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Even seen a Lion swallow a buffalo whole? No. They take small pieces one bite at a time. Same with fish and shrimp. The fish, if they want to go for shrimp, will take it's legs, antenna, first. Then finish off the shrimp by tearing it into smaller pieces. And yes, I have seen my Cardinal tetra do that. Tetras - they are mini piranhas. This was during my newb days of shrimp keeping. Didn't know better to not keep fish and shrimp together.

Dino Spit is the same as Excel - only more concentrated. In that regard, its probably more effective on algae than excel because the same volume will have a higher amount of glut. Dino Spit is much better value than Excel. Glut doesn't only kill algae, its kills planaria. I massively overdosed one of my tanks (think 2 - 2.5 mL of Dino Spit in a 12L tank, normal dosage rate is around a drop or two) and the planaria curled up and died within the next five minutes. It didn't kill 100% of them though as I had to do a quick 75% water change as my choc cherries looked very unhappy. All the cherries survived though.

@Unagi42 Maybe it's the unusual name of the product. Dino Spit is comparable to Seachem Flourish Excel. Often you will hear people discuss Excel and Dino spit in the same context. They are both made of Gluteraldehyde or Glut for short. Where as Excel and Dino Spit are just product names. So Glut = Dino Spit = Excel. And as mentioned by Oz's post above they are CO2 supplements for plants in the tank. It's not really a replacement for the CO2 gas you get in canisters. The use of Glut comes with a precaution. Too much is harmful for your livestock. In fact, Gluteraldehyde is a derivative of Formaldehyde, the stuff they use to preserve live specimens you see in places like museums. It's so strong, that Glut can be used to kill off algae.

hopefully getting some Zebs next week tank is ready tds is 35 gh under1 kh 0 ph 7.1 plants and moss still going great some nice algae growth on the sides so hopefully they like it.

Hi Guys, My nitrates continue to read above 20, sometimes 40 and I have no idea how to keep them down. All other parameters are fine ph 6.2, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 2kh, 4gh, 195 TDS (it has crept up a bit too much for my liking). Anyway some simple things for you to know is that my tank has a layer of frogbit, I do not overfeed (feed every 2nd or 3rd day), weekly 10% water changes using RO water, I also have boss mineral balls, IAL leaf, Benibachi zero, golden vine with xmas moss, 1 aqua clear hob filter and a biospon 56l dual sponge. I do not want to go down the path of using peat moss, I just want to be able to control the nitrates naturally. I would appreciate any thoughts - my plan of attack this weekend is to do at least a 25% water change (this takes forever to do when you are dripping the RO water back in to the tank) and was going to clean the sponge in the HOB filter.

And I now have at least 5 (that I can see, probably more) shrimplettes no more than 3-4mm long I can see dashing around the tank, teasing the fish. How quickly things change from mortality to life! So excited about the babies! Woo!

Melbourne? only in summer. It is virtually true. that's if you don't mind a hook on your glass, I have a peg holding my air line in the bucket, I just leave physics to do their jobs.

Some time ago we discussed lighting and it was mentioned that if you switched the lights off slightly short of 4 hours then put them back on later for another 3-4 hours the algae doesn't take hold so much. I generally have my lights on about 8 hours a day and often turn them off for a few hours in the middle of the day with no ill effect to the shrimp and very little algae problems. Conversely when I travel and I'm away for a couple of months at a time my lights come on in the late afternoon and stay on for only 4-5 hours. Again no effect on the shrimp - breeding continues and no apparent deaths. It was also discussed that certain strength of light and certain amount of hours of light may affect the thickness of the shell of the shrimp. I think you can still find the threads under the lighting heading .

in my experience the answer is a definite no. due to summer heat and me trying to manage electricity and thermal energy better - over past couple of weeks my crs tank and cherry tanm have had totally bizarre light cycles varying dramatically from a few hours at a random time of day or 36-48 hours with no light except sometimes the ambient room light and a few occassions with 18+ hours of light running overnight. very nuts.. anyway today i spotted my first CRS babies :-) and none of the mums have lost their berries - so it can't be all that significant when it comes to the highly domesticated neos and bees. I'd personally not take the chance of totally randomly messing with light cycles for wild shrimp because although it may not stress or kill them; photoperiod is often one of the triggers for breeding so could well have a negative impact. i thimk recently fishmosy is increasing his daylength in his aussie c zebra tank in an effort to trigger more breeding. ime neos and crs don't know any better though :-) love n peace will

I remember a while back someone was asking about calcium. A few people i know have started dosing Calcium liquid for marine. Just your standard Seachem product. Personally ive been trying this myself but i went for the more pure (no strontium and magnesium) Brightwell Aquatics Calcium (cheaper too). Haven't had a single death. Ill continue to use it and see if there is any improvements with future moults. Others are using Seachem Calcium or Seachem Complete without any issues. Anyone else?

Yep Koi Clay is the product name for bentonite / montmorillonite clay. Bentonite differs from Montmorillonite clay only in where it is harvested/collected. Some same that Montmorillonite clay is superior, because it is richer in minerals. As you mentioned, it has a heap of minerals. But my experience is that a lot of it is still locked away in the clay and some will leech out slowly. So it makes a good backup for mineral supplement. The problem is, you don't know what is released and in what quantities. A lot of these minerals are not soluble in water. So while the clay can hold 72 essential minerals that might help the shrimp, how many of these minerals are soluble in water and will be release for the shrimp to utilise? The other function the clay is marketed as being capable of doing is removing toxins. Yes it will absorb heavy metals, free radicals, pesticides. But it also absorbs calcium, magnesium, potassium, and all the other good minerals you add in for the benefit of the shrimp. After all clay is good at absorbing stuff, that's how it got those minerals in the first place. I wouldn't count it to absorbing toxins, unless you KNOW you have toxins that needs to be removed. Some of this clay might help, but a big water change in those situations does more benefit than the clay. It's not a bad product. It just has a small niche area to fill, and not everyone will need this product. I use it myself, as a supplement. But I still add minerals at water change. It is far more beneficial adding Calcium Sulphate dihydrate and Magnesium sulphate in a 4:1 ratio than relying on bentonite / montmorillonite clay. Also remember, the clay is only as good as it's source and what it has absorbed.

Welcome!

Rachet as pics but i finally found some baby togers in the oebt tank and 2 of the big gals are heavily berried again!

Hey guys i thought i would show you exactly how the tank is now running and the equipment used so from the top I've got the long 16/22 mm overflow strainers Which of course leads us to the plumbing Now we are at the sump which starts with coarse filter foam Then a fine filter foam Then comes the media which consists of 5 large bakki rods (about 400-450 long) and 6 smaller pieces of bakki rod (ranging from 100-180mm), approx 3L matrix,approx 2L of ceramic bio rings and 2 other bags of an unknown media that looks like river stones almost (if anyone can id it from that description that would be great). Then we get to the divider which has more of the coarse filter wool then its into my dodgy bros inc boss bio media tumbler sectionhttps://vimeo.com/147999136which seems to be working really well as i threw a handfull of new stuff in and there is definitely a brown tinge to the original lot From there iv got a 1500lph pump pushing the water through the uv filter ( no pic as i need to clean it up back there haha) then into the beast my hailea 300 Actually that reminds me i need to do an appreciation post for John and Chelsea at tech den coz John recieved email after email with me stressing on getting this thing over to the west side safely and im pretty sure i scared the hell out of Chelsea about the delivery being signed for in bunnury which is 140 odd kms from me haha but anyhow back on topic now. Then its off to the spray bar that runs the length of the tank so thats the main system then on top of that i have added a biospon and 2 other large double sponges ( i need to get 1 more) and last but not least is the cheapest out of everything the black background, but the difference between having a light coloured wall as a background and the black is huge I will add some more photos soon and in the next few weeks I will show yous how the different sections are going. If you can see something that could be tweeked to make this a better setup let me know Cheers guys thanks for reading

Maybe yours is like that because of lower light? I found a link that is pretty convincing that its weeping moss http://www.aquamoss.net/Weeping-Moss/Weeping-Moss.htm

@DemonCat Sometimes we get so lost in the overall it is very easy to miss very small details. As @jayc mentioned. A small section of tubing can make a big difference, especially in this situation. Thats where it's great to be able to openly share problems/issues here, someone will have a solution!

You are welcome. Try gardening stores, or hydroponics stores or hardware stores that sell fertilizer. Just remember to buy calcium sulphate dihydrate. The dihydrate is important as it will dissolve in water easily.

i may have another suprise for you guys, i think i can get some native hardwater brackish shrimp from near Sydney, that one might be a flop though, need a better look at them, only got one and it was teeny, might've been a bloody prawn.