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I have recently rescaped my two footer which i started this wonderful hobby with almost a year ago. It started as a iwagumi scape with shrimp but quickly became a shrimp tank lol. Due to this I decide to redo the tank over the last couple of months. Currently i have my Oebt colony, blue gene red rili culls and some chamleons. I will be dropping and posting the last of the rili's this weekend and bringing home some additional chamleon. Shout-outs to @Ronskitz for this awesome driftwood. @OzShrimp for some of the nice plants. @newbreed for the moss ledges really like them. I plan on adding a few more plants and mosses but pretty happy with it now. As always please feel free to give me pointers, advise and critique. Cheers.

How is this even possible? Day 1 evening just before I put in some moss: Day 3 In the morning All the typus replaced by a single black cherry, meta cube still sealed. I've managed to round 6 back up and will see if it happens again. Might have a gap in my cube?

So far I have not found an easy to optain (ie from any general pet shop rather than having to specifially order certian foods), foods that the chameleons are certain to go nuts for or come out of hiding especially to scoff. Mine do have a large hollow log that they are almost always picking over, they do like mulberry leaves and IAL, they get Tetra tropical fish flakes daily, they also get algea sinking wafers (which they are sort of interested in but usually only after the snails have swarmed it), wardly sinking shrimp pellets they also seem to like, and sinking catfish wafers, every so often I also give my tanks Nori sheets which everyone seems to like. Hope this gives you some ideas on what they might like to eat.

Thought I would share a few pics of the wonderful rifle shrimp that I received from Fishmosy. This is two of the males. You can see that distinctive stripe down their body. In the background basically at the bottom of the root section of the fern is a fresh moult from one of the rifles. The more I have to do with these shrimp the more I become fascinated with them. I think they are right up there as one of my favourite shrimp. This is one of the smaller male rifles. This one is more of a light bluish color and you can see how easily it would blend into its environment. Even though it's obscured there is an adult size rilli directly behind it. The look massive compared to the other shrimp in with them. I think the best picture I have ever taken of a shrimp. Couldn't do it again if I tried. I was actually able to put a tape measure up to measure the size of the rock and the rifle. The rock is approx 90mm and the Rifle is a bit over 5cm.There is a bigger one but it wouldn't co-operate to get a pic. I also noticed the differences in color of the rifle shrimp. Considering their size it is amazing how at times they are very hard to see. They blend into their enviroment very well I don't know why there are such differences in color because I believe they all came from the same area. Perhaps Fishmosy or Bob can shed some light on the reason for this. They vary from a light blue to an aqua blue, green, brown and a light orange.

I think planning and putting ideas down on paper is important and helps minimise errors. I do accept there'll be some 'oops' moments but hopefully with a good plan, such moments could be greatly reduced. Every trip to Bunnings/Masters was an inspiring scouting trip for items I could potentially use in the build... timber, board, screws, plumbing, etc. I keep an Excel spreadsheet to document materials (including number of screws... haha), costs, dimensions, calculations, and even stocking list. Yes, I am a geek and I love my Excel. Haha. I plan what will be going in those tanks, flora and fauna, right down to the exact quantity... haha. Oh dear... I am getting a new perspective of myself. Some of the calculations I do include stocking level (species specific) for tank volume, sump volume to allow for overflow in power outages, water level in the tanks so water line would be hidden, dimensions to hide the plumbing and insulating foam, sump media volume, even the baffle height in the sump to accommodate those ridiculously long Eheim Jager heaters (i.e. Pythagoras theorem in 3D) so that if the return pump runs dry, the heater would still be submerged in water to prevent overheating and potentially shattering the glass element. I am also building up plans for a semi-automated water change solution out of 2 x 200L water drums. This could possibly be for another post when I get to it. Anyway, ideas started building in my head in May this year. The actual build only started in late June. It has been a slow process trying to juggle between family, full-time work and part-time uni (including those bloody exams). This is where I am now. An undercoat was applied early this week and the rack is ready to be painted. Tanks have been made and ready for pick up. We are at the end of July. Yes I am slow. Haha. Taken the rack apart to apply an undercoat.

You should be ok. Snow doesn't break down and pollute like normal food. So just leave it for the shrimp to eat up, but don't feed any thing else for a couple of days.

What I was saying is that TDS is an arbitrary measurement regardless of the conversion factor used. Your Calcium reading looked fine to me, pretty well spot on for the GH you measured. As JayC suggested, your TDS or EC measurement will include the Potassium, Suphate etc in addition to the GH minerals. It's just not possible for GH and TDS to equal the same if the extra minerals have been added. Two other possibilities are that some minerals you added hadn't completely dissolved by the time you tested, or the TDS pen needs calibration. Both are possible and even likely options.