My TWB journal

[Kev]

Thank you for the encouragement guys.

I've been doing 20% water change daily, so hope it wot be long ;) before the cycling is complete.

[Kev]

Another berried Tibee

Currently all 5 females michling have drop their eggs. Hence I will be starring into the tank for a while ;)

[newbreed]

Woohoo!! Lots of shrimplets to find now! Congrats!

[Kev]

Update:

So after 6weeks or set up using benibachi soil, the ammonia level is still high. What surprises me this morning is the ph level is also very high. Here is the test results.

The green tube is ammonia and blue is PH.

I'm starting to think I may have a faulty benibachi batch of soil. If you like to know where I've purchase these soil pm me and I can disclose the retail detail as I believe it is not their knowing. It just bad luck.

[Squiggle]

I very much doubt it's a "bad batch" as Benibachi make 4000 bags per batch & that would mean there's 4000 bags out there that will have the same problem. If there is a problem with the soil(which I doubt) then it would have happened post production. I would do a couple of WC's to try & bring the ammonia level down(should bring the pH down too). What is your nitrate reading? How old are your test kits?

[Kev]

I very much doubt it's a "bad batch" as Benibachi make 4000 bags per batch & that would mean there's 4000 bags out there that will have the same problem. If there is a problem with the soil(which I doubt) then it would have happened post production. I would do a couple of WC's to try & bring the ammonia level down(should bring the pH down too). What is your nitrate reading? How old are your test kits?

I have no idea on how old is the kits but will have a look. Good point.

I will do 50% wc tonight.

[newbreed]

A trap I fell into once was using a test tube, previously used for GH, to test my ph.

The left over chemicals made my ph reading in the high 7s when it was really six.

Any chance you mixed up test tubes? Hope I'm not the only one silly enough to encounter this.

[Kev]

Just did a test again and the colour for ph is light yellow.

(Test kit is good till 2017)

Can ph really change that much over night?

I will do a retest early tomorrow morning (4am)

We will see.

[Squiggle]

I doubt the water changed that much so quickly, if I had to make a guess I'd say there was residue in the test vial influencing the reading.

[inverted]

There seems to have been a contamination with the test..... wc and retest proves it. Test again in a few days to make sure

[Kev]

Thank you guys, will do a few re-test in a few days.

Mean while in my 3ft tank a few female have drop their eggs and I've been seeing very odd looking shrimp-lets.

I can't really take any clear shot as they are still very tiny.

Here is one

Don't ask me what it look like, as I have no idea.

[newbreed]

Looks kinda red to me! Give it another week and you'll know. Congrats!!

[Kev]

Looks kinda red to me! Give it another week and you'll know. Congrats!!

Do u mean a Crs newbreed?

[Squiggle]

Looks like it might be a golden bee to me.

[Kev]

I've re-test for ph this morning and thing is looking better with reading of about 6-6.3 ;).

Maybe it's a mistake.

Ammonia level is still way up there, I don't know why. I wouldn't think benibachi soil would give me this much problem with ammonia.

[newbreed]

How are your nitrates going? How longs it been running? Are they new filters too, may still be cycling depending on bacteria levels.

I am thinking your shrimplet may be a WR but still so young hard to tell!

[Kev]

The tank has been running for about 6 weeks now with 50% weekly wc. Nitrates level is good next to nothing ATM.

I am using all new filter and filter media.

I've been using age water for wc, but I will be starting to do wc with ro water ;) with added salty mineral.

Yes all the shrimplets is very small ATM and are hard to tell.

I will update more once I've find more ;).

[Kev]

Saw this while feeding my shrimps is arvo.

Blonde tiger x panda.

Any idea what will come out?

[newbreed]

Will be amazing whatever they are! Congrats!!

Edited June 23, 2014 by newbreed

[Squiggle]

Tibees will be the outcome of that cross & you should get some pretty cool patterns.

I just had a thought, if you aren't using RO water yet, does that mean you are using tap water? It might be an idea to test the ammonia level in your tap water, worth a try to rule it out.

[Kev]

Tibees will be the outcome of that cross & you should get some pretty cool patterns.

I just had a thought, if you aren't using RO water yet, does that mean you are using tap water? It might be an idea to test the ammonia level in your tap water, worth a try to rule it out.

Sweet!!

Thank you for your advice.

Will keep that in mind.

[jayc]

If you used mature filter media for the new tank, then don't forget to turn the heat up a bit to get those bacteria multiplying.

Edited June 26, 2014 by jayc

[Kev]

If you used mature filter media for the new tank, then don't forget to turn the heat up a bit to get those bacteria multiplying.

Thank you for that advice mate. I never thought about that. Much appreciated.

Cheers

[Kev]

Is this a Tibee?

[slin1977]

Looks like one to me :-)