Recent content by schmath

I've had this Nerite for a few months, and he has never moved much, but was always still on the glass. He seemed to be hibernating, and I wondered if he was injured. The last few days, he has been on the substrate and hasn't moved. I just picked him up to see if he was alive and accidentally...

My 21 Gallon tank is finally planted and cycled and ready for fish. I want a big school of Lambchop Rasboras and some Amano shrimp. Aqadvisor says I can have 45 Rasboras with 5 Amanos and be 70% stocked, but that seems high to me. Can I really have 45 Rasboras? And are 5 Amanos a good amount? I...

Thanks! Sounds like I should keep pulling them out if I see any more. I don't want a snail infestation!

I found this baby snail in my tank this morning. It must have hitch-hiked its way in with the plants I put in a week ago. Can anyone identify it? I removed it, just trying to decide what to do if any more show up.

Oh, also I lowered the water level down about an inch below the lid. (just because I didn't have enough treated water on hand to fill it completely.) I don't know if that made a difference, but the algae disappeared almost overnight after that water change, so maybe?

Update: hair algae is mostly gone. I'm not sure what made the difference, but the changes I made were 1. I lowered my photoperiod to 4 hours/day, 2. I turned down the heat to 79, and 3. I started dosing .5ml thrive after each water change. Still lots of diatoms, but there are silicates in the...

I've suspected my light was too strong for a while. It's a Finnex Stingray and is supposedly good for low/medium plants, but I think it's too much for my little tank. I should have gone with a light with a dimmer.

Anyone know what I’m doing wrong to get this brown hair algae and why I have no nitrates? I have a low tech 5.5 gallon tank with 2 sponge filters and UNS Controsoil substrate planted with anacharis, pearl weed, and Anubias petite. I’ve have diatoms for the life of this tank (maybe a year?) I...

I love this colander. I lay it across my tank before I pour water in and it disperses the water like gentle rain instead of a heavy stream that kicks up debris and messes with the scape.

I'll look into all these. It seems like the Eheim Classic had the best reviews of everything I looked at, but maybe there's not enough difference to be worth the installation hassle. There's also a smaller classic 2211 that's shorter.

That's a good idea. There is an inch behind the drawer, but the tubes have valves that need to be reachable, so I don't know if I'd be able to reach them. Maybe I could just take out the drawer every time I need to get to them. I was hoping to fit an inline heater in there somehow too.

I'm in the market for a canister filter for my new 21 gallon long aquarium, but it has to fit in the little cupboard inside my dresser, which is 15.25 inches high. The Eheim Classic 250 is supposedly 14 inches tall, but is it taller once it is installed, with tubes coming out? Do the tubes need...

I just use the regular Thrive. My nitrates are at 5 and I dose .25 ml once per week in my 5.5 gallon tank. It's pretty lightly planted, so I didn't want to overdo it, but it sounds like .25 is too low. So maybe I should dose twice per week? It only gets 5 hours of light per day. I can increase...

I’m using Thrive, but maybe not enough. I’ll try increasing it.

What does it mean if some of my anubias leaves are turning yellow, then brown, then dying? And my java ferns have black spots and black stems and are slowly dying off after growing baby java ferns?