance, long exposure to which may have various unintended consequences. I would not risk putting it underwater.

Just wanted to advise dropping the pleco, but I see you edited it out. Plecos grow huge - way bigger than what this tank can comfortably accommodate. Add the thermometer and position the heater horizontally along the bottom at the rear (assuming it is submergeable - most of them are). This way when you change water, you don't need to switch it off. Or, rather, you don't need to remember to switch it off Also why not to have some real plants and dump the plastic?

I am raising about 3 dozen of black ruby barb fry. They are about 1 month old already and I am sure I will not lose too many of them. In a couple of months they will be mature enough and beautifully coloured (the parents are gorgeous). What are my options as to where to sell / donate them?

The biggest difference will, of course be hardness. After RO the water is very soft - less than 1° dH; carbon filter will not affect hardness and the water will probably be in the 12-25° dH range. Another difference will be much higher alkalinity and buffering capacity. The pH will probably rise to above 8°. There is also a small chance that the well water has some nitrates, if it drains through fertilized fields or organically polluted areas. In other words, RO and carbon filters are the same only in name. Hard and alkaline well water might be good for some fishes and not so good for others, but regardless, If your fishes have been living in RO water so far, the change will be a huge blast for them, especially for soft water species. Break them in slowly.

It might be different for difference snail species, but I did get rid of ramshorn snails this way - I know that much. Many aquatic plants use substrate only to hold themselves onto something and many do not use it at all, so rocks is not a problem.

One way to get rid of snails is to methodically pick up the adults and adolescents. Better to do it in the evening after the lights are off for half an hour. Do not try to pick all of them at once - you will miss a few anyways. The key is to pick the larger ones, but to do it every second or third day. As long as you do not let them grow until they lay new eggs, you are good and in two - three weeks you will get rid of all of them. Make sure you do not introduce plants with eggs.

I hope you guys did not do any roof repairs recently. I don't think asphalt shingles are good for water treatment.

Contrary to the pricing tab, Prime is actually less expensive than most of other brands. A 250 ml bottle of Prime is about $17, same size bottle of Nutrafin is twice cheaper, but only 1 ml of Prime is required to treat 10 gallons of tap water. 5 ml of Hagen's Nutrafin is required to do the same. Bottom line is - Nutrafin is 2.5 times more expensive.

It is true that nitrate test goes darker after 5 min reading, but I have never seen it going from 10-20 to 160. To 40 - maybe, but not to 160. Something is fishy here.

I have about 3" of play sand on top of 50 Watt heater cable - presumably heating helps to aerate the sand. So far no problems and the plants are growing really well.

Thanks. Booked it in my calendar.

Thanks! I was actually going to do it, but I assumed (maybe wrongly) that for first few days the BRB fry will need something smaller. How do I know what the BBS hatch rate is? Is it on the packaging? Are you sure that baby brine shrimp is not too large for the newly hatched fry?

Hello everyone, Any suggestions as to what kind of food I can use to raise newly hatched black ruby barb fry, if my infusoria culture is not ready by the time they start to swim? Thanks.

When's the next one?

Test your water for ammonia and nitrites. Especially for ammonia. Or bring a sample to a petsmart - I think they test for free. Zebra danios are ones of the most lively fishes; if they hide, they are probably stressed or are sick (which is a result of stress). Typically the reason is ammonia in the water.

Calgary water is hard and alcaline, to put it mildly. No amount of peat moss seem to be able to correct it. I thought my method of acidifying it and at the same time reducing temporary hardness (KH) might interest people. I add 3 full teaspoons of Seachem Acid Buffer to a 40 gal bin of tap water. (the amount has been figured out experimentally) http://www.seachem.com/Products/product_pages/AcidBuffer.html At this point the pH drops below 6.0. This is expected. With such low concentrations the chemical reaction will take time and pH reading is misleading - most of free H+ ions triggering the reading have not yet reacted with the carbonates in tap water. Then I run air through the water to speed up the reaction. Warming it up helps too. Within a few hours the pH bounces to above 6.0; within a day to ~6.4 and in a couple of days it reaches ~6.8 and then it stays there. The KH is about 2. The GH is about 7. The balance is pretty fragile: make it 3.5 teaspoons and the pH will remain below 6.0. Make it 2.5 and the pH will bounce back above 7.0. By now I have done this tens of times and it works fine for me. Before I found the balance I needed to either add a bit of the buffer or to add a couple of gallons of water and leave it for another day or two. The Seachem's suggestion to put the buffer straight into the tank I do not agree with - the fluctuations of pH will be huge - I don't think your fishes will like it. Lastly, there exist seasonal fluctuations of hardness, but they are gradual and slow. You will notice them from water change to water change and slightly adjust the amount of buffer. It is 3 teaspoons now, but it was 2 and 1/2 in July.

Found today three little fry of puntius filamentosus in a breeding tank where I never bred them They spawned at least a couple of times in my community tank, as I did not move them in time, but they have never been in this breeding tank. My only guess – some eggs stuck to the plans and when I was trimming them and moving to a breeding tank, I moved eggs too.

sorry, wrong topic.

That's 7 albino guppy incarcerated in 1 gallon of water without any plants or filter waiting for imminent death.

... or just leave it to sit for a day in an open bin.

Brown playground sand, very well washed, is very inexpensive and is looking good. Put the heater cable underneath for better plants growth.